Ronnie Isaac Jr.'s Staging Area

This race was awesome. Completely worth it. The crowd support is amazing. This was my 2nd world major. The swag is sweet. The course is challenging with the bridges. Plenty of water and Gatorade stops.

Vacation Races puts on amazing races. This was my 4th race weekend with the company and like all my races before, I loved it. I did not have to go to bib pick up since I was competing in the grand quad, I had picked up everything at grand teton. However, the emails before the race made communication perfect so I knew what to expect. The 5k was nice going through west yellowstone and a little bit of the national forest next to yellowstone. It was mostly gravel. The weather was perfect. The medal for the 5k was perfect. The company has the nicest medals out there. For the half marathon, the race started at 6am. Because of covid, they had a staggered start so if you drove, you could turn the radio to their radio station and follow along when to show up to the start line. This made it nice because it was so cold outside. However, I just walked to the start line from my hotel since it was close by. The race course was a nice trail course through the national forest next to yellowstone. The course is trail, which includes an ankle graveyard with rocks sticking up, so just know this is not a PR course. Like all Vacation Race races, it is a cupless race. So you must carry your own hydration system. They do give you a hydropouch with registration. So carry my own water bottle then use the hydropouch for the Gnarly energy drink on the course. The aid stations were stocked with everything you needed to be successful. Finally the swag. The swag, is top notch. The yellowstone half medal is stunning. I did the grand quad, so I received a total of 8 medals including the medals from the week prior at grand teton. All medals are sweet. I have my own medal holder just for vacation races because their medals are so nice. Race registration includes pictures from the course. Also, I love how the race announcer makes the finish line personal to each individual runner by calling out the names of all finishers and calling it “welcome to your finish line”. I will definitely run more with this company.

I did the Marathon to complete the freedom challenge. The first half the course goes around downtown then the second half is an out and back Manayunk. I was working on getting a PR, but the weather did not cooperate, we had all 4 seasons during the race so I missed out on my PR. But the race medals were awesome. The Freedom challenge medal is huge. I had my bib shipped to me, but from what I saw the expo was well organized.

The course was nice and flat. Only a few hills. The medal is amazing. Its huge. The water stations were good for the most part maybe the 10 miles one should be moved to mile 9. Other than that, I loved it. I had my race bib mailed to me so I didnt have to go to the expo, which was nice.

Loved this race. It was great seeing all the Michigan fans out there running. The course was nice along the waterfront in downtown Chicago. There was good aid stations. Overall I liked this race.

The expo is top notch, so much free stuff. The shirt is awesome, plus we got a poster and a cooler. Race morning, get there early. There’s a lot of people but luckily a lot of nearby parking too. They have the football stadium open so you can hide from the wind in there and find bathrooms with not so long lines. Gear check buses are right there too. The waves were jam packed with people, this was the biggest race I’ve ever done. Then the start is awesome. You go over into Kentucky then back to Ohio. The one thing no one warned me about is the hills. Holy cow, the course is very hilly. But that makes the scenery amazing, even if it is Ohio (sorry Michigan fan here, Go Blue!). The medal is top notch. The finish line has everything you need after a long race and gear check is right there so you can get your stuff. The park afterwards has a lot of fun stuff going on to enjoy and you get a free beer. I would run this again. It is worth it.

This race was really fun. I did the full marathon and the course was flat except for the park. It goes through the infield of Churchill Downs, which was really cool. After the marathon splits from the half, there are barely any spectators and no one from the half really sticks around to watch the marathoners finish. The expo was smaller than I thought it would be. I completed this race because I heard this was one of the top races in America and it didn’t disappoint. Great swag too. The medal was big. Just a heads up, when you do run this race, make sure you get downtown very early, they close the roads early and it’s nearly impossible to park. I had to park over a mile away and run to the start line and I was still 15 minutes late. But the people of Louisville are very nice and they helped me find my way when I got lost trying to find my car after the race. I live in Michigan and I would travel down to run it again.

This race is really cool as it’s the only race with 2 boarder crossings and a mile tunnel. Overall, race production was sweet. The expo was nice and had many vendors. The only thing I would suggest for the organizers are to have a training for the water station organizations because some were not ready for us. The free swag we get is nice. Of course there’s the finished medal and nice new balance tech long sleeve shirt, we also got a 26.2 sticker, and a face sleeve thing. Definitely would recommend this marathon to anyone.

The best part is finishing on the 50 years line touching the banner. It never gets old. I do this race every year. There is 1 water station half way through.