I’ve only done South. They just added North as an option a couple years ago when demand became really high for the half distance. I have a friend who ran the full once (registered too late for the half but still wanted to participate, haha!) and he said the North is a bit hillier (for coastal Florida) and South is more of the “party” side.
The homeowners along the course hand out bloody Mary’s, bacon, shots of tequila - all kinds of things! And they usually have a fun Jimmy Buffer cover band at the turnaround point. With North, you are running in the direction Titusville, so you can see Kennedy in the distance, if you like to stay “in theme”. The North is the first half of the Marathon, and they need to open that part of the course up to traffic earlier, so you are more limited with estimated finish. With the South, you can play the fun game of seeing how far you can get before the Marathon winner passes you.
We always drive over the afternoon before and make a long weekend out of it. If I take the shuttle bus, I do grab the first one just because I’m usually up and paranoid about not getting a spot. Last year, our bus was one of the first to arrive at the staging area, but it honestly is an easy wait. I tend to stroll around the park and downtown area and then head to the start 15 minutes before things get going. There are no corrals/waves - just signs with estimated paces and everyone lines up accordingly (or just kinda shoves their way in). I’m towards the back and it’s maybe 10 minutes until everyone gets going and I cross the start - so much better than Disney! I’ll be curious to see how things are handled this year with the rolling starts and distancing measures in place.
When my husband ran with me, we drove ourselves over, but parking is limited and it can be a little stressful. He is the master at finding a spot when he comes later to watch me finish - it’s become a joke in our family!
