Ashley Stifler's Staging Area

Traveled out of town for this race from CLT. Pick-up was very smooth, albeit with minimal swag or “production” compared to larger races. I expected as much, given the race had about 1,500 people in the half.

This is a point-to-point race and they run shuttles between the start/finish lines. My husband drove me to the start line and picked me up at the finish, so I don’t have any feedback about that part of the experience.

PROS:
– For a small race, they had a lot of pacers, volunteers, & tons of aid stations (with water, electrolyte mixes, Gu, and porta-potties!).
– The Swamprabbit Trail is beautiful. The scenery is great and it was a fun run. From reading past reviews, it sounds like the course has changed over the years. Overall, I really enjoyed this course. It was easy to follow and beautiful.
– Super high-quality medal and t-shirt (more of a soft cotton sleep-style shirt).
– Mile markers along the way to keep you aware of where you are.
– High energy end in beautiful downtown Greenville.
– For this race, the weather was perfect. It was overcast and 76 F when we started. It rained briefly between miles 2-4, which kept it cool. I was very worried about being too hot, but I was perfectly comfortable. The rain also did not make the course slippery, in case you were wondering.
– Net downhill. Nice but not nearly as easy as expected though as there are hills at the beginning. They were tough; however, I have to say I expected them to be a LOT harder based on past reviews and the incline chart on the race website which made it look like they were going to be steep as hell. I was pleasantly surprised by mile 5 when I realized that all of the hills were behind me.

CONS:
– Limited freebies at the pick-up and post-race. They had free beer, which lots of people loved, but I don’t drink. Would have loved some chocolate milk as an option instead of just soda for those who don’t drink.
– Start was a little messy. No corrals, so you just tee up near the pacer you want to follow. The bathroom lines were LONG. We arrived at 6:20am for a 7:00am start and it took nearly 25 minutes to wait in the bathroom line. Several folks were still waiting for the bathroom after the race started. Additionally, the porta-potties were on the race path, so once the race started people who had just finished going to the bathroom and were trying to walk to the start got in everyone’s way.
– This is a very small complaint, but the first portion of the race is around the track, which is kind of lame. It’s only a 1/4 mile, if even that, so not a huge deal given how beautiful the rest of the race was.
– This was my first time running a half on a greenway and, while it was beautiful, there were moments where I felt like stopping. Because of the great tree cover (yay shade!), you couldn’t see much around the bends, and running in one straight long line made the race feel very long. Crowd support was better than expected, but realistically you only saw them at a handful of intersections. All of these factors made it a very tough race for me mentally.
– Race felt a little congested on the trail, but that also could have been because of my pace.

Overall, glad to have done this race! I love the Greenville-Spartanburg area. A fun area to make a race weekend trip. We went to a Greenville Drive game the night before the race and we got some great food after the race.