mark zach's Staging Area

Hands down the most uniquely Seattle running experience you can find. Passionate and fun group that puts this on, lending to high energy and comradery along the course with other participants. Important to note this is not a race with timing or closed roads, rather a fundraiser with a running challenge component.

Overall, this was an extremely fun event, and the challenge lives up to the hype. However, there are some minor organziational aspects that feel missing or lacking as this event transitions from its humble origin to a large public running event, and I’m hoping the teething issues will work themselves out as more people and experience grow the event each year.

Pros:
– Aid stations and support at each Dick’s stop is great, medics, photographers, even a wild Rainier or two!
– Good pre-race organization – love that there is an indoors area to wait in, clean bathrooms
– Scenic course that will give you the full tour of Seattle if you are from out of town
– A pretty cool eating competition post-race

Cons:
– No Start or Finish Line. Very anti-climatic ending to just walk into a parking lot with nobody realizing you finished especially after the mental and physical challenge the full marathoners just went through, need some sort of pay-off
– Bring your phone! Open nature of the event means a lack of signage or volunteers to provide course directions, if you get seperated from thr group it could be easy to get lost.
– As this event started as a group of friends/community, during the race it felt clear who that community was and who the newbys/general public was. Hopefully as participant count rises that gives less of an outsider feeling.

Don’t let this discourage you from signing up, I fully expect the challenge to grow and get its feet under itself each year. This was simply my experience in the second year of the event that is rapidly growing, nd I am excited to see its growth and will be signing up again for sure.