Pre-race: packet pick up was a bit of a circus and I stood in line for 15 minutes, but they did wise up after about 10 and started involving the crowd in games and trivia and free stuff. Swag bag didn’t have many ads or info about other races which was kind of a bummer because I like to see what else is going on. Cotton t-shirt was great for the run though! The race did not start on time and was about 15 minutes late. They did waves, which was really nice, but it took a really long time to actually get to the starting line and I had lined up 35 minutes before supposed start time. For the first 2-3 waves, they were really good about throwing out free stuff to the crowd, but could only throw about 10 people deep in the wave about the run. I was in the 4th or 5th wave and they were hardly throwing anything 🙁 It was starting to get hot at 9a so starting on time would have been nice!
Course: I know it’s a rather informal, non-timed race, but they could have at least had mile markers. I heard many people saying they had no clue how far they’d run or how much they had left. it was a bit confusing because since we were running on an old air force base, there were runway markers and as one point we saw a “3” and got excited thinking it was s third mile marker, but it was for runway 3! Some of the dye throwing people weren’t very good at throwing it away from your face. I got it in the ear several times! Also could have done without the white dye, as it looked like bird poop. I saw one photog along the course and there weren’t any snapping shots of people crossing the finish line
Post-race: Seemed lacking from other races I’ve been at. Just a couple tents and some food trucks you could buy food from. Just seemed lacking in usual post-race tents and activities. There was a stage with a “concert” going on but it didn’t look that appealing.
Overall: It was a different experience but I am not sure I’d do it again. But then again there is much room for improvement so who knows! Maybe they should serve irish coffees beforehand… that would liven things up a bit! This was supposed to be “Christmas Themed” too (barf to that since it’s before Thanksgiving!) so I would have expected more red and green dye and more Christmas decor but there was none of that. Most of the dye was yellow and white with some pink mixed in. Seriously though, skip the white dye for future races!! Everyone wears white shirts and if it gets on your hat or pants it looks like bird poop.
