FAbian Zavala's Staging Area

The city is beautiful. The beach, the houses, the ladies, the weather all beautiful. The run has a stretch along Pacific Coast Highway that allows you to see the beach and watch the waves coming in and out. The goodie bag and medal are better than most. Not me but others got bonus gift for participating every year(three) so far. The post race festival was much better than other festivals. Interesting shops. Also, complimentary beer… You have more options than other races. The only negative I really had was people not paying attention and in the wrong corral. So startline was a bit of a crowded cluster. So many half marathoners in with 5k runners corral which was perpendicular to where they should of been. So this complaint goes more on runners because they didn’t listen to announcements. Getting bumped by people rushing to get to correct area after start of half marathon and they finally realized what was going on. Great race, considering next years

The 7am start puts you in a must layer situation. Not enough portable pottys at start line. Bus to startline was over half hour late with little communication from CIM coordinator on site. With the bad out the way. The hills were subtle with mostly downhill throughout run. Good turn out from the community supporting the runners, with exception from drivers not expecting road closures. Recommend shades. I live in Sacramento and drive on a good portion of the course so I wouldn’t consider it a scenic course. The finish line area was real good. Excellent cup of soup at the end..yummm.

The obstscles are challenging but easier than a Spartan course. The course is fairly flat in between obstscles. The obstacles are also nicely condensed into 3 miles. Fun vendors. Fun environment.

The course was very well marked. Much better than some other trail runs I’ve done. I will definitely look into doing more runs by coastal trail runs. The course was good width. I did the four miles and the course length was very accurate. The 4 miler is a back and forth so it’s a mirror as far as uphill and down hill. It’s two miles uphill and then two miles down hill. The turn around reminded me of the superman ride at magic mountain. Nice post race area wit snacks.

As stated it is always great running in San Diego. Weather seems to always be just right. The bands throughout course are greAt each year. Some challenging uphills but balanced out by some real downhill speed.

I think taking place the day before a big half marathon keeps the head count down. My run had a total of about 70 participants. The trail was well marked. The check in process was fast and easy. The post run snacks and food are nice. Chili or soup is available. One stretch you are running through a parking lot but eventually do veer back onto a trail. Fun, friendly environment. Course not completely closed so you will encounter recreational hikers, runners and bikers

Great bands along with other course entertainment. In addition to the bands hired, you will also have people who independently set up their instruments and play or set up their stereos outside. The energy from neighborhoods embracing the run and coming out to their front yards make this run super fun. Although there is a few tougher up hills, you can PR on this course if you have trained and prepared. There is downhill that has you moving faster than you might be comfortable with. I found myself trying to slow down. Better expo and post race area then others I’ve experienced. Weather felt just right that day.

The course only had one major uphill… Maybe two. But that’s countered balance with the down hills on the course. Very nice views. A few narrow areas that had me bump into others. The fact the race is done in May is great, felt sun but wasn’t unbearable. Saw a couple wine stations on course, I didn’t partake. Race ending in Solvang makes this a cool destination race. We opted to drive half an hour to the beach in Santa Barbara after catching breath and doing a quick lap through post race festival. Gear check pick up was a huge cluster you know what. I could complain for many lines about gear check but will leave it at that. Three days after run my hamstrings and quads were still remembering the inclines.

Quality jacket and unique runner swag. The course was shortened(5.9miles)for safety reasons. It was quiet windy and rainy before and after. During my actual run the weather was not too bad. The light rain felt good. A huge tree branch did fall on the course. Might be because the weather but the organization was pretty messy on race day. Prepaid for shuttle but no one even checked our tickets. Finding starting line,as well as other things, was a task. Race even began early.

Trail run with three distance options. 250 runner limit. Entire trail was wide enough for passing except maybe one or two 10 foot stretches. Nice perks like post race massage, candy and snacks, shoe loan by saloman, nice shirt, woodalion that looks cooler in person than it did in pictures. Great efforts from orgainzation to make sure people knew details and logistics about race weeks leading into run and race morning. Another fun aspect that is different at this run was the scavenger hunt for prizes. Which leads me to a con: the staggered start times mean that if you run the 10k or 5k you won’t have an opportunity at being the first to come across the prize. The course markings were mostly clear but was a few areas where it can get a person confused, especially since there was a stretch when runners from different distances Are on same trail running at each other. The finish are had picnic benches which was nice. I plan to do again.

