Alyx Schrecengost's Staging Area

Le me preface this review with this; it’s always difficult to review a race when the weather is crappy.
It was cold, windy and sideways raining.
The course was hilly, but not terrible and as the laws of physics say, what goes up must come down, so there was equally as much downhill for this race. There were very few spectator spots, so if you’re looking for a race to keep you hyped, this is not the one. The volunteers were all excellent and incredibly nice. The roads were open to traffic, but the volunteers and police details did a great job keeping that under control. Though there were some sections of the out and back where is wasn’t clear which side of the road to run on. They had the cones set up for the out portion and I assume they wanted the back to be within the cones as well, but it would have been difficult given the fact that there were still many runners still heading out.
The shirts were simple cotton tees, noting fancy, and the medals were pretty average. The after party was great with the many different alcohol options. As someone with Celiac it is always nice to have an adult beverage option for me.

Even without the floating final mile, it was a great race to run! All the volunteers were super nice and helpful. There was a lot of doubling back on the course which was kind of annoying as it reduced the amount of sights, but the park is stunning alone so it was fine. The park was still open to the public so there was a decent amount of foot traffic from non-race participants, but I never had any issues with getting around people. The shirts, medals, and winners cups were all excellent in both appearance and quality.

The race team had to make adjustments about 2 weeks before race day, and they did a great job given the circumstances! In typical Maine fashion, everyone at the event was personable and the atmosphere was great given the smaller size of the race. With the last minute course change the race ended up being a half mile longer than expected, which was a total mind game for me personally and I would have liked to see more of the airfield during the race (it was mostly airport utility roads). All in all, it was a great race and the swag was pretty cool too.

This was my first true trail race, and it was tough! I wiped out multiple times, and I looked like I had just done a tough mudder by the end of it. There was some “Bottle-necking” at the beginning, but due to the race being smaller, there was plenty of time and space to maintain whatever pace you wanted.

Mare and her team put on a great race and every single person there was friendly and truly cared about one another. I am so glad that I had the chance to run for this amazing cause and I will be recommending it to anyone looking for a trail course in North Jersey!!

This was a slow one for me, coming from sea level, the elevation was tough. I hit a wall around mile 6. The views were gorgeous though and the atmosphere was amazing! I will absolutely be registering for another Vacation Races race!

Mother nature heard our prayers and held off with the rain storm until after the race; so shout out to her. While there were a good amount of rolling hills, they were very manageable. Perspective, I usually stick to “flat and fast” courses, but this was local and I actually ended up with a new PR! The volunteers were all super nice, but the pre-race correspondence was lacking, there were mix-ups with the bib pick-ups and conflicting race start times. Overall, it was a great small race that I would do again.

This was my first ever organized race and they far exceeded my expectations with how fun a race can be! All the volunteers were amazing and happy to be there and help out. This race was one of the first races in New England in person since COVID began and they did an AMAZING job of keeping it fun while also taking precautions.