Laura Walsh's Staging Area

Did packet pickup at the race…super easy. They are set up indoors at the Addison Conference Center, so there is a nice warm place to gather and wait to run (WAAAAY better than freezing your butt off outside).

The starting line was incredibly far back this year and it was hard to hear the announcer, even though he was on the loudspeaker. I did not hear the race start. But that’s OK. It was obvious when the people in front started moving.

I love this course going over that really cool bridge on (I think) Arapaho Rd. It’s a long steady incline and decline, so be ready for that, but it’s lovely and I love running inclines. I’m weird.

Bad@$$ swag. Really cool shirt, finishers medal, and a mug (this years was particularly cool), and of course a pancake breakfast.

High recommend!

This is a great race. Highly recommend. Personally, I was having a rough day having a death in the family the previous day. There was no where to be and nothing I could do about it yet, so I went to the race and it was great to be around wonderful people. Even though I didn’t feel wonderful myself.

Love love love this race

The staging area is indoor. Totally ideal for a winter race.

Pickup was easy.

Bag check was available.

Hot coffee, tea, hot chocolate, granola bars, bananas, beer, pancakes…you can’t ask for better post race food! (Of course water)

Wonderful volunteers. Was super cold, but I had a great time!

Parking: Race was help in Trinity River Legacy Park…there are small parking lots along the trail. The closet parking was full when I arrived, so was the 2nd, I parked in the 3rd lot from the race…it would have been nice if someone could have marked when the lots were full. Would have saved some time…but it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Packet Pickup: I did race-day pickup, super easy…walked up, got my bib and mug, went back to car, walked back to race, ran.

Course: flat and fast, really quite lovely. It was really cold and windy today…and overcast. But it was a beautiful trail. Course was EXTREMELY WELL marked. Bravo.

Water Station/Volunteers: The only volunteers I saw were at the start/finish line and the water station. They were great. Water only at the station…totally appropriate for a 5k.

Finish/Awards: Banana’s, granola, chips, and water. Plenty of everything. Top finishers in each category earned a medal. I am honored to have placed second in my age category…on the bright side, I got a medal…on the down side I had to stand around in the cold and wait for it. 🙁 If someone had been vending blankets, they would have made a killing.

Overall: Really great small race. I had a wonderful time. I totally recommend anything put on by CRC.

Packet pickup was a breeze…drove to the Shack at Panther Island, parked walked in a picked it up. Easy.

Race Day Parking: Tons of parking at Panther Island…again, easy.

Starting Line: Things were running a little late…not bad, but 5m or so. A lot of people were confused at the start whether it was the 5k or 10k starting…but if you paid attention is was pretty obvious.

Course: 5k was flat and fast. It was lovely day. Super cold, but great day.

Water Stop: One water stop, not enough volunteers…no one was handing out water. Cups were ready to go though, not bad, it was just obvious they were short on volunteers.

Finish line: The 10k was coming in from one side. The 5k/Half were from the other side and both turned into the final finish shoot. No volunteers here. There really needed to be one, LOTS of people were confused as to where the finish was. After I finished my run I was waiting on friends and saw people blow past the finish…after I saw a couple of people miss the finish I started doing the job myself and pointing people in.

Swag: Tech long sleeve shirt…it’s nice and cozy. Medal was a spinner. <3

Packet Pickup: I contacted them ahead of time to see how I could switch from the 5k to the 10k. I was told they could do that at the orange theory in Fort Worth. I drove there, in rush hour traffic, 1 hour and 20 minute round trip. When I got there, the girl didn’t know how to do that, so she called and was told she was not able to do that. Then she told me I’d have to switch at the race (I wouldn’t have driven that far out of my way for something I would have needed to do on race day!). Then she handed me a 2x shirt (I ordered a small) and she told me they were out of everything else. I would also have to change that at the race. I’m not really sure why you would pre-register for a race and order a specific shirt size only to be given a completely wrong shirt size.

