Scott Bland's Staging Area

I hate that this is such a late review but this was such a fun weekend that it was worth circling back to and giving it the credit it deserves. The city of Huntsville is truly a hidden gem, I had no idea how many interesting things there are in Huntsville. Coming from Texas, our Huntsville has a federal prison and while the people there are awesome it’s not exactly a tourist destination!
Alabama’s version of Huntsville is a beautiful and vibrant city that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. The space industry is front and center and deservedly so as the rocket center and space camp make a fun way to kill some pre-race hours on Saturday.
The race itself has clearly been run for years and the folks in charge keep things smooth and professional. The last two years have seen cancellations due to Covid two years ago and then a massive storm last year so everyone involved was super excited to get things going. The Expo was small but proportionate for the race and location and the merchandise available was very nice and well done. Between the expo and the start line area where I stayed there were plenty of options to pick up anything you might need on race morning and plenty of food and drink options. I didn’t rent a car and never felt like I needed one, plenty within walking distance and quick Uber trips otherwise
Race morning was cloudy and drizzly and a little warm but I actually like those conditions, full sun is a killer to me so cloudy and a little drizzly suits me just fine. The start line is a little chaotic with a lot going on but there was no problem getting in position and being in the right place at the right time.
The course itself was fun, sneaky hilly in a few parts and almost always having something interesting to see or watch. The weather probably kept a lot of people from coming out to cheer but the ones who did were loud and enthusiastic.
In the late part of the race you do run through the space and rocket center, passing by Saturn 5 rockets and the entrance to Space Camp. It is an awesome way to have a real pick me up just when you really need it and is pretty unique to this race. Getting high fives from a few rocket scientists who came out to watch (I assume all employees there were rocket scientists) is another bonus that no race I have run has been able to offer.
The only down side to the course for me was immediately after the rocket center you run through what I can only call a brief trail race section, literally through some trees following some flags and cones, not an actual path. I can understand that the purpose was to connect the back side of the rocket center to a large park but that was not a fun time to be dodging rocks and hopping over roots. Fortunately it was brief and we popped out of the woods and into a large park. This was my least favorite part of the course, the park was sparsely populated and this time of year everything is dead so there isn’t much scenery. The park was decorated with Christmas light displays along the roadway which were somehow depressing being unlit and on a cloudy day. I have no doubt that driving through this light display in the evenings is quite impressive but hitting that scene after running 20 plus miles is not so inspiring!
The park section wasn’t too long and it did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for this course and this race and the rain didn’t either! The Rocket City Marathon is a well run event and the course almost always as something new to see or experience. The people are awesome and I have no doubt that a prettier day would have produced a lot more spectators. Those of us trying to run the states always say this is a good race to run to tick that state off your list. In this case, this is a great race to run regardless, if you have the chance this should be on your list.

