Packet pick up was crazy. The signs said you could enter at 3 different gates. Only one gate listed was open and there was a second one open not listed. We wondered to the expo. It was fast and easy to get bib and shirt and pay for the discounted parking. The expo was nice and bigger than the last Half Marathon I ran. was disappointed that we couldn’t register for the huntington half marathon for next year at the expo.
We booked a room from the website for runners discount and they didn’t have our room ready and couldn’t get checked in till a later time. We left and came back from dinner and our room changed again and our bags were not in our rooms. The hotel only offered 2 people for the shuttle to the race, so we opt to drive to the fair grounds and park to take shuttles to start line. shuttles to start were friendly and fast to get us there.
There were way fewer portapotties than the last half marathon and waited a while to use. The bag check in went slow be we had plenty of time to get to the start line. Not to mention the small bag we had to put our stuff in. The corals were only four and the people over flowed them. they needed bigger corals to hold the people.
After the start we were clueless when the next portapotties would be on the race. some areas only had one or many. They had plenty of water and Gatorade stations. When we got to the cliff shots they were out. glad we brought our own stuff for the race.
At the finish line they handed medals out and you continued to walk and get some water and a bag full of some treats to eat afterwards. if we wanted the orange, we had to peel it. Would have been nice if it was sliced in a baggie or something. There were no banana’s. the band that performed was awesome. loved them. Waiting for our bags we checked in at the start line was a joke. they had too many numbers in to few ups trucks. we waited 40 mins to get them. there were a lot of vendors open and the food smelled good. it was hard getting back to our parking spaces because the finish line was at the middle of the parking area. there should have been signs that directed you to the different parking sections.
the course was beautiful and we went through many nice communities and it was cool that they came out and supported the runners. I wasn’t prepared for all the hills even though the race ended at a lower elevation then the start. Watching the video of the course made it seem like a simple downhill course, it wasn’t. I would do this race again in the future, but would like to be better informed of what will be on the race course.