Lori Perez's Staging Area

Richmond race series has been dubbed America’s Friendliest race and it lives up to the hype.

This race has it all: great swag (blanket & hat), beautiful fall foliage, friendly volunteers, and the best downhill finish. Do you want a PR? This finish could help you achieve your goals.

The coaches from MTT are fantastic on the course, cheering every runner even if you didn’t participate in MTT.

After coming off an injury this is my 1st half of the year so I’m not sure if my excitement is driven by my completion or the race itself (obviously, the race). There have been very few races I’ve wanted to return to and this one is high on the list of returns.

Course: The course was beautiful and for the most part downhill. The first 3 miles are rolling hills in an upward trajectory then after leaving the Crazy Horse Memorial you start the gentle downhill portion. The course is mostly on the Michelson Trail which is 95% finely crushed gravel with a couple places where water created ruts and exposed larger rocks. Nothing technical about this trail and very easy to navigate. The course was absolutely beautiful to see. The Aspens were bright yellow lining the scenery and seeing the Crazy Horse memorial along the way was amazing.

Volunteers: Volunteers were plentiful, supportive, and happy to be out supporting the racers.

Fuel: The race provided fueling stations about every two miles. Each station had water, powerade, bananas, oranges, pretzels, and a couple had m&ms. They had plenty of supplies and enough volunteers to hand items to the runners. Post race fuel was the normal, bananas, bagels, pretzels, chocolate milk, and water. They did have watermelon and oranges, which were great additions.

Swag: The swag consisted of a t-shirt (there was an option to purchase a tech shirt), sling bag (to be used as your gear drop bag), and medal. I’m not sure what happened but all who registered did not get a shirt, no matter when you registered (I registered a long time ago). Not sure if they gave away shirts to late registrants or if they had a shirt ordering problem, it was never made very clear. With that said I cannot officially mention anything about the t-shirt as I was one who did not get one. I was told they would order more and mail one to me. I was allowed to try other sizes that they did have on hand but the size I needed, in all versions, was out. I feel another great option would have been to give us a tech shirt or slash the price to prevent from ordering new shirts and then paying to mail them. Will update this when I receive the shirt. The medal was a clay medal with rawhide string, unique and quality construction. If you were speedy enough to win a category they had unique, Native American themed awards. *Update: I realize I never updated this review that I did indeed receive my shirt in the mail several weeks after the event.

Bonus items: Pasta dinner was held at the restaurant on the grounds of the Crazy Horse Memorial. The dinner ticket was $20 for an all you can eat pasta buffet, with salad, breadsticks, meatballs, chicken, red and white pasta sauces, green beans, cookies, blueberry cheesecake, another dessert, and drink. For someone who does not eat a lot, I felt $20 was a lot but it was nice to eat and talk about the race with other runners from around the country. When you enter the Memorial site you get a ticket to the museum as part of the race. I recommend paying the $4 to take the bus to the highest point allowable of the Monument.

The host hotel has wi-fi but unless you have At&t, you will not have cell service. The hotel’s phone was not answered when people called from outside due to no cell service. If you need to be contacted, I would not recommend this place to stay, if you have no issues being off the grid, it’s perfect. The hotel staff was very considerate of the runners and extended the normal checkout time if you requested.

Shuttles ran exactly as specified. They ran from 10:30-3:00 to three locations.

I know this is long but one other thing to keep in mind. Many businesses in the area are closed for the season when the race occurs. Google maps doesn’t do a great job of specifying that so be aware, the things you want to see may or may not be open.

Amazing course support coupled with great race organization. The race isn’t the friendliest race for nothing.
Race organizers will keep you informed adequately prior to the race. A blanket and hat consisted of swag for 2018. The blanket is nice afterwards when it is usually a little chilly.
There is a significant downhill finish to be prepared for and is a lot of fun. It helps many with their BQ aspirations.
Come run it, you won’t be disappointed.

I completely understand we cannot control the weather however the layout of the course is dependent on decent weather. This weekend was cold and extremely windy. The wind is what made the race more difficult than it should have been. This is a flat and non-technical course, it should have been a piece of cake with only one overpass of a hill to go up. There were long stretches of the course that were head on into the wind to the point of feeling like you were not going anywhere. Seriously, I know that is out of the race production’s control but I do believe it is something people should be prepared for.

Race production was great. Communicated frequently yet not too much, had a nice medal, shirt and towel as swag. The towel is good quality, which I was impressed by. I heard many people talking about the women’s shirts from last year and how they made all of them unisex this year due to the trouble with the women’s fit. To me, that is a production team that listens to its runners and takes action.

Course was nice. The half did have a section of industrial construction that was a little less than desirable to look at while running but for the most part the course was very scenic. Water, gatorade and gu were exactly where they stated they would be.

For all you beer drinkers, you get TWO drink tickets and different options to choose from. The shrimp & grits were delicious and a nice treat after a cold, windy race!

