Christiane Viens's Staging Area

They warn you on their sign up page that the race is difficult. They are not lying. It was however breathtakingly (although that could be the elevation) beautiful.

You do catch a glimpse of Mount Rushmore a few times along the route which is pretty cool. The hills however never quit, you’re either going uphill or down.

The medal is huge and really nice! I gave the swag a 3 because the medal is awesome but the only other swag you get is a moisture wicking tshirt, which is nice, but not really all that exciting.

The post race snack box is a nice touch, easy to grab with exhausted hands lol.

There were no bathrooms available prior to the race start, the park bathroom was locked and their were no porta potties available.

The half marathon course was an out and back x 4 which got a little daunting after a while, but it was nice and flat and I did manage a PB so that was nice!

The medal was huge, the T-shirt was just a cotton 3/4 sleeve shirt, nothing overly excited. Mostly the lack of pre race bathroom ruined the experience for me.

The race is mostly along the coastal trail which is so beautiful, minor hills not a super challenging course. Cute finisher metal, good atmosphere along the race route.

So this is a trail run, I didn’t read that when I signed up for it! It started out with about 5km of single tracking uneven footing on a trail and then transition out onto paved paths and sidewalks. The swag was decent, and the medal was good.

I’ll be honest, this race was on my bucket list just for the medal and did it ever meet my expectations. Naturally I had to do the full because the half medal is half as big and that just wouldn’t cut it. And when I say big, I mean the medal is bigger than my head and weighs about 4lbs!

The course was good, the view was ok, pretty standard for a marathon. The weather didn’t cooperate and it was wicked humid leading me to dry heave at the finish but when does mother nature ever cooperate.

The atmosphere was AMAZING. So many people out cheering, communion on the run and a lipstick stop at mile 26!

If you are a medal addict like me, this race is for you!

The four corners quad keyah gives you a chance to run a half marathon in 4 different states over 4 days. You meet at the Four Corners monument daily and venture off in a different state each day. This was a wonderfully scenic experience and is definitely worth a trip out to the middle of nowhere Arizona!

Each day starts and ends in a different state and takes you through a difficult but beautiful route. I am not normally a trail runner so I found these trails to be difficult but not overly technical.

The sense of community was very strong and the race itself was very low key compared to the other big races out there. There were only 120 people registered for the sold out series so the atmosphere is a lot friendlier than a lot of super competitive races. The race director explains the route each morning, and at the end of the run there’s lots of food to be had. There is also a few fun community events added at the end of the third and forth day which were a lot of fun.

I can not love on this race enough, it was amazing!