Run Like a Nut Half Marathon, 10K & 5K

Saturday, November 2, 2024 • Florence, SC • Course Map

Set for its 20th annual running and timed to coincide with the city’s annual Downtown Florence Pecan Festival, which draws an estimated 55,000 visitors to this eastern South Carolina city each year for a day filled with music, arts and crafts, a car show and the half marathon race, the Run Like a Nut races saw just over 310 runners cross the finish line in the half marathon, 10K and 5K combined in 2016.

Runners follow a winding out-and-back course for the race that starts and finishes within a stone’s throw of the festival at the Florence Fitness Forum — which also is the organizer for the running event — near the Florence County Library and the city’s Regency Hospital.

From there, runners head west into nearby neighborhoods for the race’s first half, featuring two out-and-back stretches along Madison and Jackson Avenues. The course features some gently rolling hills, but also features an overall elevation changes of less than 50 feet, so runners can expect mostly flat or only mild changes in the terrain through most of the route. Many of the roads take runners along streets divided by medians in residential neighborhoods, with ample tree cover and plenty of green along the way.

The second half of the course features numerous twists and turns through mostly flat neighborhood streets, running past Lucas Park before making their way back around Heatherwood Circle. Runners make a run past Timrod Park on their way back in to the finish line.

Following the race, runners are invited to make the short walk over to the festival near the 100 block of East Evans Street, which lies just a few blocks north of the race finish line, to take in the festivities including the bands on seven music stages, several rides for kids and the Art Trail Gallery, showing the work of local and visiting artists.

Race Weather & Climate

Nestled among what is known as the “Pee Dee” region of the state, just over 80 miles east of Columbia and about 70 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach, Florence typically experiences mild to moderately cool and mostly dry weather in the mid-fall.

On race day (Nov. 2), the average low is 48ºF and the average high is 71ºF.

Past Results

Course Map

See the race route map for the Run Like a Nut Half Marathon here.

Starting Time

8:00 AM

Fees

$70 – $80 for the half marathon
$40 – $50 for the 10K
$30 – $40 for the 5K

Registration

To reserve your spot in the 2024 running of the Pecan Festival Run Like a Nut Half Marathon, register online at ItsYourRace.com here.

Comments

Ever run in the Run Like a Nut Half Marathon? Share your impressions here, or post your review in the Comments below.

See more races in: November, South Carolina

1 comment… add one

John Doe November 2, 2019, 1:30 pm

Not a well marked course. They say it is, but the race is small and when the pack gets stretched out in later miles, there’s not enough volunteers and only small signs for many out and back loops on boulevard streets. Somehow the group of runners I was with missed a turned and unknowingly cut the course 1/2 mile short, despite being very careful to look for signs, to only turn at the turn signs and to make sure we watched the runners ahead of us and turned where they turned. It’s a bummer because I felt like a million dollars today and per my gps watch was on track to break my all time personal record time, which I would have if I kept on pace for the full distance. After the race, myself and a few other runners went to the race crew and had them disqualify is. We still have no idea where we went off course, because there was no indication that we were off course other than our gps’s saying we were 1/2 mile short and another runner saying we appeared ahead of him without passing him and he passed us twice.

Parking was convenient and close, the start location was good since you could wait inside out of the cold and use clean bathrooms (no porta pottie needed at race start). It has the potential to become a good race but they’ve got to do something about the course to make it so it’s not easy to miss a loop even when you’re paying close attention.

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