First and foremost, I came into this race battling a Peroneal tendon issue that flared up again at mile 4 and essentially left me limp running by mile 21 and walking by mile 23. That has absolutely nothing to do with the race itself or the race directors and did not color my thoughts and impressions of this race.
The location of the race just east of the Seattle area is a beautiful trail made up of very compacted gravel and winds its way gently down a mountainous park area. The views are spectacular as you cross over many suspended bridges looking high over creeks and small water falls. The mountain tops just in the distance can’t be seen for the clouds and mist that hang in the air around them.
As mentioned, the trail is compacted gravel, I never had a moment of losing my footing or having to dodge large rocks or roots. The race directors mention the advantage of wearing gators on your shoes, but I only had one instance of a rock getting in my shoe and having to stop to remove it. The downhill track is never overly steep and almost has no uphill at all, it’s gentle enough to feel good but not have your quads ready to burst.
The name sake tunnel is a unique experience. Running in total darkness with only head lamps for light makes for a surreal experience of running in and amongst head lights that varied in brightness and range. Seeing the pin prick of light at the end of the tunnel slowly grow until you emerge on the other side is definitely an experience unique to this course. The organization on the other end of volunteers collecting your drop bag to return your head lamp to the finish line was well run and efficient as well.
Communication from the race directors leading up to race day is good, monthly emails with plenty of news and information. The location near Seattle is easy to get to and the race area is close enough to the city to be able to take in some sight seeing in Seattle the days before the race. I had no trouble getting an affordable hotel room or a rental car.
Unfortunately, the organization on the course was not on the same level. Since the water and aid stations were further apart than typical marathons, I carried a handheld water bottle with me for consistent hydration. This wound up being what saved me during the toughest miles of the race. At mile 15 I took nutrition and salt tabs using the remainder of my water knowing there was an aid station coming at mile 16 for a refill and sports drink to balance out all the water. For me, the miles from 14 to 20 tend to be the most mentally challenging as I’ve run almost to end of my glycogen stores but still have a lot of race left. Mile 20 is always a big boost for me, something mentally about hitting 20 and having only a 10K left always gives me a nice kick at the right time. So rounding the corner into Mile 16 and finding the water and aid station completely abandoned was the exact opposite of the kick I really needed. I initially panicked having just finished the remainder of my water. Fortunately, I was able to cobble together the remaining water out of several of the abandoned cans to be able to re-fill my bottle. Working with several other runners who were coming in behind me, we able to get ourselves hydrated enough to continue.
At this point, heading out of the abandoned water stop, I was mentally frazzled as well as dealing with the Peroneal issue. Out of concern for the unknown status of future water stops, I was overly conservative about drinking much from my bottle as I continued to run. Coming into Mile 18 confirmed the worst fears as that stop was also abandoned. Again, several of us cobbled together water from the cans left scattered on the ground, but there was no sports drink nor any medical personnel. I definitely had the though of what happens if someone gets seriously injured, we are literally in the middle of nowhere, no spectators, no race officials, no medical personnel.
As in Mile 16, I headed out from the Mile 18 abandoned stop concerned about my growing injury issue and the continued availability of fluids. Needless to say, this is not a good mental situation for a marathon. Thankfully, the Mile 21, and 24 station had 1 volunteer still there with sports drink at Mile 24 to break up the water, but by that point I was so mentally and physically out of the race it didn’t make much difference.
I’ve never written a negative review for a race and hate to do so now, but I would absolutely not recommend this race. Until you run this trail, it’s hard to appreciate how isolated it is. When the aid stations are abandoned I’m not sure how much you could depend on getting aid if something bad happened during the run. It was to the point where several of us were wondering if there had been some type of horrible incident in the Seattle area as the reason all the volunteers and medical personnel abandoned their stations. My injury issue caused my horrible performance, that is absolutely not on the race directors. However, there is no excuse for leaving so many of us on an isolated trail with no support for almost 10 miles (Mile 12 to Mile 21). There are several organizations that use this trail for marathons, I would suggest researching those groups and running the course with them.

This was by far my toughest and worst marathon but none of the reasons had anything to do with the event itself. I ran this race just 2 weeks after being diagnosed with the flu and really felt like I didn’t have enough time to recover properly. And then the weather didn’t do any of the runners any favors!
The city of Little Rock absolutely goes all out for runners the weekend of the marathon. There are tons of signs around downtown and in front of restaurants and bars welcoming runners to the city. That’s always a great thing to see when you’re away from home.
The expo was well done although a little smaller than I expected. I think the race organizers do such a good job of hyping up the race that it’s easy to forget that the actual race itself is pretty small in terms of number of runners. But, they had plenty of merchandise and good vendors to visit with so no complaints.
The day of the race the weather did exactly what was forecast, very cold with off and on rain for the first 2 hours which shifted over to sleet and snow for about another hour and then came the north wind blowing from 10 to 20mph. Since this was according to forecast, most of the runners were dressed appropriately, but there is no way to not be cold when you’re wet and the wind chill drops into the 20’s. None of this is the fault of the race directors, of course, and there was actually fairly good crowd support in spite of the weather.
The course itself hits a lot of Little Rock highlights. It goes directly in front of Little Rock Central High School, the state capitol building, and the governor’s mansion. The back half of the marathon goes through some sketchy areas and there is a long out and back along a bike path that is a little boring but there’s no way the entire course could be perfect.
I will say this course is the toughest that I have done so far. The hills are steep and long and come one after the other. In the early sections there is usually a nice downhill to get some recovery but the later hills don’t go back down much at all. As noted by other reviewers there is a rough hill between 24 and 25 that is not a welcome sight at that point in the race.

