Nicole Shaklee's Staging Area

My daughter and I flew to KC for this 2-day challenge. There is a 5 and 10k on Saturday followed by a half and full on Sunday. You’d probably want to rent a car if you’re coming from out of town as the airport is about 30 miles away and race course isn’t walking distance from any hotels. We found a great Airbnb within 3 miles of start.

The course was lovely but the field was extremely small for marathoners which had me worried as I’m a back of packer. (87 signed up with 63 showing up). Fortunately you run with half marathoners the first half and the second half is a modified second loop with a few changes. The course is interesting with enough small hills to keep your legs engaged. I saw some rumblings about the canter (?) of the roads, but I never saw ir felt it. The surface was about 50% asphalt, 40% dirt, 10% concrete (total estimation on my part). This was first year of the marathon and 2-day challenge and I anticipate it growing because it was pretty good.

The races were not that expensive and you had the option at signup to add an additional $8 for a l/s cotton shirt or a bit more for a hoodie. Even though I own a thousand shirts, we bought one and I’m glad I did. I’ve received a ridiculous amount of compliments on it. (But it’s a giant Yeti, so it was expected lol!). Each race has its own medal which grows in size as the distances increase. The marathon size borders on obnoxious, but again, there’s a Yeti – hee hee! The nice surprise was if you completed a race each day you received a knit winter hat with pompom. They were nice. Also, the age group awards were plentiful. Being I was the only old lady who ran, I got first in my age group! Usually there are quite a few fast ladies representing my age group and beating me, so not sure what happened there.

The finish line had all the amenities you’d want as far as chocolate milk (plenty), sports drink, various bars, bananas, etc, and Uncrustables. Yum! As with most races, they were starting to break down toward the end but they still were calling names when I crossed. I can’t tell you if that continued through the end though. The parts of the course that was just outside of the park was closed to traffic and was manned by many local police personnel. It felt very safe.

The race benefitted a local high school and those teens manned the aid stations and brought their energy with them. Much appreciated!

My daughter ran her first half and she enjoyed it very much. Her experience was probably better because she’s not slow and she had many more people to run with (around 400) plus the marathoners.

If I was going to nitpick, I’d say my only complaint is lack of info for the marathoners. Being that this distance was just added this year, I’m figuring that will change. I never saw a cutoff but it was 3 hrs for half so I figured 6 for full. I saw in results that there were some that finished after 6 so doesn’t seem like anybody is getting kicked off course. The final miles are inside the park, so there wouldn’t be a need to as far as street closures go. We had a flight home that day and found a rec center on the other side of the lake where I bought a day pass so I could shower, to the relief of my fellow travelers.

I would recommend this race. We had the most beautiful weekend weather-wise for running, and I’m sure that makes a difference. Either way, I hope this race finds success. It really is good.

Let me start by saying that this race was exceptionally cold and windy with a -10 degree windchill at the start and never getting above 25 degrees. There was a lot to like about this race and I believe that much of what was lacking was due to the weather.
Packet pickup was at Fleet Feet near the start line. Apparently the entire race showed up at the same time on a Friday, one hour before store closing. Not sure how this could be avoided unless the store stayed open until 7 or 8 (they might have made some sales as it was too packed to shop)
Parking was a breeze on race morning as there is a free parking garage 2 blocks north of the start line. Unfortunately the only mention of parking was in broad strokes leaving you to wonder if you’d be able to get into any of the garages on race morning.
There were plenty of port-o-John’s with no lines – yay! The sound system was hard to hear and most people had no clue the National Anthem was even being played. The half and full started at the same time with a staggered start and it went well.
Volunteers were great and I honestly don’t know how they handled the cold as we were at least moving. The water was freezing in the cups and the Gatorade was slushy, and yet they made it work. Kudos to all of them!
The finish line was pretty sad (I’m a slower runner but still had 35 minutes to spare), but I’m going to attribute it to the cold. No names were announced, I didn’t see a time clock (maybe because of wind) and there were definitely no spectators and I don’t blame them. There were Shamrock cookies, trail mix and granola bars along with bottles of water and cans of beer. With better weather, I’m sure it would have been a fun celebration.
The race shirt was good looking (unisex only), the medal was nice and the pint glass was a nice touch.
We chose this race because our prior Iowa race (Wabash Trace) was cancelled due to lightning about 3-6 miles in and we were thrown off course without explanation, and nobody at finish to explain things. They then let the half runners continue and didn’t even offer us the option to do that distance. Trust me when I say that even with the brutal cold, I’d pick this race again.

