Nathalie Moreano's Staging Area

This race was a nice small town race and quite the change from big races like the RnR series. This being my first race not being RnR in almost 7 years, it was quite different.

The race starts and ends in the Papillion Landing Campus, which was nice to warm up before the race and cool down afterwards. Plus it offered shelter from the rain. Our race was delayed about 50 minutes due to lightning but once it was gone we ran through some rain, otherwise it was a relatively nice cool day. There aren’t many spectators so if you’re into that then you might not want to pick this race. However if you love a quite peaceful small townsy vibe then this may be perfect for you….if you also like hills. These weren’t gentle at all BUT it was nice running down them.

The medal was a beautiful butterfly, of course, and the tech shirt was so soft and perfect for cooler weather, it was long sleeved and minty green-ish. The swag was a cool mini-backpack that you could probably run with as it wraps around, kinda like over the shoulder? Inside was a fidget spinner, one of those pushing bubbles thingie, a handheld fan that had LED lights, and a small towel.

There were about 130 people running the half marathon, which helps you visualize the crowd. I was able to pick my bib the morning of the race which was pretty cool and they did send an email ahead of time to confirm any additional details. Their website provided pretty much all the information and the town is beautiful. Butterfly benches everywhere!

Took a couple of years to get this race going but it finally happened. Best parts of the race:
– the weather was wonderful
– the race was mostly flat, but there were some surprise inclines (bridges)
– it was ridiculously beautiful
– I met all three of my goals to finish the race, beat a previous race time and beat three previous race times

Not so cool parts:
– the expo was outside and it was stupid hot
– what swag? RnR races expos have been lackin more and more each year
– the volunteers struggled to provide water at times
– some parts of the running required jumping up/onto the sidewalks and too much potential for injury
– took forever for the race to start

Ultimately, happy to have participated in this race, because I was due to knock Florida out, but also happy that this will be my last RnR race. Ready to venture out to other venues!

This year they changed the race from Seattle to Bellevue. Not too big a deal because I can still sightsee in Seattle, but I usually like walking to everything nearby. It’s okay, I was still able to walk to both the Expo and the Start/Finish Line, so overall distance was okay.

The expo was kinda disorganized. I don’t understand why we waited in line to get in to then have to wait because everyone had to sign-in on an app to show their bib numbers. That part was a little frustrating. If they would have notified everyone ahead of time then it would have been fine, but I had no wifi in the area so I literally had to walk out and get back into line to come back in. Same as the Savannah expo, not many vendors, just a few more. They had the cool walk through-lit tunnel advertising Las Vegas, which I signed up for and the medal concept art. No major swag, didn’t buy much, it was nice to go to the expo, but each year seems to be getting worse.

Race morning the portapotties were a little out of the way, and if I remember correctly both the start and finish were on inclines! Not much scenery but there were some sasquatch on the course which was funny and obviously seeing barefoot Elvis is a plus, but that’s pretty much it. The spectators were wonderful and despite it not being too scenic or iconic, it was still a nice course with lots and lots of hills lol. I’d say they killed me but I somehow finished the race, praise God!

This race is also discontinued, I believe, but if they had brought it back to Seattle I’m sure it would have been even more memorable.

I was still Active Duty Air Force when I ran this race and had decided if I was going to run at least one full marathon, that it would be the Air Force Marathon. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

The expo was awesome! It took place in a stadium with lots of merchandise to purchase. Opportunities to take photos in front with the 26.2. The dinner before the race was excellent with guest speakers (I got to meet Retired General Goldfein, squee!) and then time to tour the Air Force museum, where the dinner took place. If you’re Air Force, you’ll love this! I had been here before back in 2006, but it was like experiencing the museum for the first time all over again.

Race morning…it rained a lot. We questioned whether the race would still take place. There weren’t many places to hide from the rain and I got soaked. No more Glide, no more cushion in my shoes, soaked socks, not off to a good start. The only good part so far was bumping into my old supervisor and an old coworker from years ago. Small world!

The race was hot, the race was humid, thank God for the aid station that offered vaseline. I definitely hit the wall, because there came a point where I could walk no longer. I searched for shade, because I just needed to cool down and sit down. Towards the end, I walked the rest of the way and got what I consider a shockingly bad time. I now know that I should just be happy and thankful to have finished. Especially since the weather had become “black flag” and they were considering ending the race early.

Would I run this race again, probably not, but I am thankful for the opportunity to do so and grateful I finished. Now I have a time to beat.

Great expo, lots of swag, a lot of touristy opportunities, eat all the food, the race course was good, but it was humid! There were parts where we ran on the bridges and that was a little unnerving because you could feel slight movement from all the runners. Overall, a memorable race in a wonderful city!

This was my first RnR race, which set the tone for future races. The expo was great with lots of swag, ran the 5K and the Half, the hype is real. The heat was surprising and slowed me down a bit, especially when we ran on the bridge, quite the incline! The energy was contagious and the crowd at the end was awesome!

I might be a little biased, because I trained on most of the course. It was wonderful to run and see parts that I hadn’t been training on. I experienced some areas for the first time, which were challenging, and revisited areas I ran weekly. Because it’s in a small town like Great Falls, I didn’t expect too much. There’s no expo, there was only a couple of tents at the start/finish line with a couple of heaters (it was cold early in the morning), and you get a small medal and shirt, that’s pretty much it. But it was a great first race for me to get back into running again. Thankful for the opportunity!