Course was changed two times, at no fault of the race director. Due to the long winter and large snowfall and cool Spring temperatures, the original course was not completely … MORE
Course was changed two times, at no fault of the race director. Due to the long winter and large snowfall and cool Spring temperatures, the original course was not completely thawed out and ready for 700+ runners to traverse it. Unfortunately, the alternative route had to also be scrapped the night before because of the integrity of a bridge after several heavy rainfalls and snow-melt runoff. The course ended up being out and back 4mi ‘loop,’ and you could run as many laps as you wanted. I ran the out-n-back 4 times to hit my distance. The course turned out to be very challenging – nearly 600ft elevation gain every 2 miles. The swag was a nice embroidered trucker hat, some may run with it. I can understand the changes in the course because of the conditions, but I’d say one of the biggest changes was the finishers medal. In past, the medal looked like a slim piece of tree limb with 25k/50k burned into it…but this year it was changed to a piece of balsa wood with no distance marked on it. I believe this was done to allow the medals to be used year-after-year and avoid the waste of unclaimed or DNF medals. The other thing to note is that there is sort of a lottery for the entry, when you register you’re not guaranteed to get in. This is necessary since the original route is usually pretty narrow, and above a certain number of runners, it can become unmanageable. It’s not a large group of people that are managing the race, so kudos to the few that had to do quick thinking to make it a success. I know my score may seem low, but that’s to highlight the challenges for this race – you’re taking a gamble with MN North Shore weather come Spring. Course changes abound. Because of weather, you might have better luck running the original course in the Fall
Please login to reply to this review.
Unpredictable weather = major changes
Course was changed two times, at no fault of the race director. Due to the long winter and large snowfall and cool Spring temperatures, the original course was not completely … MORE
Course was changed two times, at no fault of the race director. Due to the long winter and large snowfall and cool Spring temperatures, the original course was not completely thawed out and ready for 700+ runners to traverse it. Unfortunately, the alternative route had to also be scrapped the night before because of the integrity of a bridge after several heavy rainfalls and snow-melt runoff. The course ended up being out and back 4mi ‘loop,’ and you could run as many laps as you wanted. I ran the out-n-back 4 times to hit my distance. The course turned out to be very challenging – nearly 600ft elevation gain every 2 miles. The swag was a nice embroidered trucker hat, some may run with it. I can understand the changes in the course because of the conditions, but I’d say one of the biggest changes was the finishers medal. In past, the medal looked like a slim piece of tree limb with 25k/50k burned into it…but this year it was changed to a piece of balsa wood with no distance marked on it. I believe this was done to allow the medals to be used year-after-year and avoid the waste of unclaimed or DNF medals. The other thing to note is that there is sort of a lottery for the entry, when you register you’re not guaranteed to get in. This is necessary since the original route is usually pretty narrow, and above a certain number of runners, it can become unmanageable. It’s not a large group of people that are managing the race, so kudos to the few that had to do quick thinking to make it a success. I know my score may seem low, but that’s to highlight the challenges for this race – you’re taking a gamble with MN North Shore weather come Spring. Course changes abound. Because of weather, you might have better luck running the original course in the Fall