Grandma’s Marathon was my 14th full marathon and absolutely ranks as one of my favorite races of any distance. This is a really fun race and is completely worth the trip to Duluth.
That trip was the only part of the race that was difficult in any way. I flew into Minneapolis and drove a rental car 2.5 hours to get to Duluth. There are flights from Minneapolis or Detroit to Duluth, but you need a car in Duluth anyway so the drive was better than the extra expense of flying directly into Duluth. The drive wasn’t that bad, and the view coming into Duluth was spectacular.
I stayed at the Radisson and paid about 3 times the normal rate as all the hotels in the area jack up their rates for this weekend. Since that is out of the control of the race directors, I don’t consider that a negative against the race. The Radisson location is fantastic and is walking distance to the expo and the finish line where you can take the train or bus to the start line.
The expo was good, appropriately sized for the race with plenty of race merchandise for sale. I got there early on Friday morning so I didn’t have any issues with huge crowds of people. Packet pickup was easy and they had a station to double check your time chip on your bib which was a nice thing to be able to do before leaving.
The weather forecast leading up to the race was calling for thunderstorms for race morning. The afternoon before the race a large storm did blow in and knocked out power briefly and rained several inches in just a short period of time. Everyone was afraid that this was a preview of what was to come the next morning.
I got up early on race morning to be able to take the train to the start line, which I highly recommend over the buses. The first thing I checked when I got up at 3:30am was the forecast and was amazed to see the storms had been moved rom early morning to late afternoon and the chance of rain during the race was dropped to about 30%. The forecast temperature of 59 turned into an actual temperature of 50, pretty close to perfect conditions.
Taking the train to the start line was an option for the first 1000 runners wanting to ride. The train departs about 5:45 so the sun is up and the views heading out along Lake Superior are fabulous. The train is also plenty warm and roomy and there are lots of toilets available. The only downside is the trip takes every bit of an hour so if you want to get to the start line super early don’t take the train.
The race start is well organized with most runners lining up in accordance with their expected finish times. With the half marathon starting an hour earlier and starting from the marathon half way point, I never saw anyone with a half marathon bib and couldn’t even tell you what color their bibs were.
The first 19 miles of the course are along Lake Superior which is unfortunately very often blocked by all of the trees. We did deal with a pretty heavy fog and off and on light rain for most of the race, but the wind was at out our back and I never felt like the scenery became monotonous. Crown support during this part of the race was limited to certain spots along the road but was very enthusiastic in those spots and provided much needed boosts. The aid stations had clearly labeled water and power aid and was always water first. The volunteers did a spectacular job, you could tell this race has been run for over 40 years, these were some well trained and experienced volunteers.
Just past mile 19 the course heads into Duluth and the pine trees and lake views change to a city run with spectators everywhere. The final 6 miles were full of rowdy spectators providing a ton of distractions, even a long line of troll dolls along the curb around mile 22 which qualifies as one of the strangest things I’ve come across during a race.
The finish was great, there were a lot of twists and turns in the last half mile or so, but it didn’t bother me as much as I feared from previous reviews. The finish line area was plenty busy, but I had no problem getting my medal and finisher’s shirt and there was plenty of food and beer available. I actually like the fact that you get your finisher shirt when you finish the race, that’s the definition of finisher shirt. The medals were big and heavy, certainly appropriate for the accomplishment.
I love events where it seems like the whole town shuts down for the race and they really appreciate the runners who came to be a part of it. The way Duluth embraces the race and the runners is extremely impressive and rivaled the support I’ve experienced at much larger events like Chicago. If you can get to northern Minnesota in June you won’t find a better event than Grandma’s Marathon.

