Sarah Dickerson's Staging Area

I was very bummed when it was super foggy to start the race – but by the time we hit the flat roads headed north toward Grand Teton National Park, it had cleared and offered the stunning mountain views the race advertised! This was a SUPER well organized event other than a few small glitches. The course is downhill to start, then a very flat to very slow uphill grade the second half. Not inherently difficult, the elevation is probably the biggest challenge for flatlanders. The start was well organized, plenty of porta-potties (did not wait over 5 minutes for one, and that was only a half hour before the start!), gear check went quickly and smoothly. Only two things of note at the start and they were relatively minor: 1. the buses were leaving THROUGH the start area so the crowd had to part literally in the lineup for start to let them through a couple of times. 2. The race has a fairly good stretch on running/biking paths in the first half, and there are a lot of people starting toward the front that are walkers or slower (and the race gave them permission to do so, which is great, so they can make cutoff). It DOES result in a lot of logjams of people – I ran into a number of three-abreast runners that weren’t allowing faster runners to pass. This got a bit frustrating, and if you are going for a PR, you might put yourself in a faster pace group that normal to help avoid this (I was not, knowing that the elevation would likely slow me a bit, nevertheless, there was some lack of race etiquette in moving right if you are slower, that might be mentioned in a future race publication just as a suggestion to newer runners).

The course itself was beautiful. The roads leading up to the golf course, especially the paved one, were advertised to be open during the race but to have very little traffic. They actually had quite a bit! While the race can’t help this, I did see some drivers get frustrated and force themselves by such that they forced runners single file right against the edge of the road or even off into the dirt/sand next to it. Perhaps some one way traffic direction (alternating traffic headed north and southbound) could help? Not sure about that.

The finish line was excellent. Great medals, great photo op with the Tetons in the background, great box of snacks for runners. Gear pickup was simple. I guess I was lucky, because I literally walked right onto a shuttle bus to downtown!!

All in all, an extremely well-run race in a beautiful setting. I hope to be back in 2020 for perhaps the Glacier Half!