The only suggestion I have is for the race to start earlier than 8 am. Other than that, this is a top-notch event assisted by so many wonderful community members. We rented a hotel Airbnb in Two Harbors and had a good choice of local restaurants. The race did a good job of spreading out the expo post Covid and minimizing participants while still maintaining a big-race feel. The shirts are great and I really liked the Great Grandma’s Challenge shirt with the hood. It’s a great green color. You received that if you ran the 5k the night before. The timing of the 5k was at 6pm the night before the marathon which meant you were eating after 7. I’m not sure I’d do that again as I have a routine and it messed with my head, but then again, I really liked the shirt and I’m never going to break any land speed records. This race is a ‘must do.’

Here is my recap of the Marine Corps Marathon:
The expo was just so-so. It wasn’t that convenient to get to and they had very little branded merchandise to buy. No pint glasses, no stickers, no ornaments, no magnets, no coffee mugs, no 50K items. This was a missed opportunity for sure. The race shirts had a good design but were cheaply made by a no-name company. Brooks did have some cool shirts to buy, just not a large selection. There weren’t that many companies at the expo and not a whole lot of things to buy. I believe only one booth sold running essentials such as gels, shoes, etc. that you might have forgot.

We stayed at the Double-Tree by the Pentagon which was very convenient to the Runner’s Village. The UPS trucks were conveniently located and bag drop-off was a breeze. We got to the start line and it was just a mass of people with no corrals and just a big push to get across and start running.

The actual race itself, from start line to finish line was INCREDIBLE (barring that you didn’t know where the finish line was because the blow-up arch had electrical issues) and the course was extremely crowded the entire way. I felt sorry for the wheelchair or stroller athletes because of the burden of getting around. The marines were great and the course was interesting to see. Spectator support was incredible and I even had a shot of Fireball in Crystal City (highly recommended). There were random people giving out Halloween candy which made me smile. The rain was brutal but that can’t be helped. Running the Blue Mile was everything and more. I actually thought I was going to break down – it was that emotional.

After the finish line and getting the medal from a marine (way too cool), there was nothing but problems. You could barely walk out of the finish line area – it was so crowded. They only had photographers in that very first section. I missed the area to get my boxed lunch and then swam upstream through the crowd to grab it. That was pointless because all it contained was a bag of pretzels, a fruit cup and some random honey packs or sport beans! What?!? I walked through the madness to the family meet-up that was down at the bottom of the hill (made worse because my last name starts with S). After that I had to walk back up the hill and down another street to grab my bag (also one of the last trucks because my projected time was slow). We went back up that hill to look for beer. Luckily we brought a credit card because there was a Famous Dave’s food truck. We found the beer finally but at that point we decided to bag it and head to the Metro. My watch had 34 miles of time on my feet on it from the time we left the hotel to the time we returned….ouch!

Even with all the above complaining, I would still recommend this race to EVERYONE! I can’t put into words how joyful my heart was running this race. There was no politics – just patriotism and love. We were united in the love of our country, the love of the countries joining us and the love of running. It was beautiful.

I ran this race with some friends from Colorado as we are attempting to run a marathon in every state…eventually… The course was very enjoyable, especially Iroquois Park, although the hills are no joke during that point in the race. The course is interesting and hits all the highlights of Louisville. We stayed at the Galt House and had many restaurants and activities to choose from during our stay and we were within walking distance of the start and finish line. The expo was a very good size – not too big and not too small. It had all the things you might need if you forgot to pack something and some cool things that you wouldn’t expect at an expo, like bourbon tasting. There were more than enough aid stations and the volunteers were top notch. Quite a few spectators were out and about with kids giving those all-important power high fives! The medals are pretty cool with the ribbons mentioning all the highlights of the course. These are some things I’d suggest to make the race even better. The bag drop had an incredibly long line. This was because the volunteers had to mark your bag with your number and then use a zip tie to close the bag and there was still a line even after the race started. I suggest having the markers at the expo so that the numbers can be written before the race and then just have the zip ties on the table for people to tie their own bags. The corrals weren’t monitored and, as is often the case, people lined up incorrectly with many walkers in the first few corrals. Also, there were not enough porta-potties in the first 13 miles of the race. They’d have one or two at each aid station and the lines were 15-30 long. They advertised gel at several aid stations, but they only had it at one that I saw so perhaps they ran out by the time I got through (5+ marathoner). The finish-line party could have been great but it started raining and got muddy and cold – that can’t be helped. My biggest disappointment was the race swag. The shirt had such a cool design, but then they put it on a cheaply made shirt that fits poorly (the men’s didn’t have a v-neck and I wish I would have chosen that). The only other thing we got in our bag was a miniature bat and that wasn’t even given to the half marathoners. I did buy a marked-down sling pack at the expo that was normally $28 for $10. I took the last one so my friends didn’t even get to buy one. Many marathons would have included something like this as swag. Would I recommend this race? Absolutely! Louisville is a wonderful, welcoming city and the few minor things mentioned above can be easily corrected.