Race Day: I arrived super early, it was really easy to switch to the 10k and exchange my shirt.

Race itself: course was not well marked. The 10k was a double loop of the 5k course, so the mile markers for 4/5/6 should have been .1 miles behind 1/2/3 but they were lined up. My watch showed the final distance to be 5.93 miles. :-/ most of the course was unshaded super crazy hot. Water only at the 1 aid station. This race started at 10am, starting so late in the day really called for Gatorade at the only aid station. Volunteers were lackluster (except for the one with the orange flag. She was great). There was a weird out and back between 2/3 and 5/6 that made you run backwards down a path…the volunteers there were sitting on a bench saying nothing. The group of people I was with stopped and had to ask where we were supposed to go. Also the mile markers were in the wrong order: 1 2 3 5 4 6

Swag: this years shirt was AWESOME (last year wasn’t). Also got a stein and ticket for a free beer at Oktoberfest and entry for the day. My husband came after the race and we had a great time.

This is my 2nd Melon Dash. It’s a really fun summer run.

Packet Pickup: The closet pickup location for me was at Orange Theory Fitness in Lewisville. Not terribly close, about a 35 minute drive. Pick up itself was smooth as silk, but driving there was lame. Wish something was closer to me.

Race Day Parking: Easy. Parking was at the high school across the street from the park, but all the lots weren’t available–the high school seniors were painting their parking spaces. Overflow parking was at the movie theater nearby. The race had, prior to the event, emailed and posted on social media about the limited high school parking, so that was not a big deal. I was running later than I wanted to, so I just went straight to the theater. Lots of spots. About a half mile walk to the start line (my warm up routine anyway), so worked out great.

Race Course: A little bottle neck at the start…there was a huge puddle on the left and the EMT’s were parked well into the road on the right, so it narrowed quite a bit right after the start, but quickly opened back up and was fine. THIS COURSE IS SUNNY! Wear sunscreen and a hat for sure. THIS COURSE IS HILLIER THAN YOU THINK. No giant “I want to die” hills overall about 110 feet of elevation according to my watch. Like I said, not crazy hilly, but not flat either. Also, the hilly parts are all 100% exposed to the sun. Water stop was a 1.3 miles, wish it had been after 1.5, but what can you do. Most runners were fairly rude at the water stop…stopping in the middle of the road, I almost crashed into someone and I saw other people who were trying to run thru the stop have issues. I get the sense it was a lot of first time runners who probably don’t know good race-ttiquette.

Finish/Post: Great finish shoot. A cow gave me my medal (awesome!). ICE TOWELS. They had towels soaked in ice water at the finish. A total blessing. Other items available: WATERMELON, bananas, gatorade, iced water bottles, hot dogs, and popsicles. Also, dog adoption…I texted my husband, but he wasn’t keen on me bringing home a pack of puppies, so I resisted.

Overall: great race. I love runproject races. My only negative is it draws a lot of newbies, which makes for some difficult moments from time to time. It just motivates me to work on my speed. 🙂

It was a virtual run…and those are what you make of them. The shirt is awesome. And the cause is great! I was really happy to participate and support this cause. It’s such a tumultuous time in US history—it was great to combine my love of running with supporting political causes I believe in.

EXPO: One of the best expo’s around. Easy parking…close if you’re willing to pay 5-10 dollars, about a half mile walk for free parking. Lots of vendors. Well organized. I had to change my race distance at the expo, it was really easy and really efficient. Not economical, but easy. I was injured and didn’t have much choice though.

Race day: easy parking, well marked, lots of security. Volunteers were helpful. The Cowtown is a giant race and you do have to do some serious waiting for your coral to start, but it’s not a big deal. Decent amount of spectators.

Swag: Cotton shirt and medal. Nice medal.

