Sports
Myrtle Beach is home to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a Carolina League baseball team and Texas Rangers farm franchise.
BB&T Coastal Field is the home field of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and is located just off Highway 17 in Myrtle Beach. It opened in 1999 and seats 6,500 people. It is the finish point of the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon, an athletics event held in February of each year.
BB&T Coastal Field is also home of the annual "Baseball At The Beach" collegiate baseball tournament. Hosted by Coastal Carolina University each year, the tournament pits participating NCAA Division I baseball programs in the United States.
From 1998-2009 and again starting in 2011 (no Saturday races were held in 2010), the area hosted the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon presented by Chick-Fil-A, every February featuring (since 2004) the Friday night Royal Bank of Canada 5K and the Saturday Dasani Half Marathon and Bi-Lo Marathon (from 1998 until 2008, a relay was held but dropped because of the popularity of the other events). Marathon day draws the limit of 6,000 runners annually (2,500 full, 3,500 half) and results usually in an unusual dawn as the race starts before dawn (6:30 AM) in order to finish by 2:30 PM.
NASCAR-sanctioned Stock car racing is held at Myrtle Beach Speedway, a .538-mile (0.866 km), semi-banked, asphalt-paved oval track located on US 501. Drivers in the Late Model classes will compete (against those of Greenville-Pickens Speedway) for the South Carolina Championship in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. South Carolina Champions' scores will be calculated against other state and provincial champions for a continental championship.
It hosted the 2010 UOA Nationals where 8 collegiate ultimate teams from 5 conferences will be represented.
Read more about this topic: Grand Strand
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