Cubie Coleman's Staging Area

I can’t recommend this race enough whether you are local or traveling in to tackle Michigan with achieving 50 States like me. Loved the energy of the spectators, race organizers and other supporters and you get great value for your race registration. Now to the particulars!

Travel: The race is located southeast of Detroit in a small island town. Easy quick travel from the Detroit Airport but the lodging options in the surrounding areas are limited since you aren’t close to the Detroit metro area. I recommend staying closer to the downtown area and driving up race day if you plan on being there longer than a night. I found it very convenient cause I was only in town for about 18 hours.

Course: This race course isn’t too challenging with a few rolling hills and a couple nice downhills for recovery. You get some great views of the water with Canada across the water. The true highlight of this race is during miles 9 & 10 when you enter the Grosse Ile Air Base and run through the hangar and onto the runway. The 5K starts at the base so you get some extra attention & festiveness that’s left over from that run which starts about 30 mins after the half.

Swag: Pretty good. They gave a comfortable long sleeve tech tee as well as a cool Rock CF sticker (their logo is so boss!). The medal was a good size that has their Rock CF logo and the date/race type of it. There was a of branded items for sale pre/post race but I couldn’t find my size for one of the singlets so I didn’t get anything.

Organization: Very good. They offered packet pickup which I took advantage of since I was coming in late the night before. Smooth seamless process and parking at the suggested lot was simple and about a half mile walk (get there relatively early since it will get full close to race start or you will have to park at the airport lot and take the shuttle to/from the start/finish line). They had a good selection of food, nutrition, & hydration options post race and on the course they had a number of water stations with some awesome energetic volunteers. Also you get free race photos (always a plus!)

The Shamrock Half Marathon was quite fun with lots to love and only a few minor issues.

First let me start off with the production of this race which is put on by Millennium Running. It was top notch especially with their protocols and adjustments to make an in-person city streets race both safe and still feel as close to the normal race days of the past. I fly into Manchester the day before the race and did a bit of running from my hotel in downtown to the pre-race packet pickup at the Millennium Running store in Bedford, NH. Pickup was fast & simple with a long sleeve tech shirt & a magnet for the half and/or the shuffle (I did wish they had a bag for your swag but I ended up purchasing some items from the store so that took care of that probably). There was also race day packet pickup across from the start line as an alternative option.

The start line was conducted with a “time trial start” which is a great way to allow for the proper social distancing while still having the feel of a race. Runners were grouped by zones based on predicted finish times and you didn’t need to be at your spot until about 15 mins before you would cross the start line. There was a jumbotron that displayed each runner name (two started at a time) and the announcer gave an enthusiastic shout out to both runners as they started. Free video and pics provided as well! Great production.

The course started off in a more industrial/warehouse part of downtown for the first 4 miles which gave me a good amount of time to get into a groove before doing the three segments up & down Elm Street. It was great to run in the city and there were three different lanes on Elm Street that you end up running on depending on where you are in your run mileage wise. It was cool to see the faster/elite runners as you head on your journey. Lots of great folks cheering on runners throughout the course after the first 4 miles. My only complaint for the course was where the aid stations were placed especially given where the major hills were.

I ended up hurting my hamstring during the race and didn’t finish the race anywhere nearly as strong as I wanted to (the course has a fantastically fast last 2 miles which can really shave time off your overall finish if you have gas left in the tank). Finish line has another video recording which was another awesome perk and there was plenty of recovery food + fluids as you crossed the line! The finisher medal is nice and if you ran the 2 mile shuffle the next day, you got a golden shamrock to place inside your medal as well (which I didn’t have to return home fast and missed out on this swag).

Overall, I really enjoyed this race and with the high level of production I am looking forward to running some more of their events in the future (you get a cool race jacket if you complete 26.2 miles in 3 events with them). Who knew New Hampshire would be a new racing hub for me!

I recommend anyone in the New England area to run the Shamrock Half in addition to some of the other Millennium Running events!

Trying to put on races in the time of Covid-19 is quite the challenge and I am so happy this company was able to make this race happen. I flew in from the DC area to check off the state of Texas on my 50 states journey!

The organization could’ve been better (the advertised a 6am race day packet pickup but weren’t even setup until almost 6:30am; they also claimed it would be chipped time which it wasn’t and they didn’t record my time initially so I had to use my own Apple Watch time to submit for awards which felt weird.)

Course was relatively flat outside of a couple rolling hill section. It was quite beautiful to run next to the lake as the sun continued to rise. Half Marathon was two laps of a down & back which did cause for some congestion with the 5K/10K participants which isn’t ideal in these times but nothing a good run gaither can’t handle!

Tech shirt was a good swag piece & long sleeve (ended up running with it underneath, it was a frigid first half of the race) and the medal was nice as well. I love the vast array of age group/overall awards (I won my age group!) and that plaque was nice as well.

If I lived in the Ft. Worth/Dallas area, I would run this and other races put on by this group again but can’t see myself traveling in again for it. It was a really solid race to run given all the restrictions the pandemic has placed on run events.