Jordan Everett's Staging Area

I decided to run this race as a double with the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey outside of Nadhville. I think the scenery could have been vastly improved if the run was held before the leaves all fell for the year. The medals were beautiful.
The shoe timing mechanism was fine, but a real struggle to unlace our shoes after a full marathon.
The course was advertised as fast and flat but is almost entirely uphill the first 7ish miles until you turn around to head mostly downhill, then you hit another turnaround to run uphill, and finally turnaround to run mostly downhill.
The course is an open back highway so we had traffic flowing both directions with no real course control, didn’t love that
The amount of roadkill was unfortunately because paring with the recent rain it was nauseating to run by at times.
The majority of the run is not in view of the river but the final 2ish mile stretch was and that was much nicer.
I do not plan to have this as a future race, I would not recommend it.

– To get my only gripe out of the way, this year’s medals were not medals. They were hat pins featuring the course map on a flimsy piece of plastic, easily broken or lost and unremarkable. As an idea it would have been fun as an extra item offered in addition to a real medal. Really kind of brought the finish down a little being handed it.

– Schroon Lake was absolutely gorgeous, stayed in The Lodge there which was very accommodating and welcoming. They were able to give me an extra late checkout, charging me a late fee rather than another day’s stay.
– I would recommend spending a few days there before the race, the shops on main street have lots to offer and the folks there are a fun conversation.
– The course was very difficult, rolling hills for the first half but then gives ways to much calmer rolling hills for the second half. The course is paved roads or pathways.
– The volunteers and cheer crews gave me new life every few miles and I loved the personal touch of providing a list of runners to volunteers to cheer us on by name!
If they fix the medals, I could absolutely see myself making this a staple race.

This race had the best aid stations of any race I’ve run. Cold water, fresh fruit, snacks, etc available. Supporters were amazing and cheerful helping break up the difficult hills. The weather was also great throughout the entire race only warming up towards the end. The local fire station bunkhouse was completely welcoming and friendly and free.

TLDR: Fun 2 loop course with some challenging hills, lack of variation in race swag and medals, and insufficient traffic control. Will not run again.
Positives: nice course, friendly volunteers, easy packet pickup
Negatives: Generic medal with no engraving indicating race year, generic long sleeve with small race logo, not nearly enough volunteers at stops, not nearly enough security to keep traffic from nearly hitting runners at several major intersections, most music acts were not set up by the time I ran by them and by the time I returned on the 2nd loop most entertainment was gone., medal strap broke 3 hrs after receiving it. Didnt feel very “MS Blues” other than one or two music acts and the generic medal logo.

Post race the race director has had some back and forth with former runners and online trolls using the official Facebook page that show that he does not take well and his posts seem petty, had I read what he wrote before hand I would not have signed up. The poor reputation of the race unfortunately seems well earned hopefully in the future he puts more effort into giving the race something unique.

The weather Sunday was perfect, couldn’t have asked for a better day to suffer(😅). The hills kicked my but the first 13 miles after having completed Kansas City’s shin breaking hills the day prior. After the first 13 though, the course smoothed out pretty nicely and the volunteers were amazing the entire time cheering and dancing and screaming at me to keep going. Loved the medal and the finish party. My favourite parts though were the free parking throughout all of downtown which made it extremely easy to find a spot before the race. And the fact that they partnered with the YMCA a block away allowed runners to shower and unwind after the race. This was the first race I’ve been to that offered this courtesy and let me just say it was so much nicer being able to shower before starting my 9 1/2 hr drive back home.