Gwen Westerling's Staging Area

I picked this race for NC because I saw the medal and t-shirt online and fell in love. And the medal did NOT disappoint! It’s the biggest one I have, and this is 1/2 marathon #15/50.
The race PRODUCTION for this race was great. Great communication from the race team. Very well organized and the volunteers were wonderful. I appreciated them very much. There was plenty of water stations along the course. Could have used a few more porta-potties at the start/finish.
Very small EXPO with just a few vendors so if you forgot anything you could grab nutrition. Great SWAG if you wanted extra to remember the race. AFTER-PARTY had beer, BBQ and music. Not huge, not small. They did start packing up very quickly which was surprising. People were still finishing, and they were taking down fences and the tables. Ran out of bananas and did not have much water.
The COURSE left me a little disappointed. Since it was along the ocean, I hoped to see more, well, ocean. But I only caught maybe 2 glimpses of the ocean because the area is so built up with homes/condos. The neighborhoods were nice, and the homes were beautiful, but I did miss the ocean. Mostly flat with 2 hills over the bridge. There is very little to do in OCEAN ISLE beach, but Myrtle Beach is about 45 minutes away and there is tons to do there if you are going to stay for the weekend.
Overall, I was happy with the experience and def. love my medal! Would recommend this race.

I ran the 1/2 marathon with a group of friends who traveled from Michigan. We loved the race and loved Pittsburgh.
COMMUNICATION from the race team was hands down the best of any race I’ve ever run. They even have a really great app containing TONS of info.
EXPO was HUGE with lots of vendors with free swag and opportunities to purchase anything you forgot. Lots of energy, cool photo ops and people to meet.
COURSE was fairly challenging with some decent hills but nothing that stopped me in my tracks. Be sure to hill train. Saw interesting parts of Pittsburgh. Crowd support was great and there were many impromptu aid stations with people offering beer, licorice, gummy worms and even Jello shots. I loved all the support.
AFTER PARY was lots of fun with good energy and more booths set up for last chance swag and race merch. There wasn’t much free food for runners but there were food trucks where you could purchase food. No free beer at all which was a bummer. The beer tent was kind of away from everything else, but they had a great DJ who was rocking the tunes. Must bring ID or they won’t let you in.
OVERALL, a great race I would highly recommend. Don’t miss the “Steel Challenge” where you do the 5K and the 1/2 or full marathon and get a challenge medal for completing both.

This was a nice race. COMMUNICATION from the race team was good. The theme this year was dinosaurs, which I wasn’t crazy about, but the production team did a nice job setting the theme for the expo, a water stop and the after party.
The MEDAL was very nice (though again, dinosaurs).
The COURSE was hillier than I expected from the elevation map but wasn’t too challenging. I was surprised at how few water stops there were. There was one really big one that was decorated with the theme that was a lot of fun. There were also unofficial stops that had beer and mimosas which I thought was pretty cool. I was really glad I brought my own water.
The WEATHER was absolutely perfect. It was upper 50s, cloudy, and a super light drizzle. Pre-race and after race are in the convention center which I’ve never had at a race before but liked it. Plenty of port-a-johns pre, after and during. It was nice to use a real bathroom in the convention center.
The EXPO was good sized and had merch that you could buy if you forgot anything.
AFTER PARTY was ok. They gave water away in a re-usable water bottle which I thought was nice. They had a plastic bag you could grab with a banana, and had a bunch of drinks you could grab. Pasta was the food they gave away. They did have beer you could grab in the food line but no “beer tent” where you or family could buy more. Overall a nice race. We really liked Little Rock too. It was a nice clean city, and everyone was super friendly.

I did enjoy this race and I especially enjoyed Des Moine. Des Moine is a great town with lots of bars and restaurants to enjoy. The city was very clean, and the river added a beautiful background. We were able to find a VRBO about a 1/2 mile from the start which is always a goal for me when I travel to races. The expo was pretty small with minimal things available for purchase. It was outside so just be prepared for that with the right clothing. The race started almost 15 minutes late which was annoying because they didn’t corral the runners, and everyone was crammed very tightly together. Once we started people thinned out within about 0.5 miles. I really enjoyed the course which spent a lot of time by the river and on paved trails. I was disappointed we didn’t go by the capital building. Lots of crowd support cheering the entire time which was encouraging. After party had a band and some snacks. The snacks were not at the finish line you had to go into the afterparty area to find them which I found odd. Gear check was easy. Overall, I had a great time and thought it was a nice race.

This race was just ok. The expo was something different with the outdoor expo instead of just running stuff. I enjoyed that bc it was different. There were lots of vendors and people were super friendly. Having the race be point to point was kind of a pain. Plenty of parking in forest park but parking downtown after for my family was a pain and then we were stuck with all the roads being closed and it took forever to get out. The course itself was just ok. Lots of cool buildings to look at but the roads were in rough shape with lots of potholes and old bricks which are ankle breakers so I spent most of the time looking down so I wouldn’t fall. Bought myself a sore neck. Quite a lot of hills. Most of them were rolling and not horrible but there were a few big ones. My hill training wasn’t up to par I guess so I ended up walking a bit. The medal was beautiful and I loved St. Louis. Definitely spend some time at the Arch if you have time.

This was a great race! It was well organized, and the volunteers were great. The scenery was amazing, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to seals bark when I was waiting at the start. The start and finish lines were close (within walking distance) to many local hotels. The city of Monterey was fun to explore, and the restaurants had excellent food with great service. The afterparty was decent and there was a medium sized expo with some sponsors. It was very cold so make sure you bring enough warm clothes. They don’t heat the buildings. The last night we ate out, our server was wearing a winter coat. My only disappointment was the medal. I absolutely hated it as did the 3 people I traveled with. I was very bummed to travel so far, and work hard and then get such a terrible medal.

I absolutely loved this race and would qualify it as my favorite race ever. It was a challenging course definitely because of the hills. But the expo was amazing, and the atmosphere was also amazing. Lots and lots of spectators cheering everyone on and the after-race party was tons of fun. If I was able, I would do this race every year for sure. It was well organized and well run. Cincinatti was also a blast and be sure to ride the electric scooters around to explore the town.