This was my fourth time to run the Cowtown but my first time doing the full marathon. As a repeat runner, I know very well how good the organization runs their race. The expo is appropriate for the size of the race, there are plenty of interesting vendors and plenty of merchandise available for purchase. There were some issues this year with the Saturday races being delayed due to some strong storms that hit the area that morning. As a result, there was quite a crowd around the expo area that were still participating in the 5K and 10K Saturday races and parking was more limited than it typically would be. Not a fault of the organizers, they showed an amazing ability to roll with the challenges and still put on a successful expo.
Race day started nice and cool with temperatures in the low 40s. Anyone who has run Cowtown knows that they are maybe the best at moving runners through their corrals and onto the course. I started in corral 5 with some friends and we were on the course and running within 20 minutes of the starting gun. The start was not congested and there were plenty of cheering spectators to get us into the mood to run.
The course is a lot of fun, with lots of changes in scenery along the way. The course starts out moving through downtown into the Stockyards area where there are lots of potentially hungover tourists surprised to see a marathon breaking out in front of their hotels. Coming out of the Stockyards means hitting the hill at mile 9 that you can see coming from mile 7. It’s not near as bad as it looks once you get there and the band playing “Shake it Off” at the top took a little of the edge off the effort I expended.
As with most events, the full split from the half meant things got a lot lonelier after mile 10 when I left the big crowd of half runners. This is where the people of Ft. Worth really showed that they love this event. In spite of there being a fraction of runners continuing into the full, their was a steady showing of neighbors with fruit and candy all along the course. At mile 20 there was a huge block party with tons of people out and about, giving out food and various fluids.
The last 3 miles were on a park path and that was the quietest section of the course. By this time, the sun had been out for awhile and it was getting a lot warmer than the start. In spite of the heat, I managed to keep a good pace and stayed with the 4:40 pace from mile 23 to finish. I finished with the pacer and had an official time of 4:40:01 so she was right on it! My time represented an 8 minute PR so this was a great run for me.
The finish area was well done and there was very little wait to getting a finisher shirt, fruit, and disposal finisher’s jacket. This was the least amount of walking I’ve had to do in a finishers area and they had plenty of shuttle buses to get me back to my hotel. I can’t recommend Cowtown enough, it’s a great race with fun spectators and a management team that knows what they are doing.

The Chicago Marathon is everything I love about running and should be at the top of everyone’s running bucket list. The expo was amazing, the best I have ever attended. I have enjoyed every expo I have attended, I really enjoy spending time and talking to the attendees as well as the vendors. Chicago was amazing, and not just because of the number of people involved. The layout was done in such a way that there was plenty of room to move around in spite of all of the people wandering about. There were also a lot of interactive areas at the expo, from places to leave messages to other runners to a place to sit and watch the course video being played on a continuous loop. Goose Island had free beer and it seemed like every major gear maker had Chicago branded shirts for sale, definitely plenty of opportunities to be separated from your money.
I stayed at the Chicago Hilton which was right across the street from the course start and finish in Grant Park. There were plenty of restaurants around the hotel to choose from and the hotel had an excellent pasta buffet the night before the race. Getting to my corral was as simple as walking across the street and through a metal detector. I was honestly surprised the security wasn’t tighter given the shooting in Las Vegas having just taken place. My only complaint about the start area is the potties were not accessible once the corrals started to fill up, there was no way to fight back through the crowds to get to the potty area if you needed to go in the last hour before the start.
The course itself was magnificent. As reported by many before, the tunnel and surrounding buildings prevented most GPS watches from functioning correctly. My watch had me 2 miles further than I was on the course and showed me finishing with over 28 miles on the day so I guess I got an unofficial ultra! But, the course was so well marked I was never unaware of my position. Of course, the thousands and thousands of spectators that lined the entire route made for all the distractions I needed.
The course itself was virtually flat with the most impressive climb coming at mile 26 before turning to the finish line. I am still amazed at how many people lined the course, cheering all of us runners on our way. There were plenty of landmarks to see on the way and there were no boring parts of the route. I was disappointed in not being able to see much of Wrigley Field, but the city of Chicago was definitely the star of this race.
As the day turned to noon, the heat came up into the upper 70’s and many of us were hit by cramping in the last few miles. The sudden elevation change at mile 26 had me nursing both hamstrings cramping and my left calf trying to seize up. Of course, this is an indication of poor fueling on my part and not the fault of anything or anyone involved in the race. I loved the passion and dedication of the people involved in putting on this event. I watched crowds of volunteers meeting in the park the day before, getting prepared for the race and setting up tents and tables. And then all of the people who came out all along the course to cheer on the runners was an even more amazing thing to see and be a part of. The Chicago Marathon should absolutely be a part of everyone’s race wish list, I look forward to running it again one day.

