Mark Jennings's Staging Area

Average expo. 8am race start, which is nice to sleep in a bit. Pretty easy to find free street parking not to far from the start/finish. Nice flat course, so-so on the scenery. Ideal weather in Oct. Decent food and some live music at the finish. Pretty well organized and run event. No complaints, but nothing really special about this race either. Finishing medal was a little disappointing, but the 1/4 zip pullover was nice. Overall good, but felt kinda plain. But i guess that’s Iowa.

Happy to get much closer to being a actual trail run, than a pavement course. Well run, fun event. But way too many runners/walkers abusing the wave start, and just starting up front in first group with the speedy runners. A little policy enforcement would make these events better, imo.

Tough run in the sun and the sand. Scenic area with tons of other stuff to do within range days before or after running the race. I enjoy a challenging trail run, but the soft sand really made me struggle in this one. My slowest ever finish, in 34 Half Marathons!

Nice event. Vacation races are always scenic and fun with great finisher medals. This was a tough course. Long steady uphill, then mostly downhill to finish. Weather was perfect. A great choice to mark off S. Dakota from my list of states to race in.

Good event overall. Nice medal. Good swag. Less participants than I expected, which made it easier to age group! Lots of water stations. Challenging course with some hills. Light rain really helped with warm weather. Not much at expo, and not much available for hotels in the area. Scenery in coal county area is nice, but towns and people in the area were a little culture shock to me. A depressed area of the country. I did enjoy the race, and post race meal at local resturant. Checked off WV for my 50 states, which was the main reason I chose to do this race. Probably won’t ever come back, just due to inconvenient logistics from where I live, near Chicago.

Decent race. About what I expected for a race in Nebraska. Highlight was clearly the finish inside Nebraska Cornhusker stadium at the 50 yard line. Lots of food/donuts/drink at finish. Medal was a little disappointing. Large race with competitive/strong finishing times overall, and in my age group. Not much going on post-race.

Iconic race. Well run event. Competitive field. Strong attendance, but did not feel overcrowded. Real nice medal. Pretty easy course for a chance at a PR. Great perks for Half Fanatic club members! Lots of weird things to see along Route 66. I did the 5K Saturday and the Half on Sunday. This was a must do race for me and I enjoyed the experience.

I really enjoyed my weekend in Pittsburgh. Did the 5k and Half. I’m bias because I love the sports teams in Pittsburgh, even though I’m not from the area. A beautiful city with the rivers, bridges, hills, tunnels, parks, and nice architecture. The course crossed the 3 big rivers in Pittsburgh a total of 5 times. Some bridges were a little tougher than others. 1 fairly tough hill near mile 11 cost me a PR for the half marathon distance. Overall a fun weekend, good course and overall event. Bonus was sitting in a sportbar watching Playoff Hockey, Penguins beating Capitals, on their way to another Stanley Cup Championship!

Great course. Go for a PR! Flat and fast. Great for new runners who don’t want a difficult challenge, beyond the distance. I loved the race logo and finisher medal, one reason I chose to run it. Smaller size race, but well run and made to feel like a bigger event. And a bonus of a smaller race is: 1st place age group award!