This is a fantastic race put on by the Black Hills Runners Club in Rapid City South Dakota that follows Rapid Creek. It's downhill on the way out for both the 5 and 10 kilometer event and uphill on the way back, but it's just a slight incline! The weather in late October has generally been fantastic running weather for a fast race and this typically gets a good turnout so you'll have plenty of people to run with :)

Here is a recap of the three day (for me) event!

Friday, June 2nd.

On Friday I drove to Deadwood from Rapid City and stayed at The Lodge at Deadwood. If you're reading this because you're planning on running Deadwood and need a place to stay, The Lodge's location cannot be beaten. It's where the expo is, slightly out of town so it's lacking traffic noise, has a fantastic restaurant (good pancakes!), they do not put a checkout time on your reservation so you can go back to your room to clean up, and I recommend the fourth floor facing the sunrise!

I worked the info desk at the packet pickup. The primary questions were in regards to the buses, and it's pretty easy to manage! Another reason to stay at The Lodge is that you can simply walk out the front doors and get onto a bus to the start line. Other hotels or people coming from out of town that are not being dropped at the start must walk to, park at, or get dropped off at the rodeo grounds in Deadwood. Staying at the lodge is nice because I could sleep in few extra minutes because all I needed to do was walk out the front doors and onto the buses.

Saturday, June 3rd. - Fast 5k

Going into the 5k I was going to watch my splits at mile one and two. If I was not on pace to PR with a sub 18:20, I would jog it in to save my legs for Sunday's half marathon. Well, I was hitting great splits and had a few people to chase, so dug deep within my suitcase of courage and got my first sub 18 5k!

This race is HOT. It starts at 1:30 or 2pm and was 75-80 degrees. It's a net downhill but on gravel, warm, and this day had a headwind - so I consider it a fair time. I ran 18:30 a couple months prior untapered, solo, and in similar temps.

Signup and day of registration are at the finish of all three events. They bus the runners to the start, 5k up the Mickelson. The event staff was not super clear on when the start actually was. Myself and possibly a few others were still warming up on the road along the trail when the gun went off. I ran past the start and was about to loop around when I heard the gun. I saw a few people run by and I jumped up onto the trail and joined them. My chip time was 18:07 but I'll take my watch time 😉 I should have been paying more attention.

If you're doing the half or full, I really suggest you take this opportunity and jog the 5k to become familiar with the final 5k of the half/full.

In the later afternoon / evening there is a runner social in Deadwood with free beer and munchies. It's free and nice to sit and chat with people, you should definitely take advantage of this.

Sunday, June 4th - The Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon - sub 1:23:10 goal

Like I said above, since I was at The Lodge at Deadwood I was able to simply walk out the front hotel doors and get on the bus to the start. Our bus driver was great and told people a bit about the area.

For nutrition pre-race, I had a GoMacro bar upon waking, a Honey Singer Waffle when we got to the start, and a SIS gel right before the start.

The course for this half is a net downhill with the climbing during the first mile and near the middle of the distance. Other than a super steep downhill midway, this old railroad path is super super gradual and slight elevation change. While it's a net downhill, the gravel certainly slows you and I consider this a fair course. If this was paved, like the half marathon in the nearby Spearfish Canyon, it would likely be one of the fastest half marathons in the country since it's such a perfectly slight downhill.

I was really, really, sore during the warm up. I hoped it would work itself out but it never did, this was a tough run. From mile 3-6 my left hammy was not cramping, but really tight. Just not firing like it should, I could not get much power from it. I suspect the change in form from the change in elevation with the uphill and then super steep downhill helped the hammy since that changed how my leg muscles were activating.

I ran a moderate effort for the first half, nothing straining (except for how my hamstring felt). I took the middle uphill fairly easy and then pushed it for the 5 to 3 miles. You can see half marathon splits below along with some play by play. The course looks really downhill but for most of it you can barely tell you're going down an incline, it's so slight that I tell people if they were blindfolded it would be difficult to tell.

