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@twkongsamut
Emeryville, CA Raving since 2019 Boston Marathon finisher Active 4 years, 11 months agoAbout Me
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| Race | Distance | Location | Date | Paid |
|---|
Past Races (1)
| Race | Distance | Location | Date | Result | My Raves | My Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yosemite Half Marathon | Half Marathon | Oakhurst, CA | May 11, 2019 |
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Yosemite Half Marathon
Logistics ruined my race experience
Yosemite Half Marathon
This race is quite the production because of its location, and I really wanted to like it, but the logistics of the race were poorly executed and prevented runners from … MORE
This race is quite the production because of its location, and I really wanted to like it, but the logistics of the race were poorly executed and prevented runners from running at their best.
The course itself is a mixed bag, starting on soft, flat/slightly downhill trail, then opening up to a curvy, very downhill road, then finishing on a nice flat around Bass Lake. The downhill on road is brutal on the body. The last 100m is on really uneven grass and they corral you into a very narrow space, so its really hard to kick to the finish.
Mixed course aside, what makes me not want to return are the race logistics. We camped in the group site the night before the race, and arrived after hours. There was poor signage for where to go to find the camping area and where to park; not a good start to the race experience. The race morning itself put the nail in the coffin for me. The shuttles taking us from the campground to the start were supposed to leave at 4AM SHARP. We did not get picked up until 5:30, which means we woke up at 3:30 and stood in the cold for two hours until we got picked up. We arrived to the race start well after the 6AM start. While our chip time is accurate, we were stuck behind a lot of slower runners/walkers on the narrow parts of the trail because we started late. So, we had no chance to compete for gun OR chip time because of our position in the race.
After surviving that ordeal, reclaiming our checked bags was a mess. There were barely any volunteers, and bags were just piled up on the grass in a loosely organized way and people just walked around to find and grab their bags, rather than being handed their bags by volunteers from a secure area, as most other races do. Because of the shuttle fiasco, our bags did not even arrive until nearly two hours after we finished the race, because our bags were put on the truck for the second wave.
I know there are a lot of moving pieces in putting on an event this big in a place this remote, which make for a lot of places where things can go wrong. Things went really wrong here, and I will not be running this race again. If you want an excuse for a trip to the mountains, it can be good for that, but I would not recommend this race for people looking for a competitive time or a smooth race experience.