I really enjoyed the New Jersey Marathon, I was expecting a good event but had read several negatives in prior reviews so I came into the race a little unsure of what to expect. The expo was very small, but it was proportionate to the size of the race. I actually really enjoy spending time walking through expos and seeing the different events being promoted and some of the new gear that’s available. So, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more going on at this expo, but it was in keeping with the size of the event. This expo did have the unique aspect of being held at the Monmouth Park race track and that made up for the lack of size. I’m not a big horse racing fan, but that track was obviously very old and had a ton of history. I probably spent almost an hour wandering around the grounds with everything being completely wide open. That was a neat experience.

The morning of the race I got up very early so that I could get on the road from my hotel and to the parking area. Almost every prior review I read made comments about how awful the traffic situation was getting to the parking area with several people saying the traffic was so bad they advised leaving with 2 hours to spare. I made it onto the road with a little over an hour and a half before race time and breezed right into a parking spot so whatever issues they have had in the past must have been resolved and I got about 30 minutes of nice quiet time in the car.

The weather on race morning was fantastic, about 58 degrees and mostly overcast. There was a cool front coming in and the temperatures actually fell slightly during the race. There was a decent breeze that was fairly sustained during the race, but it wasn’t terribly bad, I spent the last 7 miles running into it but it was more cold than anything else.

The course was good, I was expecting a huge bottleneck at the beginning that never materialized, I guess we should take all reviews with a grain of salt (this one included). The course started with a little uphill climb that flattened out quickly and represented all of the elevation change on the first half. The first half went through some nice neighborhoods and some urban area, a nice mix of things to see. The half marathoners split off between 11 and 12 and I went from running with a decent group to being by myself, there was a huge difference in half and full runners in this race. Just after the split, the elite runners started to pass me going the other way on the opposite side of the road (yes, I am that slow). This was the first indication of how long the out and back section was going to be. I happened to notice the back of the mile 23 marker while watching the elites and wanting to see the front of that marker was stuck in my head for the next 2 hours. The course made its way down to the boardwalk with some fairly nice downhill stretches which would become uphills into the wind on the way back. The turn around point didn’t come until between miles 18 and 19 and it was a sharp turn which was not terribly welcome. As much as that long of an out and back is hard to deal with mentally, it is a tremendous boost when you finally hit that turnaround and are headed home. After the turnaround the course spends a lot of time on the boardwalk along the ocean which is really nice. It was amusing to see all the tourists who had no idea they had wandered into a marathon while out on the boardwalk. I spent more time along the ocean in this marathon than I did at Rock&Roll San Diego so kudos to New Jersey for all the ocean front running. The finish was well organized with boxed water instead of bottled which I had only seen once before when I ran San Francisco so good to see the east coast being a little proactive environmentally. I finished in 4:48 which is a 10 minute PR for me so this will be a course I remember very fondly.