Post race food: I’m allergic to dairy and nuts and my options are always severely limited. All I could eat was a banana. Assuming you don’t share my allergies, there are lots of other options available–yogurt, cookies, breakfast type foods in general.

Overall: Great race, will run again next year. Hopefully the half or the marathon!

Parking was good…not many participants do it was easy to park. There were spots in the normal park’s lot, street parking, and a paid lot across the street.

Packet pickup was easy…I was running late (construction closing I wasn’t aware of) and the people checking me in didn’t seem to have a sense of urgency. That added to my stress a bit, but all in all, not a big deal.

Swag: tech shirt was included–nice shirt. Fits well. Higher quality than I expected for the reasonable price of registration. A+

Volunteers: not a lot, but the ones who were there were quality and fabulous.

Course: one incline at the end. Easy and flat overall. Trinity Park is a great place to run.

Post Race: plenty of bananas and water bottles. Nice park with plenty of places to rest and stretch out.

Now, on my walk back to my car, someone stopped me to ask for money. It’s downtown Fort Worth and all…but I didn’t expect that at 9am.

Good race. I will definitely be running more of their races.

Parking: where to park was hidden on the website. You had to dig around to find out it was street parking around downtown McKinney. If you’re not familiar with McKinney, it’s not helpful to be told park near the square.

Packet Pick Up: I picked up at the race, easy. They were out of medium shirts, I got a medium. Worked out for the best, a medium probably would have been too small.

Starting Line:
Playtri races usually include a wheel chair category. Which they allow to start 2 minutes before the runners. A lot of the people around me complained, they clearly didn’t understand. Also, there was a forced prayer/devotional–awkward for some.

Course: Hillier than expected, but lovely.

Finish: They were out of banana’s post race, which is unfortunate. I’m allergic to a lot of foods and there were no other items I could eat. They did have OJ. I drank a few cups.

Great swag–long sleeve shirt, coffee tumbler, medal. Great volunteers. Well stocked aid station. Super well organized…3 distances all at the same time and all 3 went off without a problem. The opening of the race was rough, so many people and a tiny little sidewalks. Once it opened up in the 2nd mile it was better. It’s a shame runproject races are so popular. 🙂 in all seriousness, I love run project races and this was a great way to start my thanksgiving week.

I enjoyed this race. Easy to get to, well marked parking. Swag included a t-shirt (cute, but I wish it wasn’t white) and a beer stein. You also got free entry to Oktoberfest, but I didn’t want to after the run, it was warm. September is early for an Oktoberfest. The course was lovely, pretty shaded except for about half of the 2nd mile. The only weird part was they closed ALL of the gates for the parking lot during the awards. This meant that subcompact vehicles could get out by driving on grass thru a tiny opening. When I figured that out I left, I have no idea how the trucks and SUV’s got out…

This was a really nice and we’ll run event. The park was lovely. The fun run went thru the shaded park (and had this epic finish–a kid sitting in 2nd place turned it on and smoked the kid in front of him in the last 100 meters). My only complaint is that for a summer run the bulk of the course was in the sun. It was really brutal and seriously impacted my time. We ran the 5k in the neighborhoods around the park. Not thru the park (which is heavily shaded)–it would have been better if we could have run through the wooded areas. But I will definitely run this again. It’s fun.

I really enjoyed this race! The volunteers were great. The production was smooth as silk. The course was really quite lovely and well marked. Lots of volunteers along the course. Overall a wonderful day!

The race was great overall. But there was one major problem that totally effected everyone’s time and experience. The starting line up was set up in 3 lanes of traffic, but 20 yards after the start line the race merged into 2 lanes of traffic and bottle necked very badly. I had to walk almost 2m before I could get enough room to run. And it was so congested at that point that everyone was running under pace for the first mile. Should have just started us in 2 lanes.

This was my first 5k and I had a really good experience. I would highly recommend the race track to others. I would recommend picking up your packet early. Even if packet pickup isn’t conveniently located. Day of pick up was stressful