Emily Karrick's Staging Area

Ran this race for the first time today. First race I’ve done alone. Pig works does an awesome job with race coordination. I love them. Explained parking online and it was easy and straightforward. Close to race start. The start line was well organized. The course had water stations roughly every mile. The hills are early. You go up Gilbert immediately. Sunrise over Eden park lookout was beautiful. Less of a crowd than the pig but still a lot of people spectating. I enjoyed running thru the city, it was pretty. The after party was nice. You get a special medal if you did the flying pig and queen bee which was nice. Loved all the women running, cool energy to be around. I still wish the race shirt was dry fit and not cotton but whatev. I’m not sure what the expo said because I was at work. Filed out authorization form for my dad to get it for me. He said it was nice. I like the tote they gave and that it had candy and face moisturizer in there. With spf too how nice. The only thing I am begging for is chocolate milk at the end. That would be so amazing. Please please please choccy milk after a race. Mic ultra sponsored after party so if you like that you can get it. I don’t drink so nothing would’ve brought me more joy than having a chocolate milk as a treat. The medals are really cute too. Overall 10/10 race. Not too expensive to register either. I highly recommend if you are in the area and a woman to do this. There’s something magical about a bunch of woman gathered together. Also traveling to cinci if you don’t live here wouldn’t be a bad idea either. There’s lots of things to do here to make a race weekend out of. I would run this race again.

This was my first time racing since 2015. So I was incredibly nervous. I had ran 9 and 9.5 miles twice up to this point. This year the race was delayed an hour due to rain. Maybe there was lighting. The rain did let up but then absolutely dumped on us waiting at the start. There’s no corrals, everyone just lines up. But idk I didn’t really care about that too much. A lot of runners but in my opinion not too much to where it’s overstimulating to be around. First mile was tight but it opens up. Rain stopped maybe around mile 2 and didn’t start again till mile 7 ish I believe. I was soaked so that sucked but whatever. I personally enjoy the scenery. I like Columbia parkway. It was cool to run on it instead of driving and being frightened the whole time because it’s a horrible road to drive on. So I thought running on it was quite nice. The river is right next to you so idk what people mean by no scenery. River is right there. I thought it was pretty. I also don’t mind the out and back. It looks different on the way back! Torrence hill is a lot but I’d been preparing for it with hill reps and long runs on a hilly course. So to me personally it actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I was anticipating. Lot more of a crowd here. The crowd wasn’t too heavy I wonder due to the cold and rainy weather we experienced. Coming down Torrence you can really fly. There’s a few more inclines on the way back. I didn’t really notice them going out but coming back I could feel it more. I liked how the water stations were mini bottles instead of the paper cups. Easier to drink from while running and you can hold onto it longer. I struggle with the paper cups (spilling it on myself or ummm choking?!) the t shirts they give you are not too exciting but it’s a comfy sleep shirt. Also not a big after party but this year it was pouring again by the finish so I was frigid and just got a quick picture and fled to warm car and towels. The cause is nice too. This was my tune up race for the flying pig. It was really nice because I PRed and it gave me confidence for flying pig half. I’m not sure what the half course is like beyond the split since I did 15k. I’ve heard the weather is kind of notoriously bad so that sucks. I probably would run this again. The course is a nice prep for the pig imo. The hills. I run on a hilly route all the time so to me my normal route at home is more challenging than this. I seriously think if you do all types of runs on rolling hills it makes these courses manageable. Race medal was cutie. I would in fact recommend this race. Running the pig for the first time after this gave me perspective on what a REALLY well organized race looks like and I did look back on this one differently. But I would not say it was poorly organized by any means