Ian Spafford's Staging Area

Great flat course, the weather was COLD (perfect for me, less so for people who do better in warm weather), solid course through Lincoln and coming back into downtown for the end, great finish line party, good race expo and swag (and really cheap race shirts at the expo, I actually bought a couple extra ones since they had really nice DriFit long sleeves for $5-10), well-run race, minimal hills (also note that it starts at a HS so you get to stay inside after getting bussed over to there, and mostly avoid standing around in the freezing cold).

Just a well-put-on race. The outdoor bib pickup and vendor area was great, friendly people, and a fairly flat course (note that there are a couple smaller hills towards the start of the race, but nothing horrible. Nice start and finish in downtown. Perfect running weather. Cool finish line/afterparty area. Just a really well-conducted race.

The race is at just over a mile of elevation, but compared to other elevation races I didn’t feel it as much here (thrilled/shocked I stayed under 2 hours despite the elevation).

This is one of the coolest races I’ve done, and seeing hundreds of hot air balloons ascending mid-race was incredible (it’s the only half marathon where I’ve actually stopped mid-race and gone to the shoulder of the road to take a video/photo).

Not too hilly, the difficulty just comes from the elevation.

Bib pickup at Dick’s Sporting Goods was fine (I think it was a bit slower for 5k/10k people but not bad at all), and it was great they give you a 20% off coupon for anything you want to buy there.

Book early, as hotels sell out fast for the balloon festival. Also Ubers can be a bit tough, since there’s so many people going to the balloon festival, but a lot of the uber drivers would rather go to the race start line than the balloon fiesta, so that was helpful.

The big downhill was great for having a fast time, it’s still worth noting that the race is at elevation, and flattens out the last couple miles, so those temper the impact from the downhill, but regardless, this is a fast race. Well-produced and cool afterparty, but go to bag check soon after finishing, as that line eventually got huge. Also be prepared to waddle after this one, as the downhill will do a number on your legs (I was more sore than after just about any other race I’ve done, even though I did fairly well compared to other recent races).

Really cool race, well-run, I’m not sure if the packet pickup was intentionally timed to coincide with the town’s blueberry festival, but it was really cool that it did. Lots of the race is along Lake Superior, which was really cool. One decent uphill and a massive downhill made the course not completely flat, but what did me in was the humidity.

Really cool town to run a race in, and everything is fairly walkable in downtown, the one thing I’d call out for anyone doing this race is THERE ARE ESSENTIALLY NO UBERS/LYFTS FROM THE AIRPORT TO MARQUETTE. The Checkered Cab company is solid, but you have to call to get them to come pick you up, and there won’t be rental cars available at the airport if you don’t call to reserve one in advance. Not a knock on the race, but just something to be aware of for anyone coming in to Marquette to do this race.

Race had amazing views all the way through and was well-run.

Note that the 6,200 feet of elevation makes any injuries hurt worse (less oxygen to the tissues I guess?), so not a great race to run coming off of injury (oops!), but the views were beyond amazing.

A couple other things to keep in mind, you’ve gotta bring your own water bottle (they give away Nathan cups at the race expo, but honestly having a carried water bottle was a huge lifesaver), and although they have a lot of busses and are good about bussing, you still want to get there early enough to make sure you get on a bus. Also, they actually do a good job of keeping it fun at the race start line while people are getting bussed in, having the race announcer do a raffle (brilliant idea).

Great medal, awesome views (from a golf course) at the finish line, the swag wasn’t anything crazy (cool technical shirt), but I feel like it’s a very sustainability-focused race, so that honestly made sense not to give away a ton of stuff people either won’t use or will throw out.

Well-produced small town race.

As someone coming from out-of-state, I had no idea what to expect, but basically Bucyrus is a small town just outside Overland Park, which is a reallly nice suburb of Kansas City–you’re essentially running through roads by farmland/fields, and the rolling hills are pretty much 100-150 feet of elevation climb/drop each mile. Also note it’s decently sunny (I think it was around 60 degrees for most of the race).

