K Ball's Staging Area

Course is about 50% shaded and very flat which made it a fast course despite a high today in the 80s. Aid stations were not were the website listed them to be which messed up my fueling a bit since I do gels ahead of aid stations so I can follow with water from the aid station. For example, there was supposed to be an aid station at 2.25 and then not again until 5.5, but the 2.25 wasn’t there and there was one at ~3.25 – which is a preferred spot for me but just not what I was expecting or planned for based on the race website. Also, mile markers were very off throughout the race. For example, my watch said 12.85 when I got to the 13 mile marker, but then watch said 13.35 at the finish – so the mile marker was .5 from the finish instead of .1 from the finish. At the finish line the two guys who finished after me said immediately after finishing “what was with that mile 13 marker – it was so off – was that to rage bait all the half runners??”. Bottom line, be flexible on this run and trust your watch GPS more than the mile markers – and you will have a fast run!

53yo F; I ran a post age 45 PR. (Yes I look at my 30+ years of running in pre and post age 45 eras!) Relatively flat course, partly gravel/packed dirt fire road, but mostly on a paved bike trail. It’s a small enough race that there was no congestion on the bike trail. Approx 500 runners across all races (5k, 10k and half marathon); <100 in the half. Great race support (option to prepay parking to minimize car lines into the park, minimal bathroom lines at the start, frequent aid stations, volunteers giving clear route instructions)… until the end. I finished right in the middle of the half marathon pack, but I think some of the volunteers at the end of the race thought they were done once all the 10k and 5k runners came through. The volunteer that should have been stationed at ~11.8 miles telling runners to turn off the main path to get to the finish wasn’t there, causing at least the group of runners in front of me to miss the turn. I stopped running here – confused because I had studied the course map and thought that was the turn but the runners ahead of me didn’t turn. Once the two runners behind me caught up to me, we discussed and decided to take the turn (which was correct). This cost me about 40 seconds on a PR attempt which was a bummer, but even a bigger bummer for the people that missed the turn! The last water stop (mile 12) was taken down when I got there. They also had ran out of finish line water and snacks by the time I finished. There were pacers on the course including 3 pacers with goal finish times after my finishing time (2:20, 2:30 & 2:45) so I would have expected race support to still be up at the time I came through. The beer tent was hopping at the finish line. I didn’t join in but people were smiling and laughing. Overall great race for a 1st time event – they just need to train their volunteers to stay on the course until at least the last pacing group in the half marathon comes through and maybe keep finish line refreshments separate for the half marathoners so the 5k and 10k runners don’t eat and drink everything. Luckily I had a water bottle in my car for my drive home!