Now for the massive negative for this event. The race is point to point so you park at the start and there are shuttles to take you back to the start line after you finish. First, there were no signs in the finisher area indicating where the buses were located and it was a bad sign that they weren’t close enough that you could see them. Myself and a couple of other runners got with the local police and they were able to direct us to the shuttle bus area which was at least a 3/4 mile walk from the finisher area. Then the buses themselves didn’t drop the runners off in the runner parking lot, we were dropped off on the other side of the race track and had to walk almost another mile to get to our vehicles. My step counter had me at almost 31 miles for the day by the time I got back to my car. This is a great event that really does a great job for the runners, but with so many people needing the shuttles to get back to their cars it shouldn’t be such an afterthought. That, however, does not come close to dampening my enthusiasm for this event, it was well run and an enjoyable course, well worth the trip to Jersey.

The Rock and Roll race series definitely knows how to put on an event and the New Orleans Marathon was no exception. The Expo was well done with plenty of interesting and knowledgeable vendors to spend time with and pick their brains. The corral setup was smooth and actually ran quickly and efficiently, much better than I have experienced in the past with Rock and Roll events. The course was staggeringly flat, almost to the point where the lack of topography was worse than having a few hills for variety. The first half of the race was quite interesting, through some historic neighborhoods and the French quarter. The half and full didn’t split until after mile 12 so there was plenty of weaving in and out of crowds during the first half of the race. After the split, there was a massive decrease in the number of runners around me. It seemed that this race had an even larger proportion of half marathoners than any race I’ve done in the past. This wasn’t a big deal to me, but someone who isn’t comfortable running by themselves might find this disconcerting to come so far into the run. The biggest draw back to this race was the lack of spectators. While I don’t need big crowds for motivation, it was oddly quiet for the vast majority of the run. I assume this was as a result of being New Orleans and early on a Sunday morning so shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. The back half of the marathon was not as interesting, a couple of out and backs through a park and along a lake front. It was nice, but without much spectator support it wasn’t much different than a typical weekend long run. But, with the flat course and great weather, it was definite PR type conditions and I was able to set a PR by about 10 minutes so no complaints for me.

This year’s Dallas Marathon was blessed with almost perfect weather. The day started in the low 50s with clouds and fairly calm. However, as the day progressed the winds kicked up and were well over 20mph with 30+ mph gusts about 3 hours into the race. That’s totally out of the RD’s control and really didn’t diminish a great day for running. It made the finish quite challenging in spite of it being a fairly flat course. The race highlights:
THE EXPO: Fairly typical for a large marathon in that there were tons of vendors and tons of stuff. I really enjoy spending time at expos and this one did not disappoint. With BMW being the title sponsor this year, there was some really cool car stuff to play around with.
THE COURSE: Having lived in Dallas for about 10 years, I am very familiar with the course and it definitely went through a lot of the best neighborhoods in the area. However, the out and back at White Rock Lake is a little repetitive and ignores the section that would include the arboretum which is a beautiful part of the lake. The worst part of the course is the section that runs along the Santa Fe Trail which is a multi mile slow climb up a concrete path. The path was not closed and we dealt with several runners coming from the other direction and I was passed twice by bikers who were not part of the event.
THE SPECTATORS: The city of Dallas definitely supports the marathon in a big way. There are plenty of spectators on the course to keep you motivated and lots of “unofficial” food stations along the way for those hungry for doughnuts, beer, or Twizzlers. From the “Dolly Parton’s” and Elvis impersonators, there are plenty of people having fun on the course.
THE ORGANIZATION: This is such a well run event, it’s obvious that it’s been around for over 40 years. From start to finish, this is a very professionally run event that seems to care as much about the marathon as it does the half and the relay. It’s nice to run in a race that has doesn’t put all the interesting parts of the course on the parts shared by with the half marathon and make the full marathon course seem like an afterthought. I didn’t utilize the bag check so I can’t comment on that part of the operation.

