Mark Jennings's Staging Area

Pretty ordinary packet pickup, but nice race shirt. Race day parking and shuttles were well run. Course was paved trails, about 75% shaded, some steady inclines and declines made for a somewhat challenging race. Aid stations every 1.5 miles or so were well run. A little congestion mixing Half with slower 10K runners/walkers. Finishing medal was slightly disappointing, but post-race food was terrific. Overall great event. Glad I chose to do this race for my 50 state quest!

Great overall event. I though this event was kinda pricy when I registered, but very well done with great swag. Nice Medal, Hat, Shirt, Pint Glass, and post race food/beverage at Grotto Pizza. Paid extra race day bib pickup. Free local parking wasn’t to hard to find. Good amount of bathrooms available. Started 3 separate waves to spread people out, and that worked well. Multiple event distances were running together, but it was never crowded on course. A scenic course on some paved side streets, crushed gravel paths, and boardwalk for the start and finish. A decent amount of shade too. Ocean views and Sand dunes in many areas. Very pretty. Lots of great shopping in the area near the beach! Post race free food from Grotto Pizza was great with endless Pizza, pasta, salad, chicken fingers, and you get 3 beer tickets! Plenty of seating inside, and an outside area too. Great to put your feet right in the ocean after running too. Really loved everything about this event!

Yet another fine event from Vacation Races. This race was my 10th different location completed with them. Great desert scenery and beautiful weather. Approx 7.5 miles of paved desert roads, then the rest trails. A good mix, some rolling hills, challenging parts on the trails. Overall a fun varied mix of terrain, all with great views. Nice finish area. Easy access and parking. A little congested at the start, as everybody starts together in one wave. But after a mile or so it thinned out well. Close to the National Park and many other hiking trails. And not far from downtown Tucson also. Great event!

So my big complaint about this event would be that I missed a cutoff from the Half course, and ended up running additional mileage on the 10K course, which trashed my official time for the Half. Very disappointed and frustrated I ended up just walking once I got 13.1 on my personal device. An additional 1.5-2 miles of walking to the finish line. Really pissed my good half time was unofficial and not recorded as a true finish time. Multiple events share parts of the same course and start 15 minutes apart. That congestion, and a volunteer that didn’t direct me the right direction, or adequate signage, really frustrated me! Otherwise the rest of the event is pretty good. Definitely could use more porta potties near the start line! Long lines before race start for those. Expo was good, event course was streets and a lot of paved walking/biking trails. Somewhat scenic. Weather was very good. Finisher medal was pretty nice. I left quickly after the race to shower and get checked out of my hotel in time. So didn’t really experience the post race stuff or food. Overall is was a great out of state trip for me to NM. I very much enjoyed Albuquerque, Santa Fe, sightseeing, and hiking during my trip.

Ran the Half. Nice expo. We stayed at Embassy Suites, 1.5 blocks from start/finish areas. So walked to race 15 minutes before start. 6:30 start is nice before sun and weather warmed up to much. No issues with the course, decent scenery, some live music, aid/hydration stations were adequate. Interesting artist designed finisher medal. Post race in convention center was good. I left fairly quickly to return to hotel for shower and breakfast, then checkout. Overall a solid event. I would run again if I lived closer. Just chose Buffalo for New York State in my 50 state goal. 👍

5K event was good, although the course was way long. About 3.5 miles. Not sure why they couldn’t cut the course to be 3.1. Half course was nothing exciting. Mostly rural agriculture access roads. Potholes and gravel in many parts. Also many puddles and mud caused bottlenecks getting around problem areas. Overwise a well run event and great bling, as always from VR.

Ran for the third time in 2022. Local, convenient, and fit my running schedule perfect for this year. Shuttle bused from a High School parking lot to race start area in the Forest Preserve. Decent suburban race, nothing real fancy, not a large event. Pretty nice railroad themed finish medal every year. Based off the old Railroad line that the trail now has replaced. Certainly better events if your traveling from out of state looking for a memorable event/experience. But still a nice little race and 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!

Traveled on vacation to visit family in Wales. Found about this Cardiff Marathon happening about the same time as our visit, had to do it while in the area! Cardiff is a large populated area (Capital of Wales) so race was pretty large, about 20K runners. Well run event. Weather was moderate. Lots of different things to view in a foreign country, including castles, along the course. No complaints about anything. Finishing medal was just average. Overall a great experience.

Beautiful area around Devil’s Lake state park in Wisconsin. A little crazy because they are running a 10K, Half, Marathon, 50K, and 50 mile, all on the same day. Overall it was a pretty smooth event. Course is tough. A lot of elevation gain and loss, lots of rocks, tree roots, dirt, and grass. Warm temps made this years races even tougher. Top five age group awards is nice. Awards ceremony is very basic. Finisher medal is ok. Food was decent after race. Parking was good. One nice feature was they had a shower head hooked up to a hose to cool off after the race. That was a life saver for me, as temps reached close to 90 by noon.

Starting at 5300 foot elevation and ending at 3400 foot. Although downhill, course was not that easy. Really enjoyed nearby national parks. Great race to do while on vacation. Nice finishing medals and age group medals for top 5 in each group!

Nice medium sized race in beautiful SA, Texas. Packet pickup was easy, and in a nice shopping area of town. I really liked the bag with shoulder strap given out at expo. Race production was good, course was fine, nice medal! After race food was excellent. Found free street parking for expo and race. Overall a very good event!

Another nice event from Vacation Races. Always well run and great finisher medals. I did have a complaint about the course. A section runs along the river and the road is slanted toward the river. I assume for water drainage. This was difficult, uncomfortable, and aggravating to run on! Not my favorite course from VR, but otherwise all else is good. I wish they would change this course for that reason alone.

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!