Shuttle from the finish area to the start worked as expected and ran on schedule.

Overall, I highly recommend this race, just wished it lived up to the sunny and warm races of years past.

This is a home town race for me so no travelling but I hear the hotels downtown really cater to the runners. They even let the runners not staying there hang out in the lobbies prior to race start. Which is awesome because that weekend can be pretty cold.

Plenty of water stops with tons of volunteers. Junk food, coke stops and bands along the route as well. Views along the course are good; city views and river views. Love it.

SportsBackers does a bus tour of the course, which is nice, especially for out of towners.

SportsBackers uses corrals to start to keep the race from being too congested. The amount of time between is perfect. You never feel claustrophobic or overcrowded. Bathrooms along the course are my only negative, if you really want to call it a negative. There are portapotties and within plenty of spaces. There just did not seem to be enough at each stop. About half a mile in there is a row of like 20 portapotties & you think “Wow, this is a great sign!” So my message to you, if you have to go then go and hope you won’t need to the remaining 25+ miles because the rest of the stops don’t have anywhere near that many. Lines were long, too.

The swag: the swag is pretty high up there on the “you will actually use these items” list. If you run the half or full you get a fleece blanket and medal. This year due to the 40th anniversary, you got a nice red aluminum cup. Also one randomly selected marathon medal had a real ruby. Sadly, it wasn’t me.

Last thing that I love about this race is the PR Bell & Boston qualifying prize. They have a bell set up that you can ring if your run was a PR. Also, if you qualify for Boston (they verify times) and you receive a prize of some sort. [can’t tell you what it is because I am not fast enough.]

Highly recommend this event!

This race was difficult in the fact that the scenery you expect to see while running in Hawaii was not there. Never went by the water and spent about half of the race running through the lava fields. Outside of that it was great. Volunteers were plenty and supplied enough water and Gatorade throughout. (This was my concern going in based on other reviews. It appears the race leadership has addressed that issue.) The only real thing I did not like was where the 5k & quarter marathon turned around onto the half marathon and marathon course. That was very chaotic and with lots of people walking and not looking out for the incoming runners.

The shirt was a wicking race shirt they had women’s and men’s options. They did allow you to switch your shirt at the race if it didn’t fit or you didn’t like a v-neck, etc at the finisher’s area. Shirts ran a little large.

I think this group put on a great race. For me, it was more about running in Hawaii and I wasn’t disappointed except that I never saw the water during my run. The Race Director is great, she makes the race one to remember. I had a question that I submitted to the general email and the race director called me and discussed it. In conversation she inquired as to why I would go all that way to run in Hawaii. I explained my goal of a 1/2 or greater in all 50 states + DC. She told me to notify her in May how many I would have when I finished Hawaii so I did and she told me to find her at the finish. For all runners doing the 50 state challenges (If she knew about it) she had your bib done to signify the number of your half or full (ie #37 for 37th full or #1037 for 37th half), on the towel that they list all runners names they put “Congratulations 37 + my name) and finally she had painted tiles made with an engraved plaque with the race name and the numbered state you had completed. All above what I ever expected in the swag area.

If you find yourself running in Hawaii look this race up and check them out. They also offer a discount sometime in December for $15 off the entrance fee. Just keep an eye out for it during the first tier of pricing.

This event was cancelled due to an ice storm. Everyone looking at the conditions should have known the race was going to be cancelled yet there were many complaints about how late they waited. They allowed runners to still have their swag and some even picked up their medals. (why I’m not sure, they didn’t run the race.) Anyway, the discount for 2018 I do not feel was enough as I’m sure they will be able to recoup most, if not all, of their loss through insurance claims. I feel they did a lot to accommodate for the cancellation however as a runner who had to travel and will not be able to recoup the money spent on airfare, hotel and rental car only giving a 25% reduction in next year’s entry fee was not enough. All of the people I had to deal with at the event to help stranded friends were all very helpful! Rock ‘n Roll stepping up to offer free races was nice but doesn’t help if you still have to travel at the last minute. Please don’t see this as a negative review because I will most likely sign up for this again next year, I just don’t think the end product was a great solution for all traveling runners.

Great race atmosphere! A lot of the race was on the bike/pedestrian paths. Volunteers at aid stations were aplenty and very nice. Loved coming around the corner and seeing the hot air balloons! The course wan’t really difficult if you are from the area but if you’re coming from low altitude that is where the difficulty lies. If you absolutely need the spectators participation there is a pretty decent stretch without spectators. (Local friends told me that was unusual, typically more spectators on that long stretch) Parking was not the best situation. We were still trying to get into the parking garage when the race started after sitting for more than an hour. However, I would definitely do it again!

This event has top notch communication before during and after. Beautiful scenic course! Fireworks at the beginning made the early bus times well worth it.