Run 4 Troops Marathon, Marathon Relay Run / Walk. Heritage Trail - Dyersville, IA - Dubuque, IA. Saturday, June 28, 2014. Humid 70-80 degrees, cloud cover.

Military Style race. Hydration was only thing advertised on course, at each relay exchange; carry anything else you needed with you.

Registration: Available online for $75 or through mail entry form. Relay teams could have 2-12 members for $35 / person. Included with registration was the trail fee, race bib, shirt (unisex tech), timing chip bracelet.

Packet Pick Up / Pre-race: You could pick up your packet the Friday before the race or race day morning. The race is point to point, there was a shuttle from Dubuque (finish) to Dyersville (start). You could also make arrangements as parking was available at the start and finish. There were plenty of port-o-potties at the start. The National Anthem was sung live after lots of announcements.

Race / Course: Entire course is run on the Heritage trail, which is crushed limestone & flat. However there were paved sections and inclines /declines near major road intersections. The majority of the trail was shaded. There were 6 legs & 5 exchanges for the relays, this is where the water & Gatorade stops were. Liquids were in a variety of cups from paper to plastic. Some of the stops had pretzels. Each mile was marked with a sign. There were volunteers at the road crossings. One road crossing had a sprinkler set up. There were port - o- potties, but you had to keep an eye out for them. The spectators were in the form of relay teams at each exchange, there were also family members. If you wanted a time split, you could slide your chip across a box at each exchange. The legs were not even, 6.6, 4.4, 3.6, 4.5, 3.4, and 3.7 miles.

Post Race: After crossing the finish line, & sliding the timing chip across the box a volunteer handed you a dog tag medal and a bottle of water (powerade or chocolate milk.) There was an announcer reading names as runners came in. The finishing area was spread out, there was one small tent with apples, bananas, and grapes. By the time I finished there were empty pizza boxes and 20 ish cookies.

Overall: Decent price, flat course, and the time of year are the major factors in deciding whether I would run it again.