The race bib pickup was at a sporting goods store in Overland Park, small and nothing fancy but well-coordinated.

Really cool medal, and the race t-shirt had a cool design.

Super-friendly people, and tons of homemade food that people bring for post-race. Loved the vibes here!

Decently flat race course, with nice views of historical Louisville brownstones and a run past the Louisville Slugger Museum/Factory and the giant baseball bat outside, really cool entrance to Churchill Downs, where they have you go through a tunnel to go under the track and get to the infield, loop around the infield (on a paved track; they don’t actually let you run on the horse track, unsurprisingly), and exit through a different tunnel, then eventually finish by the Ohio River.

It’s a great course and well-produced race, the two things I found to be fairly lame were the SPONSORED CONTENT THAT OVERTAKES YOUR MUSIC IF YOU USE THE RACEJOY APP (they haven’t had this for other races that used RaceJoy, and a massive fuck you to Norton Health for running an add like that to a captive audience of runners), as well as the overall results not being posted until the next day despite the use of the RaceJoy app and chips in the bibs (I could see how I did, but not relative to the rest of the field),

Really well-produced race. First 4ish miles went through downtown Philly (Center City) and the start along Benjamin Franklin Pkwy was really cool (flags from all the different countries on either side of the street), solid next 8ish miles through the park, amazing finish with great cheering crowds, ending right at the Rocky steps (and the Philly Art Museum behind it). Clean course (which is really saying something in Philly), well-produced race, solid race expo, the medal was a bit plain, the shirt was solid, and they gave out a cool race mug (which I cracked about 10 seconds after getting it from dropping my bag).

This was a cool course. Although Atlanta wasn’t one of my top cities I’ve run in, they go through some cool parts of the city, from downtown to around the Georgia Tech campus. The race expo didn’t have many vendors (I think there was 1 vendor there with race gels, and nothing else), but was well-run. Rolling hills for pretty much the entire course.

The course was fine but nothing amazing, there wasn’t a ton to see in San Antonio so it basically just goes around the city, nothing too remarkable, but solid race, well-organized, a bit chilly with the early morning start. Some small hills but nothing too terrible.

Solid race, well-produced, nice course largely through more suburban areas but starting and ending downtown, great crowd turnout, and my favorite race tshirt I’ve ever bought (the free one was fine but the ones they sell with a crab in a race bib are great). Some hills, nothing too awful, really nice race.

It’s a solid course with good views of the Charles River along the Esplanade, as well as a cool run down Newbury St, with moderate hills, but high humidity given the time of year in Boston.

It was a fun race, basically just up and down the strip at sunset, very well setup. A bit of altitude, plus the fact that I’d recently had covid, made it a harder race for me, but fairly cool course/setup.

The course was great, some small hills but nothing too brutal, amazing ocean views, and a well-produced race. Race morning bib pickup went well and was surprisingly well-coordinated for a race of this size.

The course was fine, expo was fairly typical Rock ‘n’ Roll, some small hills but nothing too brutal, some cool views of the desert, the only annoyance was it was a hassle to get off of the ASU campus after the race to get back to my hotel (it wasn’t clear how to leave the campus), as well as the heavy rain during the race.

Really well-run race, it goes through Honolulu which isn’t necessarily the nicest to look at, but also goes through some incredible spots, and the loop around Diamond Head is amazing (it’s an inactive volcano), but that mile-long uphill fairly late in the race was absolutely brutal. Cool afterparty, well-produced race.

Central Connecticut is boring but the race is cool, goes through downtown Hartford and goes through West Hartford, running near both of West Hartford’s two Whole Foods, which are obviously the most important landmarks in central CT, and going through Elizabeth Park and finishing under the arch in Bushnell Park. Not too hilly, but also not totally flat.

Very solid race that goes around Martha’s Vineyard and goes over the iconic Jaws bridge. Cool sites to see, some hills but nothing too crazy, a small portion of the race was not paved, but generally a well-done (albeit somewhat small town) race.

Great race, relatively flat course, nice views of most of Chicago, really well-produced race. Great water stations and crowds throughout the course.