You would expect a night trail race to be hard, and it is. This race is limited to 700 participants, and it sells out every year. Headlamps and/or flashlights are required, as there is no lighting in the park. It's a lot of fun, running trails in a park that's usually closed at night. Almost makes you feel like a little kid running around in the woods. The park is really one of the prettiest places in Indianapolis, even in the winter. Much of the course runs right along the reservoir, and there are lots of deer around. There are some challenging sections of trail, but not impossibly hard. There are also some wooden stairs & bridges, which can get slick if it's snowing (which it was this year). The course is a 6.55 mile loop, so half marathoners run it twice. The trails are marked with reflective tape to show up in your flashlight beam. I did miss one turn and have to back track a little, but overall it was marked pretty well.

There are two aid stations along the loop, with water, gatorade, trail mix and sandwiches. The aid stations are lit up so you can see what you are grabbing. Most runners bring their own water and fuel as well.

There's not a lot of SWAG, but what there is is really nice. The shirt is a long-sleeved tech shirt, with the super-cute logo on the front, and "You're Only Cold If You're Standing Still" on the back. The medal is also really nice - the winter planet logo, with a mouth/bottle opener. If you run 2 of their trail races in 1 year, with at least 1 being a half marathon or longer, then you also get a Badass medal. Race photos are also free to download and share, which is always really nice.

Packet pick-up was at the North Face store, at the Fashion Mall on the north side of Indy. Kind of inconvenient for me, but since a lot of people live in those northern burbs it was probably convenient for a lot of them. If you picked up your packet there, you also got a drawstring backpack from the North Face. People who picked up their packets at the race did not get those. I'm glad I went to the North Face and got mine ahead of time, just because I avoided having to wait in line in the cold to get it, walk all the way back to my car, and then back again.

You do have to pay a $5 entry fee per car to get into the park, but all the pre-race communications included this fact, so it wasn't a surprise or issue. There is lots of parking inside the park, but of course everything close filled up pretty fast. I ended up parked about half a mile away.

There's an announcer at the Start-Finish line who calls out names as people run thru, whether finishing or heading out for another lap. It's kind of a nice touch to hear. Since there weren't many people when I came through to start my 2nd lap, he even added some details about my history of running their races. It definitely gave me an extra boost.

There was lots of food at the finish, even for those of us who took a long time to get there. Water, hot chocolate, donuts, chips, granola bars, sandwiches, and bananas. All the volunteers (who had to be cold since they were standing still) were so cheery and encouraging. I would definitely recommend this race, and I would totally run it again. See more about how I did on my blog post here: http://www.uglypaxtonsisters.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-2-7-recapping-winter-night-trail-half.html.