ERIC STRENNEN's Staging Area

Point to point race with 900 marathon athletes. Pre-race start was nicely organized. Easy parking at the race finish and buses ready to take us to the start. There was a gym arena at the start where runners could congregate, stay warm (with bathrooms) and prep for the race. First 10 miles are a series of country roads zigzagging back and forth. There are rollers through most of it. Then about 2-3 miles of flat straight road that goes into residential area. This transitions into a big, downhill expressway that is closed off for the runners. It’s kind of cool, but a little odd because there’s not many runners on a 3-4 lane highway that is completely empty. Remember to run the tangents on the expressway, which goes for about 4 miles. Then there’s trails that take you over to the lake front path and you do an out and back on this to finish the race. The finish is a little odd. You run past the finish area tents and then do a sharp turn to go back about 100 meters to the finish line. Nice runners tent at the end with food and recovery. Only runners allowed in this tent. Overall, a good race course and well run, but not the fastest course I’ve run. The rollers in the country are a little more challenging than they appear. You can gain time on the downhill section, but can’t go too fast else you’ll trash your quads. Good water station crews, but not a lot of spectators. About 20% of my age group BQ’d (I was one of them).