Dani McQuaide's Staging Area

Pros:
-Lovely course
-Well organized, plenty of water stops.
-Good swag; soft shirt and a very nice medal
-Super volunteers, very, very friendly, supportive, and helpful
-Well supported by local police closing roads, manning intersections, etc. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many police out keeping a course safe.
-Great post race food!

Not so good:
-Expo was super meh. This is on us to be clear, but we didn’t have fuel and thought we’d pick something up at the expo. We were lucky to find some clif gummies. That was all we could find. Again, on us, but plan better!

Bottom Line: Really nice race. We lucked out with beautiful weather and just a great day overall.

As an Iowa native, what a treat to finish on the Blue Oval!

This was a really nice race. Great production. Solid pre-race communication, super smooth process from packet pickup to race start. Not a lot of crowd support once you leave campus, but the volunteers were fantastic. One water stop only had one (!) volunteer. Not sure what happened there, but at least when I came through, she was keeping up fine. So thankful for her! Plenty of water stops otherwise.

Course is mostly residential through some nice neighborhoods. A few homeowners came out and cheered! Some hills make it challenging, but I still enjoyed it even as a flat lander.

Nice jacket, nice medal.

I just really, really liked this race. Give it a try!

Pros:

-BEAUTIFUL
-Plenty of water stops (important, it warms up fast!)
-Shuttles from nearby towns make logistics easy
-Mostly downhill
-Reasonable cost, good swag (Lovely medal this year that represented the area well)
-Great small race feel (Because it is a small race), but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking anything you find at bigger races
-Beautiful course (Hey, sometimes it just needs to be said twice!)

Not so good:
-Some race communication about logistics didn’t match the website or the Facebook information. This frustrated the over planner part of me.
-This isn’t on the race directors, but be aware if you come from sea level (like me) the elevation can make it a struggle to breath. I had to walk a bit a couple times just because I didn’t feel like I was getting enough air.

Bottom line:
Did I mention this is a beautiful race? It really does bear repeating, the entire Bryce Canyon area is lovely and well worth sticking around for a few days after the race. The race was solid. Small race that never felt like a small production. Nice course, great volunteers, and a reasonable price. What more can you ask for from a race?

This race had some hiccups with their shuttles and day of registration that caused the 10K & 5K race starts to be delayed, but the Half Marathon went off on time. Unsure about the marathon as that started well before. The staggered start and open trail meant that there always seemed to be someone around you, but it never felt crowded.

Pros:
-I enjoyed the scenery being from the midwest, though some locals said it is not the most scenic compared to other local races. I enjoyed the soft surface running, seeing the dam, and the tunnels were fun.
-Medal and shirt are nice (though the medal is the same across all distances)
-Great weather for running!
-Many repeat runners
-Shuttle from Las Vegas is available (though at a cost)
-Water stations were well stocked and at good distances

Cons:
-I really hated running past the finish line for a 2(ish) mile out and back.
-Ran out of bags at registration, even for pre-registered runners. This would not normally be a big issue, but I had planned to use the bag for my gear check (which was free, but unsecured). This con is likely my making an assumption that the race would make me use their bag like many of the bigger races I’ve done with gear check. Bring your own bag and you’ll be fine.
-No real spectators if that is important to you, but the volunteers cheered at the water stops
-Finish line food is pretty blah.

As the title said, getting there was a nightmare. But outside of that, the race was solid.

Pros:
-Good swag, friendly volunteers, solid (but small) expo
-Not much crowd support, but I enjoyed the course. Nothing spectacular, but enough variety of scenery that it I never felt bored with it
-Solid post race food
-Well supported on course

Cons:
-I’m not sure what the snafus was with getting everyone in, but we arrived at the shuttle location about an hour and half prior to race start. We would have been earlier, but the shuttle location took us through part of the congestion for the people trying to park at the race start. The shuttles then needed to get through the same bad traffic. I hope they manage to fix those issues for 2018, but my best advice is to arrive early. Very early.

Bottom line:
Who knew Kansas had so many rolling hills?! I wouldn’t call the course super tough, but it certainly wasn’t as flat as I expected! Nice race other than the parking/shuttle snafu. Likely wouldn’t travel to do a again, but not a bad race to mark Kansas off the list.

Title might not sound like it, but I actually really liked this race. While not my ideal running conditions, you kind know what you are getting into when you run a race called the “Hotlanta Half Marathon” in Atlanta in June.

Pros:
-Water stations were well organized and frequent. They even added a couple last minute given the extra hot and humid conditions for 2016
-Course went past a lot of Atlanta landmarks though ‘scenic’ might be a stretch (typical city marathon)
-Great volunteers, great post race area
-Nice medal and shirt

Cons:
-Lack of bathrooms at start
-Roads were pretty rough in some areas, especially in the first few miles.

Bottom Line: I’d run this again if I happened to be in Atlanta that weekend. I likely would not travel specifically for it again. It is also not likely to be a PR course for most people.

…But it was just okay.

Pros:
-Super fun to run past all of the landmarks and monuments
-Festive atmosphere
-I liked the challenge coin rather than the traditional medal
-I really liked the hat, I still wear it quite a bit

Cons:
-It felt disorganized. I understand that its huge, but everything from getting out of the metro, into the corrals, trying to get food (not much left and I was solidly middle of the pack), the lack of coins (Mailed later) all just left a bad taste in my mouth
-Finish line volunteers were polite, but had no idea what was going on, where we needed to go, nothing. Seemed like poor communication
-Registration fills quickly, pay attention in May if you want to get in! 2015 was a challenging year with a lot of registration site crashes

Bottom Line:
I travel to DC frequently, I wasn’t put off by the security (at the expo or the corrals), just how disorganized it all seemed. I will say that I have friends who have run this race multiple times and all agreed that 2015 was significantly more unorganized than other years, so perhaps I just picked a bad year!

I LOVED Missoula. Both the race and the town.

Pros:
-Great vibe, great volunteers, easy logistics
-The outside of town parts of the course were scenic
-Crowd support once in town was great! Several folks set up sprinklers.
-Free race photo at the finish
-Great pre-race communication
-Nice medal and shirt

Cons:
-Super hot the year I ran it, race did a nice job to help support runners but it is a consideration given that I know it was hot again in 2017

Bottom Line: This is such a great race! And a great, supportive community! If you have time, check out the farmers market Saturday morning. Planning to travel back to run this one again when time permits!