Gear

-----For the 5k-----
Soleus Chicked watch
Injinji Toe Socks
SKORA Tempo running shoes
Tracksmith Van Cortlandt Shorts & Singlet

-----For the half marathon-----
Soleus Chicked watch
Injinji Toe Socks
BOA Shorts
SKORA Tempo running shoes
Immediately Pre-Race - Science in Sport Gel
45-Minutes Pre-Race: Honey Stinger Waffle
Breakfast - GoMacro Macrobar

-----Splits-----
01- 6:25
02 - 6:11
03 - 6:05
04 - 6:26
05 - 6:19 (6:17 avg so far)
06 - 6:43 (uphill)
07 - 6:46 (uphill)
08 - 5:54
09 - 6:20
10 - 6:08
11 - 6:18 (6:19 avg thus far)
12 - 6:17 (I know this marker was off, so this mile was probably slower)
13 - 7:21 (and this mile was no doubt faster than 7:21)
Finished at 1:24:07. 11th place out of 1714 total finishers (10th male).

6:25 avg. I can't believe I lost so much time over the final couple miles. I didn't feel like I slowed at all. It was also VERY demoralizing to go click the lap button at mile 12 and think I was on target to PR and then realize that it was so far off that mile 13 clocked in at a minute longer. But it's highly unlikely I could have made up that time had it been accurate, even.

My ending thought for the half was that I'm happy with this time. I was sore for the entire 13.1 miles from the 5k PR the day before and still ran my fastest time on this course out of three attempts 🙂 I think this is my fourth fastest half marathon thus far. I don't think I've been so sore immediately after or had DOMS for so long (still sore a week later) after a non-ultra marathon race. Running 5k at best effort and then 13.1 miles at best effort in two consecutive days was a traumatic event for my muscles!

This is one of the later in the year midwest half marathons, which is why I did it. I was able to run the Crazy Horse Half in October and then have a month to recover and sharpen back up for this Halfsy.

If you meet specific time standards you can get in to this event after it fills up, which is what I did.

I cannot say enough good things about this event. I LOVE the branding and marketing behind it. Pink Gorilla does a GREAT job really showing their passion for what they do. The social media is fantastic, the swag is some of the best I've ever seen, even just their colors, designs, etc etc is all SO well done.

As for the race itself. Packet pickup was a breeze. The starting area had plenty of parking and portapotties. We had an unseasonably warm day for Novemeber but if it was a typical November morning it would have been a very cold wait at the starting area. Luckily the cars are very very close by so you could wait in there if necessary. I gave some volunteers my drop back and was easily able to retrieve it at the finish.

The course goes all throughout Lincoln, but I honestly don't remember much of it. I know very little about the town so it was all just...town to me. Nothing much to see, but I was not really paying attention anyway ;) There does seem to be constant crowd support and the aid stations were great. The first 5k has a few hills and if you're a flatlander you'll notice them. The middle 10k is sort of rolling but nothing drastic and this is where the race's net downhill takes place BUT you don't really feel it since it's a rolling net downhill. The final 5k is fairly flat but there's a pretty steep uphill finish. You can see the stadium for a little bit off so you know when you're close but you have to climb that darn bridge to get to the finish!

The buses start going shortly after the first 100 people come in, so even if you finish up front you won't have to wait long to get back to your car.

Oh, and they provided free race photos!!!

My full recap: http://kylekranz.com/2016-good-life-halfsy-race-recap/

This was my third running of the Crazy Horse Half Marathon and it continues to be my favorite half marathon.

From the loop within the first three miles at the Crazy Horse monument that lets you run right up to the base of Crazy Horse and double back to see all of the runners to the 9.5 miles downhill on a great Rails to Trails gravel path throughout the beautiful autumn in the Black Hills to the free beer at the finish, you just can't beat this "little" event with about 1000 runners.

Full race recap: kylekranz.com/race-recap-crazy-horse-half-2016/

I can't really say much in the way of negative thoughts towards this race.

Starting and ending in the Fargodome was nice since it kept us out of the sun and any potential poor weather (which there was none). We drove to the dome and there was plenty of parking, however there are also multiple transport locations in town near hotels for to bus runners in.

The course is incredibly flat, there was plenty of shade, always at least a few spectators around.

If you need a ND race to check off your list or are just looking for a fast half/full, this is a great option!

Only not super parts of the race: Starting indoors, many people worries about getting a GPS signal. I used my phone so did not have this problem. The swag is better than your horrible ugly cotton shirt, it's a nice tech top, but the design/logo is a bit bland. Expo was fine. It's not a Portland/Seattle sized race, so they did well. Scheels sets up a huge area to purchase anything you may have forgotten.

Full race report: http://skorarunning.com/blog/2016-fargo-half-marathon-recap