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@candicestump

Nixa, MO Raving since 2017 Active 6 years, 9 months ago

About Me

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My Races

Organize, track & review your races and personal bests here.

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Half Marathon

Marathon

Ultramarathon

(Marathon or Ultra) + Half

Marathon + Ultra

Other

Future Races

Future Races (0)

Race Distance Location Date Paid

Past Races (2)

Race Distance Location Date Result My Raves My Performance
Half Marathon West Yellowstone, MT Jun 10, 2017
Half Marathon Estes Park, CO Jul 30, 2016

My Raves

This was my second Half Marsthon with Vacation Races. I ran the Rocky Mountain half last year and had an incredible experience. At no fault to Vacation Races, the weather … MORE

This was my second Half Marsthon with Vacation Races. I ran the Rocky Mountain half last year and had an incredible experience.
At no fault to Vacation Races, the weather was terrible. A group of my friends participated in the Bison Double. We had a child in our group who ran her first 5k.
It was raining and cold when we ran. The weather is unpredictable at Yellowstone. We were in shorts the day before! The scenery was beautiful. Although it is not in the park and mostly all you see is trees, I still appreciated the forest and trails.
When we finished, we were looking for our medals. Mostly, we wanted the 9 year old with us to have hers. She worked so hard and we kept pushing her through by saying, the medal is waiting on you at the end. We talked to someone with the race who told us they were lost on a truck, trying to get here and hopefully would be there in the morning. We were ok with that. Apparently, an email was sent out prior to the race, but we had no service while in the area.
The next morning, the weather conditions were slightly better. I’m pretty good with running in the cold.
The half marathon was legit trails and pretty tough. It is very hard to pass people for several miles. There just isn’t any good way to do so without breaking an ankle. I also hurt in areas that I’ve never hurt, due to the twisting and jumping of rocks. I knew this going into the race.
My finish time was the slowest I’ve ever run. I didn’t let that get me down though, as our entire group added 15 minutes to their finish times as well.
We still did not have our 5k medals or our Bison Double medals. Again, let down a little. I never heard an announcement, but from the mouths of other runners we were told there was an issue with the order. Two completely different stories, but ok.
A few days later, I had an email from the race saying we would be credited $100 for future races bc of the mishap and a promise to ship our medals. That does help and I will run with this series again.
My only problem is the lack of communication. I have yet to hear the status of our medals and it’s been two weeks. I check Facebook daily and the visitors have asked, but have yet to get an answer. It’s a pretty big blow for both the Race Series and the runners when their is so much emphasis on “swag”.
My other input is the merchandise. I found multiple things I wanted and searched for 15 minutes for a medium size. When I picked the hat option on my Bison Double swag, at the time it had displayed the brown hat with all the national parks. This isn’t the hat I got, so I asked if I could switch to a shirt and was told I could tomorrow. I understand after my friend didn’t get the size she needed for her Bison Double shirt. They were out of merchandise sizes by the time we arrived at 2:30 pm.
Overall, I still love the idea of this series and will do it again. I’m only offering my own experience and what I hope is seen as constructive criticism.

DIFFICULTY
4
PRODUCTION
3
SCENERY
5
SWAG
3

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This was my 3rd half marathon and first with Vacation Races. Some friends and I decided to run the race and turn it into a family vacation. We picked up … MORE

This was my 3rd half marathon and first with Vacation Races. Some friends and I decided to run the race and turn it into a family vacation.
We picked up our packets the afternoon before. The expo was great, with lots of merchandise and s’mores. I love that they bring their sign. It makes a great keepsake picture!
The Rocky Mountains are beautiful and this was such an amazing race. It’s very well put together. I run in the 3 hour pace time and they did such a great job at making us slower folks feel important too!!
I’ve never had a race that gave me a high the entire time, but this one did. I even had tears in my eyes when I got to the 13 mile marker.
For months I had people tell me this was going to be really hard, the altitude was going to be difficult, ect. I really did not find too many people who were supportive. I was scared! I am so glad my attitude was “watch me”, because I did it in under 3 hours.
I stopped several times to take pictures, because I just couldn’t get over how beautiful it was!
Let me not forget, the medals are Awesome!!
I recommend this race to everyone. We had so much fun, we are doing the Yellowstone Half in June.

DIFFICULTY
4
PRODUCTION
5
SCENERY
5
SWAG
5
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