The Bill Snyder Highway Half and 5K presented by Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center is Manhattan’s only half marathon. The Bill Snyder Highway Half features a beautiful point-to-point route taking you from the rolling Flint Hills into Manhattan and through Campus to finish in front of the Bill Snyder Family Stadium! It will start at the intersection of I-70 and Highway 177 (Coach Bill Snyder Highway) and cover 8 miles of the Coach Bill Snyder Highway, then take you down Historic Poyntz Avenue, past City Park, through Aggieville and the beautiful campus of Kansas State University to finish just in front of the stadium!
This USATF-certified course will have SEVEN aid stations for the Half participants and ONE for 5K participants. All miles will be marked with signage.
The 5K race will start and finish at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The runners will come out of the parking lot heading east on Kimball, turn South on Denison and loop down by campus and back to the stadium.
All finishers (Half and 5K) this year will receive a Finisher’s medal!
As with all our races, we not only want to have a good time and throw on a great event but we are also wanting to raise money for a great cause. This year, Coach Snyder has selected 4 charities: No Stone Unturned Foundation, Manhattan Emergency Shelter, Shepherd’s Crossing, Matt Snyder Foundation for Troubled Youth.
LESS
Hooked on medal series, decent race
Due to roadwork the course was changed to run from the stadium, flat course, a mile of gravel, windy through campus, needs better food after, just had bananas and granola … MORE
Due to roadwork the course was changed to run from the stadium, flat course, a mile of gravel, windy through campus, needs better food after, just had bananas and granola bars. Packet was great and flexible.
Nice mix of environments, will run again
Board a bus to be taken 13.1 miles outside of town, near the interstate, see a beautiful sunrise, then like ~8 miles of perfectly straight rolling highway miles until civilization. … MORE
Board a bus to be taken 13.1 miles outside of town, near the interstate, see a beautiful sunrise, then like ~8 miles of perfectly straight rolling highway miles until civilization. Nice run through town, around a park and finish on the 50 yard line (on the practice field, as there were technical issues), nice swag, part of a three year medal series, so will come back next year and the year after that. Very nice participants ~600 or so i think. They do offer a 5k as well
Highway Man
Watch the sunrise on the highway in the town. Lots if down hill the first half in the highway then leads into town through some neighborhoods and would normally finish … MORE
Watch the sunrise on the highway in the town.
Lots if down hill the first half in the highway then leads into town through some neighborhoods and would normally finish on K-State football field but COVID changed it this year. I think it has since returned to that finish.
Plenty of aid stations
COVID effected post race activities
Decent swag dr-fit shirt and medal
I would recommend this race
First 5 miles set the tone
Atmosphere: The fellow runners were great and supportive. I really enjoyed my pacer. He gave a pep talk before the race and I think his general attitude helped reassure my … MORE
Atmosphere: The fellow runners were great and supportive. I really enjoyed my pacer. He gave a pep talk before the race and I think his general attitude helped reassure my worries as this was my first race. I wish every pacer did this. Because the first 8 miles are on the highway, there wasn’t really spectator support at the beginning which was a little daunting. Getting into town though, there were people cheering racers on which was really nice.
Course layout: You get shuttled out to the highway start line. My friend convinced me to race this half by saying it was all downhill. lol. the first five miles were pretty much uphill. Add that on top of no spectators and it really sucked. If you get through it, I am sure you will have a great rest of the race. If not, it can be real demoralizing. Then you have a huge drop down for 2ish miles. Definitely practice hills. You run through part of KSU’s campus which is nice. And then you see the stadium where you finish. But you have run around the entire parking lot to get there. 1 mile. It sucked. Maybe if I was an avid runner it would have been fine. But it was my first half, I was a little underprepared and it sucked to know I was so close yet so far away at the same time. Then you finish on the field which is awesome. Until you realize you have to walk up the stadium stairs to get out. Not fun at all.
Swag and such: I don’t remember if there was food at the end. I think I was so exhausted because I ran faster than I trained for. But after I got out of the stadium, I was handed a chick-fil-a sandwich. My husband still mentions that to this day when I tell him about other races. He expects it every time lol. This was pre-covid and Bill Snyder was still the coach at the time (I think) so things may be different now but I got to take a picture with him and he signed my medal (really cool medal). They had socks this year which was cool.
Personal best 5K
Not a hard course. Manhattan KS starting and ending in the parking lot at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. In conjunction with the half marathon. Which I have not run yet... MORE
Not a hard course. Manhattan KS starting and ending in the parking lot at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. In conjunction with the half marathon. Which I have not run yet…