Allie Riechers's Staging Area

I used this as a training race since it was so close to home and a very affordable price. The race itself is beautiful, circling around Lake Moraine. Though, it’s much hillier than I anticipated, and the course ran short from what my watch said (12.9). Hopefully this counts toward my 50 states. The first and last mile are gravel trail which I wasn’t expecting. The rest is paved greenway type trail. It’s a very small race. Cheap (but cute) medals, low key everything. The snow cones at the end were nice, and the shirts were cute. Beautiful scenery around the lake to sit at after the race.

Beautiful course!!! I went out WAY too fast, it being my first Revel, and paid for it in the later miles. Still a PR by 4 minutes, but hopefully next time I can figure this out. Gorgeous scenery!

This race, and all of the Trivium races for that matter, has the absolute best communication I have ever experienced with any race. They sent daily emails about weather updates, course conditions, suggestions on road or trail shoes (wow!). They checked on the course multiple times throughout the upcoming week and constantly sent updates. The athlete guide packet was so detailed — it described the course segments to a tee, every mile, the terrain, the elevation, what to expect.
This was my first ultra, and I felt so calm and prepared largely thanks to all of the communication they offered. There were NO unknowns.
As far as the course, it was absolutely beautiful. There was a lot more road than I expected. The giant hill between 9.5-11, I think most people walked. It was massive, but so fun to fly back down. The rest ten miles were easy peasy. Flat or downhill with road and smooth trail. The middle 10 miles were more technical and exhausting. (It was a 15 mile out and back). My plan was to floor it on the last 10, but the technical bit took a lot out of me. It was a little warm at the top of the mountain, and humid from the rain storms the night before, and the last aid stations were toooooo far apart. I ran out of water before one and another didn’t really have very good fuel so I ended up running out of fuel too. That sucked, but otherwise, amazing race. The swag was beautiful. The volunteers were so kind. I can’t speak highly enough about this race. I will definitely be back and be recommending it to everyone. It’s a relatively flat, smooth entry into ultra running and through the most beautiful national park.

This race was great! It’s a rails to trails, low frills, hometown feel kind of race. The course itself is almost entirely on a rails to trails path (B&A Trail), and this time of year had beautiful cherry blossoms and dogwoods littering the course. Gorgeous views. The weather was perfect – low 40s. The race swag was BY FAR THE BEST I have ever received. A super cute running hat with the Maryland flag and GOODRS in Maryland colors! Holy cow! Everyone was very kind. It was nice to be able to wait inside the school gym before the race start, and the food afterwards had great variety. My only iffy bit was that I got lost at the 12.3 mile marker. The half marathoners were supposed to turn left to the finish line, but the gentleman directing people must have stepped away and I was running solo, so I continued on straight where I saw other runners ahead of me. Those were marathoners, apparently. I stepped over the most lackluster timing pad at 13.1 miles and thought, “This can’t be the finish.” So I back tracked and found my way to the turn I missed, finishing in about 15 total miles. The RD was kind and said he would adjust my results but not in time for the rankings to come out. It’s all good though; I was running this as a fifty stater, in the middle of marathon training, not trying to place. So that’s my only issue – needing better signage for the half finish. Otherwise, superb race and well organized! Love this part of the country and love the swag.

For such a pricey race, the production was very poor. Very few volunteers bunched together at the aid stations made it impossible to get hydration which was very much needed in the 90% humidity and heat. Some mile markers were missing. Pedestrians cut me off. The last mile and a half of the half marathon combined with walkers from the 5K so you spent the end dodging people. There was only one split timer at the 10K mark. No corrals at the start, just clusters. Very boring course that just went out and back down some roads that had a considerable amount of camber to them. The camber was pretty significant in some portions of the race to where you had to jump to the other side of the road or you were running sideways. The “expo” was just a tent outside of Fleet Feet. Medal was a nice size. Overall, I’m really disappointed in the execution of this race for the cost of it. I did PR but missed my goal by quite a bit due to the heat and humidity. Will not be returning to this race.
EDIT: I’m still having issues with my left leg and alignment after running on the slanted road for this course. I would have DNF’ed if I knew it would irritate my body this long! NOT a fan of this course.

Always love Rock n Roll, and Savannah was beautiful. The course map ended up looking like a giraffe which was kind of neat. Lots of turns but they were all gentle. I won my AG and was a little sad that they didn’t offer any AG awards, but otherwise it was a great production as always. TONS of photos for a 5K, too!

Beautiful course, and as always Rock N Roll delivered. Even being somewhat covid-ridden, it was a great production. I will say, the last couple of miles down the boardwalk were killer… directly into the sun, no shade, just pure heat. Other than that, it was great! Virginia Beach is kind of a weird town.. but it was still nice enough. Sad to see this one discontinued.