Jason Kelling's Staging Area

Great modified-T (super top heavy) on the roads through the Bass Pro regional HQ campus. Gorgeous scenery and despite some hills (not that long, not too tall, but enough to feel) managed to PR, because it’s so pretty when it isn’t hot that the lake and waterfall keep you distracted when the changing colors of the leaves doesn’t. There’s only one aid station towards the middle of the T, and you pass it three times on each lap, though the lack of enthusiasm by the aid station volunteers almost made it not worth stopping. There’s a group coming. You can see them half a mile out. Have more than two cups ready to go. I wish there’d been a water point somewhere else even if it was less visited just so I could have had some water without having to stop and wait. I’m not faulting the race for low energy volunteers though, so after tossing that idea around, I’m not going to deduct a point for production. The start/finish line had a multitude of different mini personal pies, bars, bananas and some other stuff. The DJ kept the energy up and the crowd afterwards seemed to all be having a good time. No crowd support on this race once you get past the opening 100m though, since it’s all on the closed down Bass Pro campus, but with the out and backs of each leg of the T being hit twice, there’s plenty of racers cheering on racers.

The shirt was a nice cotton long sleeve, and the medal was a spinner pumpkin pie medal where the slice taken changes how much was eaten as it spins.

This course isn’t used enough so I always jump at the chance to go out there. Somehow despite the hills I managed to secure a PR by a pretty wide margin, so you can too.