What’s not to love about Cyprus? One of my favourite destunations, so when the marathon was mentioned by Racecheck, I jumped at the chance to run here. Booking the race was easily done and plenty of social media updates leading up to it. Some of our friends coming along weren’t flying in until Saturday afternoon, so as long as we had a copy of their race number allocation email and a print out of their passport, we were allowed to collect their race bibs for them. Collection was easy and in the harbour near the castle (where the 5k, 10k & HM start). Easily done and well organised collection, most of the volunteers there are British, so no issues with language barriers. The packs contained your bib with GPS tracking, we had a visor, HM had turkish delights and some biofreeze as well as the usual advertising leaflets. Race day. For us marathon runners, 3 coaches were put on at 6:10am, 6:15am & 6:20am to pick us up from Paphos Harbour and drop us to Aphrodites rock where the marathon starts. The start of the race was being set up when we arrived, so plenty of time to get some pics of the scenery while we waited. I didnt use the bag drop but you have to use the allocated bags given to you at bib collection. Very few portaloos at the start line.... if i did it again id take my chance having a wee in the forest as the toilets were gross (yes, portaloos are not the best on any race day but when you are physically retching to the point of being sick. Its no fun but gave eveyone queuing a laugh as they could all hear me trying not to bring my porridge back up!). The start is 3-4kms of uphill and the rest of the race has gradients, so its by no means flat but no big hills. Its not all coastline either, the out and back 7km loop to the airport and back to the main road is a low point but give us a chance to see the marathon frontrunners. Be prepared for lots of secrions with headwind, between that and the heat I found some points quite hard. Not all of the roads are closed either, so some of it you do have to run in the verge of the road due to the traffic and some crazy cypriot drivers! Loads of water stations on route and they all had wet sponges (which were much needed). Some with gels too. The Biofreeze roundabout around mile 22 I think was much needed. Two lovely volunteers were slapping biofreeze up my legs for me. Theres not many spectators on route so as long as you dont mind a quiet race, you’re ok. The spectators appear on the last two miles where you start to run down the main road past all the hotels. Thank you to the lady handing out olive branches to us all on that last mile too. The harbour is then full of peoole cheering you into the finish line. Plenty of oranges and FREE beer as you cross the line. Nice medals and a good atmosphere at the end. A good experience and always lush to meet up with the visorclub peeps, some I hadn’t met before.