Brad Darrington's Staging Area

This is a very large race with over 6k runners just in the half marathon. It is ran excellently and I have zero complaints.

The course is completely flat and is shaded for a large majority of it. The fan support is constant all 13 miles, and the aid stations are every mile or so.

The packet pickup and expo were awesome and ran smoothly. The swag is top notch and hard to beat. Long sleeve shirt, hat and towel.

Nothing was horrible about the race but there weren’t any highlights either. Mostly run through decent trails by a creek and there are a couple miles of just bare fields with no scenery.
My watch said the course was 12.62. The person I ran with got around 12.7 and we overheard someone say they had 12.7.
The shirt was great though. This race shouldn’t cost near what it does, very little of the $100+ is being put back into the race production.

The run is down Spearfish Canyon which is incredible. The views were hard to beat. The race is downhill for the entire race but the majority of your elevation loss is in the first 10 miles. Despite it being a small race the production is excellent. They don’t communicate much at all before check in but at check in they make the instructions for race day very clear and communication and buses on race day were excellent.
Very happy that I chose this race for South Dakota.

This course is beautiful from start to finish. It is primarily downhill, which I personally find more difficult than just a flat course. The production is excellent, lots of aid stations and course support. Definitely recommend.

The race was well put together. The views and course are incredible and hard to beat. 10 aid stations! The hills are very very tough, so plan for that, but definitely a race I would recommend.

This race is enormous, so many participants and never thins out for the whole 13 miles. Very well produced and tons of water stations. The lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a cool experience. Definitely recommend.

The course is beautiful and the weather was perfect. The medal is pretty neat and made up a little bit for the lack of swag. Aid stations were a little more spread out than I prefer. Overall it was well run and the scenery made it worth it.

The race proceeds go to charity so I hesitate to be too harsh. Plus, it was during a pandemic so that brings struggles too.
The course was overall pretty great. The first couple miles aren’t anything great, but then the Dahlia fields are pretty incredible. After you leave the Dahlia fields you run on a nice trail and through some nice Oregon country area. It is relatively flat.

The biggest complaint about the race was that I spent a great amount of time not knowing whether or not I was on the course! There was no volunteers on the course, which makes no sense! How does it create a COVID risk to have someone stand on a corner and tell runners which way to turn? It was made worse that the race is relatively small so I often didn’t have runners within 100s of yards in front or behind me. I wasted a lot of mental energy concerned I had missed a turn somewhere.

I wasn’t alone in my frustration. The race sent an email the day after apologizing for the confusion and lack of direction on the course. I would imagine that would mean in future years it will be taken care of.

This was a unique year to run due to COVID. They broke the runners into waves and so we started at 1 pm with only about 50 other runners. Calico racing did a great job of making it safe and still smooth production.
The course is one of my favorite ever. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and had no clue it was going to be so beautiful. I also couldn’t believe how much elevation gain there was in the first half! I was not prepared for that (my fault for not researching more.) It is an out and back course though, so despite walking half of the first 7 miles I still finished around my average half time because I was able to cruise downhill in the second half.

The medal was pretty cool as well. Definitely recommend running this incredible course.

This is a relatively small but well produced race. The town of Poulsbo is beautiful and very fun to run through. The course has great scenery. I wasn’t expecting the large hill in the race, but because it is out and back you also get the downhill. Definitely a race I would recommend.

This course is pretty nice along a river. The course ends on an uphill which is unfortunate. Decent swag, decent medal. Production is above average and nothing major to complain about.

This year it was raining sideways. I actually didn’t mind too much. The cold temperatures actually helped me overall. The course was still beautiful and the production was good. The starting line was a little cramped but that was my only complaint.