Mainly Marathons Prairie Series Day 3 (KS)
Hiawatha, KS
- 50K, Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
The third day of the Mainly Marathons Prairie Series will take place in Hiawatha, KS. The course will be on a smooth running/biking path with little to no shade. Tentative Course Laps: 14 for Marathon. Every participant will receive one t-shirt and other fun goodies. All finishers will receive a … MORE
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Worst Course but Best People
Mainly marathons is a series of races that take place all over the country in all 50 states. They produce several series for different regions of the country so runners … MORE
Mainly marathons is a series of races that take place all over the country in all 50 states. They produce several series for different regions of the country so runners can do back to back to back to back to back races and get multiple states in one trip. This race is part of the prairie series which is an 8 day series in the midwest from Oklahoma to Minnesota. This are flexible series so you can do 1 or all 8 days and you can mix and match distances. I just did Kansas as I was in Kansas for Running with the Cows and the Kansas race was the following day. This race takes place in a very small town about 1.5 hours outside Kansas City. I spent the day in Kansas City after Running with the Cows and then drove up in the evening. I stayed at the best western which was convenient and about 1 mile from the start. The start was at a school. These are very laid back and they offer an early start at 6am and a later start at 7am and have no time limits though they do recommend the early start if you think you will be over 6 hours. A lot of people chose the early start option as it was again a very hot day but as I said it my last review I only got like 3-4 hours of sleep Friday night since my flight was delayed so opted for the extra hour of sleep. I was also planning on taking this race extra easy as I had plenty of time to get to the airport afterwards and just needed to finish in around 4 hours to have no stress getting back to the KC airport. It is a very laid back start you get your bib, shirt and you are supposed to get your medal ribbon though they didn’t give it to me at the start (they did give it when I finished). The shirts are really nice and I love the cute prairie dog they use for the prairie series. They do pre race announcements about 10 minutes before the start. It is nice that they announce people meeting milestones and also explain the course. The course though it sucked. Mainly races are typically multiple loops and you take a rubber band to keep track of the number of loops. This one was particularly short and boring even by mainly standards from what I heard. It was just an out and back on a paved walkway on the school grounds that for the half you had to do 9 times. There was one nice farm view but I really didn’t need to see it 18 times. The course was pretty easy though it had some inclines. The big issue was it was again hot and without much shade. Luckily the course is not the reason you do mainly marathons. The reason is the people. With the looped courses, laid back atmosphere and the fact most people are not going very fast as they are doing a lot of races in a row, these are more a social event for runners. It was a ton of fun to chat with some of my runner friends from my running clubs and meet other runners. It made the boring miles go by much faster. There is also a great aid station at the start/finish line with tons of food. It is essentially an ultra station. They always have a hot food including a vegetarian options along with granola bars, candy, PBJ, fruit, cookies, chip, pickles etc. I took the race very easy and just walked at a pretty regular pace. I think I set a personal worst but I did finish under my goal of 4 hours. At the end you ring a bell and let the timing table know you finish. I was happy to be done as I was sick of the course. The medal is really cool. It is on an awesome ribbon and you connect a specific medal for each state and there is also a small medal with the year. The only down side as it is just one huge, medal for the series but I heard you can purchase additional ribbons. Since I just did one race it is a huge medal for one race. Overall this was a very fun, laid back, no stress racing experience but it was an awful course. If you don’t care about the course and prefer more social races I’d definitely recommend the mainly marathon series. Personally I’d prefer a more scenic, interesting course through a major city or beautiful landscapes so these wouldn’t be my first choice for a new state but I also love races that are back of the pack friendly and well supported so these also wouldn’t be my last choice. I am planning to do the race in Maine as it is on a weekend I am free and staying in town and would definitely consider doing more of these races and I think it would be fun to complete a whole series. However as they are often on weekdays, I would need to take several vacation days to do the full series and as I have some ambitious international plans, I’m not sure a mainly marathon series is in the cards for me.
Why is out and back a billion times fun?
Okay not a billion times, "only" 18. I figured that was going to be horrible but it's a marathon that's got a generous enough time limit for the back-of-the-packers like … MORE
Okay not a billion times, “only” 18. I figured that was going to be horrible but it’s a marathon that’s got a generous enough time limit for the back-of-the-packers like me to actually do a marathon. While I do normally like out-and-back-once races because I like giving congratulation/motivation for the plethora of people faster than me when they come “back” and pass me on my “out”, I do generally dislike multiple lap courses because I just keep seeing the same thing over and over again and it’s harder to mentally judge how far along I am and how my overall speed compares to where I want to be. I don’t have any GPS or anything smart because I’m saving up for a nice one that can actually read my BP and be halfway accurate, but that’s another story.
So the course is at a high school. On a cool day it would be a nice walk. There’s not a lot of shade and our race started off with a brief thunderstorm then massive humidity the rest of the day, including once the sun came out and the temps rose. Now, if you’re fast, that’s not an issue. I’m not fast so I was hating life. There are, I’m told, typically a lot of walkers on the productions, which I certainly found to be the case, and with 18 out and backs (honestly it doesn’t suck the life out of you as much as you’d think) there’s plenty of opportunities to exchange words with whoever is passing. This was probably the most welcoming group of racers I’ve ever encountered, and the greater KC area already has an incredibly friendly racing community, so that says a lot. They welcomed me before and during the race, and a few of them I joined up for some pacing and conversation the first 12 or so “laps”. With wet feet and body armor on I was really hating the humidity. This was my first time doing a half marathon, much less a full, so I was broken off by the end of it. The course was a slight to moderate elevation gain on the way out on this winding path, and while most people finished early there were enough in the 7-8 hour group that I didn’t get lonely. The staff was plentiful at the one manned aid station (there’s also water at the turnaround) and there were more types of sustainment food than you could shake a stick at back at the start/finish line, where there are also covered benched tables and portajohns if you need to take a break. Which I did. A lot. Because going from one 10k straight to a marathon is arguably a horrible idea.
The swag. The tshirts are bright cotton with the different mascots from the different series on them. I wear mine proudly and tell everyone what a great production Mainly Marathons puts on. Mainly Marathons puts on series of 3-11 marathons across different states, you do them all you get extra swag (I think they have a 20 entry series too), but even if you don’t do the whole series (that’s a challenge for a future year), the medals are high quality “charm-style” where you can hang the different states in a series off one another to complete a set. They’re award-winning medals, and if you’re interested you can google and see the write-up and pictures. If it’s your first marathon, let them know and you get another medal for that. They give bonus swag for various numbers of marathons with them. I was there when one guy hit 500, which is insane to me, but they said another guy there was in the thousands. These people are dedicated, they are awesome, and I can’t wait to race again with them in 2024.
I Love Mainly Marathon's Events!
The Mainly Marathons events are my favorite racing events, period. They do a great job of catering to the runners and the overall organization of these events are down right … MORE
The Mainly Marathons events are my favorite racing events, period. They do a great job of catering to the runners and the overall organization of these events are down right awesome. I highly recommend any of their race series.