I used it as training for a half marathon. It is a small race so the course is not crowded. Not much as far as swag but I did give them a higher rating for being different and giving out durable duffle bags. The post race felt very friendly and welcoming. Overall a very good community run.

It isn’t as supported as the half n full marathon distances but this was the first year. The bands were high school bands and cheer squads. The course was easy and no noteworthy inclines. I did it to test out my leg. San Diego weather is beautiful so i think that makes the scenery seem more aopealing than it really is. I recommend people do as a warm up run. The medals in my opinion are nicer for 5k(especially 2017) .

The course was much hillier than I expected. I went in with a leg and ankle injury so it was an uncomfortable run. The vendors were awrsome at post race. Course was pretty much all houses so not much to view. Good cause behind the run.

Did not like that the 10k course is just re running the 5k. I gues i am just not a fan of loops. The cool perk would be the free zoo admission which is right next to the park the race took place at. Another unique aspect was the costume contest. A very frustrating thing was getting my race results. Took over two months because of a clerical error they made. The reps even suggested that perhaps I had ran a different race. Do not plan to participate in this run again.

It’s at Cal Expo so it’s nice and flat. All the obstacles are fairly easy enough for a child to do. The only difficult one would be the leaping from ball to ball like they have on the show wipeout. Although it’s quite easy, I saw lots of injuries. Mainly ankle and knee injuries from peoplepnot putting their feet up when coming down a slide. They did a good job of controlling the waves being released with enough time in between so the course was never congested. It was my daughter’s obstacle course. She was so excited and determined to get medal at the end of course.

The participants are extremely friendly and the event was fairly small which I mention as a positive. There were some killer up hills that had my quads burning. The course could use a few better markings, especially an abrupt u turn at mile 8. I as well as others kept going which added distance to our run. The majority of the course was scenic and on actual trail except a portion near the end that had us go through parking lot before returning back to trail terraian. I would do again.

This course had hills and awesome elements( rain, wind, hail) which added to the experience greatly. I had done three Spartans previously but this one felt like a true gritty mud run. Having my best friend and girl friend there made it the ultimate for me. Also, finally got to do the fire jump. For one reason or another each spartan had not had fire at the end. One thing that sucked was lack of photographers because of the weather. Even the post race photo tent had closed up and left. The weather was crazy bad but that made it great.

The run was flat and fast. Since they offer tacos and burritos as a post race food, it takes place later than most runs which also means the sun might be beating down on you during run. Food was real good across the board…Quality bagels and such. You also get a beer mug to go with drink ticket. The lack of response from customer service when I had an issue With getting wrong shirt is what turned me and my friends off from registering for future cinco ks from them. Just replying and apologizing would of sufficed.

As a Sacramento resident, I liked saving money on travel and hotel but venue is a cattle ranch so expect cow poop. The obstacles are up to par and make a great challenge. Having doing tahoe beast a month earlier helped make this one seem easier. Most disgusting obstacle ever… Walking through some Grey sludge then seeing live and dead tadpoles all around. Over all not much to look at and should not be a destination race.

It was like doing a work out. There were ball slams, box jumps and push ups in the locker room as obstacles. There were traditional obstacles you affiliate with Spartan like the spear throw, rope climb, and sand bag carry. How ever this is clean and dry course. You will not be carrying wet logs, or crawling in the mud under barb wire or jumping over fire. It is a good challenge. During the certain area where you are running through aisles and up and down the stadium stairs there is going to be some bottle necking or people getting piled up because they caught up to a slower runner. It was my first Spartan and very fun.

Great fundraising cause. Very crowded beginning, so not able to really get your stride pace. Nice course. Fun atmosphere. Festival was okay. Shirt was pretty ugly.