Debby Klinect's Staging Area

This race was very well organized. They crowd support was absolutely amazing. I used to think the Flying Pig in Ohio had the best crowd support but this race had an unbelievable amount of crowd support. It was sobering to start at the Memorial with the moments of silence. It was very moving to run past the banners of each person who passed away. The logistics for this race was easy to manage.

This race has so much going for it. Great town to explore if you are coming in from out of state, nice course, great race day organization, and awesome volunteers! The course is a little around town (a little over a mile) then out and back on the Fox River Trail. There were aid stations about every two miles and park restrooms to use on course. Aid stations had some “ultra” type offerings that was fun. I had a terrible race so by the time I finished the “after” party was pretty much over, all the vendors were gone but there was still chocolate iced donuts, brownies and hot chocolate to drink. Where I got a bit frustrated with this race was the information side of things. The website is very minimal and never really updated with swag or 2024 information until a couple weeks beforehand. Received a lot of emails about having to pickup your own packet but not a lot of other information. Finding results afterwards was extremely hard. An email to your individual results was sent in the evening but I still don’t know how you would find the results without that link. I really appreciate when races have clear information and results are easily found. There is nothing that is an absolute deal breaker for me but it definitely has room for improvement.

There are not many races that I would want to do twice but his would be one of them. So wonderfully organized, great swag, fun course and great crowd support.

Website – As someone working on a half in all 50 states I love a race website that has all the information in an easy to find format. This race has a fairly decent website but information was not update. All information is in the FAQ section but tabs were not updated. There were supposed to be shuttles from the host hotels and even though I asked on the FB page I never did figure out if they actually ran or not. Also, hadn’t noticed anywhere about getting the pull over as a finishers gift.
EXPO – was small but nice – everyone was friendly and the downtown is a nice place to walk around.
RACE DAY – Plenty of Porta Potties and everyone was so friendly and things were well organized. Plenty of parking nearby (within .3 )
RACE COURSE – It was one of my favorite races so far, it was a very pretty course. Going through a very rural town and into a pretty park. I had looked at reviews and the elevation chart and up until mile 6 I was thinking everyone who said this race was hilly hasn’t run a hilly course before. 🙂 As we turned left around mile 7 and I was staring down a long downhill I thought well crap, this is an out and back section. It took you down into and around the park which was absolutely pretty and nice to be running through. It was a loooooonnnnngggg uphill towards the finish and honestly not bad except it comes so late in the race. Crowd support is not a huge deal to me, I appreciate it when people are out but it doesn’t make or break a race for me, but there was a lot of crowd support on this race. Many funny signs and the aid stations had a lot of energy.
AID STATIONS – the aid stations seemed to be about every 1-1/2 to 2 miles which was awesome. They offered water and Gatorade. I don’t remember seeing and gels on the course but I don’t use them so I wasn’t looking for them.
POST RACE – An awesome after party!!! Pig snouts and a tech pullover were given at the finish line. Chicken sandwich, chocolate milk, water, banana – I honestly don’t remember everything they gave out. But it was a festive finish area.
SWAG – Short sleeve tech shirt – nice design and fit.
This was state #20 for me and was made extra special by having family (who live in ARK) surprise me at the finish line. The weather this year was pretty much perfect – 48 ish at the start and stayed very comfortable the whole race.

Very pretty and peaceful course with well spaced aid stations and porta pots along the course. Decent amount of crowd support for the first 9 miles of the race and those people deserve a big thank you for being out there in the weather this year. We were bussed to the start line at the Dune Climb. When you get dropped off there is nowhere to get out of the weather except a restroom which was packed with people trying to stay out of the rain and wind. Communication\website could be better. Swag was nice and if I wasn’t trying to do all 50 state I would love to come back and do this one again, hopefully with better weather.

Very low key race but well run. Volunteers were awesome. Course was pleasant enough, don’t forget to look for the prairie dog town along the path. We missed it on the way out but caught it on the way back. Shirt was meh.

This race is part of the Frederick Running Festival and has a 5K on Saturday night and the Half Marathon on Sunday. Doing both makes you a “nut job” and you get a really awesome Nut Job Challenge medal besides the 5K and Half medals. This race is really well organized with great courses for both races. Very festive atmosphere with a lot of energy and great volunteers. I was very impressed with the amount of porta potties both at the race start/finish area and on course. Aide stations were plentiful and had porta potties at each of them. I would highly recommend this race for a great weekend away. Frederick is a beautiful town to meander through with a wonderful river walk.

This is run on a “rails to trails” trail and is a very pretty course. It is a slight uphill to the turn around then a lovely slight downhill finish. The pre-race communications could have been better but the actual race was run quite well with very supportive volunteers. Full size candy bar at the finish was a plus 🙂 Since Covid is still around there was no awards ceremony and no after party but a great getaway weekend to knock out another state. If you need a lot of crowd support this is not for you but if you want some peaceful running through the woods (paved trail) then I recommend this race.