The 2024 Charleston Half Marathon was once again on one of the coldest days of the year, but at least the wind wasn’t as bad as forecasted! I was a little concerned with bonking at 9 or 10 miles, like I did at the Pumpkinman Festival and Jackson Hole Half Marathon. So, I was happily surprised to only slow slightly for the last few miles! 🙂

2024 Charleston Half Marathon Route

The upgraded route was 100x better than the 2023 route! Instead of trudging along an industrial road into North Charleston, we stayed downtown the entire time. It still started at Burke Highschool, but ended at the RiverDogs Stadium.

We weaved through the Hampton Park, the cute Wagner Terrace neighborhood, the Citadel, the Battery, Rainbow Row and other historic or tourist locations downtown. It wasn’t a complete out-and-back route, which I enjoyed as well because it gave us a chance to see a few friends. My only critique of the route was the zig-zag at the end. We had to turn left and then right quickly into the stadium parking lot.

Charleston Half Marathon Weather

I can’t blame the race, but the weather was chilly again. Not as windy as last year, but still wasn’t optimal. On instagram I joked that I was wearing almost every running brand in my outfit. I ended up being overdressed but only by a tiny bit.

I wore my Brooks Glyercin shoes, Smartwool Socks, Athleta Rainier tights, Oieselle Flyout (with a watch hole!), New Balance waffle shirt, Lululemon gloves (with the mitten flap), Vikings buff and Smartwool headband. The hood from from the shirt never came up and I removed the buff about 3 miles in. I had the Huma gels at mile 4 and 8. I love the apple cinnamon flavor. They taste like applesauce and don’t require water. I did drink the second one a little too fast and had some loud belches but what else is new? That was after getting T-Pains, Buy U a Drink stuck in my head. 😛

After the race, we immediately put on warm, dry clothes, head to toe. We were so thankful for the thermal wraps they had at the finish line! The bag drop pickup was a breeze (last year was terrible!) and the lines for beer and food went really fast. I didn’t take very many photos because I was focused on keeping my fingers warm.

Charleston Half Marathon Swag

The swag this year included a long sleeve tech shirt, a nice medal and a cotton finisher shirt (not shown above). The t-shirt is a nice but I preferred the hat from last year. In general, I have enough t-shirts, but love hats, socks, gloves, buffs or other useful things for finisher gifts. Or extra food/drink tickets.

Note, I’m always surprised by how many people were the race shirts during the race. I believe this to be bad luck. I even saw a few people wearing the finisher shirt (that says finisher down the back)! Does this seem doubly bad runner karma?

This race doesn’t count as a new state, but did help to keep me stay in somewhat reasonable half marathon-shape over the holidays.