Alison McGinnis's Staging Area

Vacation Races are very organized and super fun…as was this weekend but the sand – I just wouldn’t do it again on that course. First of all, starting and finishing at the campground was AWESOME!!! 7 of us women had a great RV spot and just laid low during the day Saturday, drove through the National Park and had lunch etc. Weather was amazing, not too cold at the start but then we started a lot later than expected (closer to 7pm)- I imagine because of the wave start…which ended up being a blessing because the course got a bit congested for the first few miles. The sand ranged from hard packed to “beach” sand. Luckily we had read the reviews and went in knowing it would probabloy take about 3.5 hours. I was just really wanting to be able to run more of it, and it just wasn’t runnable (to me and my group). Their was one strip of asphalt and I have never been more excited to get to run real fast for a very short period of time. Aid stations were great and often. I have never done a night race except Ragnar so I felt a bit unprepared food wise – they had Honey Stinger gels and fruit, but I really shouldv’e packed pretzels and or a PB&J since you couldnt exactly eat a dinner before.