Paula Lee's Staging Area

I signed up for the 48 hr event so I could get my marathon for NJ as well as tackle a personal distance record. A lot of the people stay for the entire 6 days. There are some ultra rock stars here. It’s a 1 mile mostly flat loop with minimal shade. It’s on a fairgrounds, you can set up a tent with sleeping options or you can rent an RV that is delivered to the site. The bling is amazing, you had a choice of a beautiful plush beach towel, a Columbia hiking kaki shirt or a Yeti cup. The awards bling were beautiful and you can accumulate miles year after year and it doesn’t have to be consecutive. The race director chats with you when you take breaks and his wife is involved as well. The entire family volunteers in the kitchen and the food is amazing. It varies throughout the day, breakfast quesadillas in the morning, hamburgers at lunch and dinner or hot dogs, they also had vegan options and plenty of other food choices. People return to the event year after year and they’ve built quite a tight, caring community. I ended up with 80 miles which is a personal distance record. I was aiming for 100 and could have done that if I had slept less but I had another marathon the following day so I wanted to reserve energy for that. I love the towel. I stayed at an Airbnb before the race in Hamburg, there is an excellent breakfast place called Granny’s Kitchen. Also there is an Appalachian Trailhead in Vernon NJ just a 1/2 hr away and it’s an easy section of AP. This race is really unique, you take enough breaks that the 1 mile loops don’t seems super boring and you can run throughout the night when it is much cooler,

I found this race to be surprisingly good! I would recommend it to anyone. There is another one that I really wanted to do, that is more scenic, but I thought I wouldn’t meet the qualifying time due to the hills. With a 7 hr cutoff, you have a generous time to finish. There are indoor bathrooms to use before the race and parking is close to the start/finish. The course is an out and back and it was fun to see all the runners coming at me but not fun when I made the turnaround and I was pretty much by myself because the slower ones were way behind me. There was also an early start so some of the slower runners may have been there. I opted to pass on the early start because there was a remote chance I would get an AG award and you couldn’t get one if you took the early start. My gamble paid off and I finished 3rd and there were more than 3 in my AG!. I loved the bagpipes at the start and there was a solo bagpiper later in the race. I loved the music at the race, not so much rock and roll but more rhythm instruments and drummers. Aid stations were well stocked but they did not have any gels. I didn’t miss that, I carry my own. The course is pretty, on the Atlantic oceanfront for some portions and in beautiful neighborhoods. There are rolling hills but nothing with steep ascent. There was some fall color and the temp was mid 50s throughout and lots of shade. It was a windy day but the trees provided shelter. I stayed at the Black Elephant hostel. It is amazing!!! It sells out early, I learned about it from another poster here. I don’t usually stay at hostels but after learning how expensive hotels are in Portland and seeing the review on this one, I gave it a try. It was fun chatting with other runners before the race at the hostel. I learned that I came in 3rd later that evening, after I had already left Portland and gone up to Acadia NP. They don’t mail their awards so I emailed the race director and was able to pick up my award on my way back to Boston. Something fun to do the day before the race is go visit Cape Elizabeth and have a lobster roll at Bite of Maine.

Absolutely no complaints here, perfectly organized race. The announcer was fantastic, I’m from Tulsa and she does ours as well. Start and finish indoors, can’t beat that. I stayed a 1/2 mile from start. Aid stations were awesome, course was well marked we had great weather until the headwind at the last couple of miles but so what. Free pictures and they were out to us that evening, spectacular!!! Really nice jacket, lightweight.

With so many races being cancelled in 2021, I was grateful to have this race. There wasn’t much communication from the race committee in the weeks leading up to the race which worried me that it may be cancelled. The course is a double loop, with a variation of hills and flat and not well-marked. The race guidelines informed runners that it was their responsibility to know the course. I drove it the day before but on the second loop I ran a block longer than the race course but fortunately a runner saw me and called me back. As you ran through the city, the shoulders were narrow and you were running with traffic. Cars came very close to the cones and there weren’t any signs that I noticed that cautioned residents that a race was in place. I didn’t feel safe. The only port a pots were at the start and halfway through, about 6 mile mark. Towards the end of the race, during the last 3 miles, I saw the cones being pulled up ahead of me. I saw a city bus almost clip a couple of runners ahead of me. The shirt was ok but the medal is really cute.

Beautiful destination, easy free parking, well organized. COVID precautions, scenic course, small, cloudy. This course could be challenging on a sunny day, very little shade but it was chilly, cloudy and windy on my day and I was grateful for that. Plenty of aid stations and porta potties and they stayed manned all throughout the race. I finished 5th from last and was happy to to see other faces at the aid stations. Part of the swag was a ram face mask that I have worn a lot. This rivaled Big Sur for destination activities. I went to Teton Natl Park the next day and hiked for most of the day. The next day I went to Yellowstone and spent the day there. If you’re looking for a marathon in Wyoming, this is it.