San Diego is home away from home for me so I was fairly biased in favor of this race from the beginning. The expo was terrific, as is to be expected from a Rock-n-Roll event, there were plenty of vendors to talk to and lots of good information. I didn’t have any issues with parking at the expo, it was a pain to pay $15 to park at the convention center but most big city events are going to gouge you on parking, especially if it’s in a downtown area. I used the shuttle system to get to the starting line, which meant standing in a long line at 5AM but it moved fast and was way better than fighting for a parking spot. The biggest problem pre-race was way too slow of corral releases which meant that a lot of people spent over 30 minutes slowly shuffling towards the start line. This wasn’t a huge problem, but when you’re fired up and ready to get going, that’s a long time to shuffle around after the starting gun has been fired. The course itself could have used some more water front views but the section in Mission Bay was great. It was a big out and back but it was along the ocean so it was a great view. I liked the neighborhoods we ran through and thought it was a good mix of houses and eclectic local shops and restaurants. Fan support in those areas was great, plenty of cheering people and you could definitely feel the support. About the massive hill on Highway 163 from mile 22 to 24 that everyone talks about in regards to this race. I honestly don’t mind a race throwing a big challenge in the later miles, I run a lot of hills in training so I don’t mind them that much. My issue with this stretch is that running on a highway is just not a lot of fun, especially that late in the race when you’re dog tired and need all the distractions you can get. Once you get over the novelty of running on a closed highway, it’s a long slow climb that never seems to end with very little scenery and no fan support because you’re on the highway. All that being said, once you reach the top it’s all downhill to the finish. I loved this race, love the city, and really appreciated how well run the event was from start to finish. In typical Rock-n-Roll fashion, there were plenty of opportunities to be separated from your money and the event has a very corporate feel to it at times. But, I would highly recommend this event and hope to be able to run it again in the future.

Just finished the 2016 running of the Cowtown Half Marathon in Ft. Worth. This was my 3rd time with the Cowtown (although last year’s version was severely affected by ice) and it did not disappoint.
EXPO: Typical large event expo with plenty of vendors. I went early on Friday so it wasn’t very crowded and was an absolute breeze to get in and out of with my bib and packet. I would imagine anything needed for the race could have been had at the expo and all vendors were friendly and helpful.
T-SHIRTS: The race shirt is really nice this year with blue stripes down each side of a white shirt. The finisher shirts are dark, which isn’t that great for me because I run early in the morning and don’t like to wear dark colors, but it’s a nice design. The bib had a ticket for a race jacket at the finish which turned out to be the thin, one use type of jacket for staying warm after the race. After getting a cool jacket at the Route 66 in Tulsa, this was a little disappointing.
AID STATIONS: These were all very well done. Plenty of volunteers ready with water or Powerade and all stations matched the format of water first, Powerade second and each was in a different cup. Since I only ran the half marathon, I didn’t pay much attention to what food was being offered but there was at least one station giving out Gu packets. There was a kid on the course with a box of doughnut holes and I snagged 2 of those from his box. I assume he was offering them to the runners and I didn’t steal a kids’ doughnuts, but it was about Mile 11 and I didn’t care. Some fruit being at the later stations would have been nice, but again it wasn’t expected on the half course.
THE COURSE: I really like this course, it’s not hilly but not really flat, either. There are enough rolling hills to make it interesting and the areas the course takes you through are typically active with spectators with a lot to look at. I’m not all that concerned about my time so I like plenty of turns in a course and this one only has one really long straight stretch, I enjoy the change of direction from time to time. The only negatives of the course are two pretty long bridges which are devoid of spectators and don’t really go over anything interesting and the run through the Stockyards is on brick paved streets which is tough on the legs. That being said, the spectators and scenery of the Stockyards make this one of the best parts of the course so the bricks are tolerable.
OVERALL: This is a really well managed race with big crowds and great local support. It may be heresy to say, but I say this is a better event than the Metro PCS Dallas Marathon. The only thing to watch out for is the total wild card of Texas weather in February. The same race we fought through ice one year ago and this year we were hoping to get done before the temperatures got into the 70’s and it got hot. Highly recommend this event, will stay on my calendar in the years to come.

Awesome race for my first full marathon and a wonderful cause. This is an extremely well supported race by the people of Oklahoma City and everyone involved deserves high praise. The course is not terribly difficult, the loop at the lake late in the race is a little difficult because there isn’t much support out there, but that’s due to a lack of areas for spectators to stand. The course is sneaky hilly in the second half but the elevation changes help make the course more interesting.