I loved this small town race!

This race is a point-to-point course on the Olympic Discovery Trail (an old rail trail) on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State from Sequim to Port Angeles. There is a 5k, 10k, half, full and relay option.

They held packet pickup on Saturday from 11-6 and it was also available on race day. The expo was held at the host hotel, the Red Lion Inn, right by the waterfront. It also served as the finish line for the race.

The expo/packet pickup was located on 2 different levels. You picked up your bib and bag downstairs, then made your way upstairs to pick up your race shirt and see the vendors. There were about 12-15 local vendors at the expo. All in all, I was in and out in under 10 minutes. We received quarter zip longsleeve shirts for running the race.

Since it is a point-to-point race, they bussed runners to the start area. The half marathon that I was running didn’t start until 8:30 am, and the shuttles were running from 6:45-7:30AM. The shuttles picked up right across the street from the host hotel/finish line so everything was very conveniently located. Shuttles were very organized and on time. The race started just outside the soccer fields in Sequim. They had water, Gatorade and porta potties ready at the start. They also brought in the local fire dept and they hoisted the American flag. Totally gave me goosebumps. The local marching band played the star spangled banner and we were off! We ran down the rural road and after just one turn we were on the Olympic Discovery Trail.

It was 70 degrees and 53% humidity at the start of the race, the hottest race they have ever head. The course was partially shaded through the forest but completely exposed in other areas. We started a section of rolling hills that went off and on for the whole midpoint of the race. Some hills were quite steep. The last 3 miles were flat and followed the shoreline, offering great views.

There was plenty of water and Gatorade, roughly every 2 miles along the course. There were little markers along the way for each mile. The finish area, which was rather congested, was all along the waterfront. There was fruit, chips and salsa, fig newtons, bread, the most amazing yogurt parfaits with half frozen fruit (so refreshing!), ramen noodles, popsicles and coffee, lemonade an iced tea. Your race entry also gets you a free beer in the beer garden from a local brewery. However, that was very hard to get to, you had to walk all the way around, through the hotel restaurant and back out on the lawn of the hotel.

I only have 2 suggestions for improvement – I would move the start time up if possible, it really was quite late and made it more difficult to run in the heat. Secondly, I didn’t receive any pre-race communications at all. I started to second guess if they even had me on the list.
All in all, this was a very well organized, small town race with great scenery. If you have the chance to take advantage of it in the future, I highly recommend it!

This is my 4th year in a row doing the Esprit de She run in the Tempe/Mesa area. Historically, the 5k/10k has been held separate from the tri/du, which is in the spring, and the run fell on a weeknight in october. It was usually very hot and very dark for the run. I am thrilled that they combined the races into one event in the spring.

When I signed up, they were offering a number of incentives. In addition to a nice performance quality tank, they were also offering a Moxie performance running skirt. This is also the first year they gave a medal for the run only portion, so that is always a huge plus in my book.

There was good pre-race communication about packet pickup, parking, etc. There was packet pickup the afternoon prior to the race. I had a friend pick up my packet, so I missed the actual "expo".

There was plenty of free parking, This race is all women and it brings out ladies of all shapes and sizes - especially for the duathalon. It's a great experience for most to do a du for their first time. The race started on time, but had a really strange wave start - like every 5 seconds, but there was no obvious division between waves. Hard to know which one you should start in.

The course was a super easy out and back for the 5k along the lake, with a few inclines. The post-race finish area had many vendors, but the highlight was brunch from a local restaurant and the "bubbly bar" which included 2 free mimosas. It's a nice touch. Because it's all women and presumably because it fell on mothers day, there was also an area where you could put together your own potted plant and take it home. Although the idea seemed nice, it was rather chaotic. I think they should just have them pre-arranged so we're not down on the ground scrounging for potting soil.

They had awards, but the age groups were the wide groups that span 10 years instead of 5, so only a few winners. They offered free race photos through a sponsor which was also a nice touch.

I hope they decide to keep these events together, and bring back the 10k option. It was a very well - priced event, I will do it again!

I have shied away from this race previously due to the difficulty and reputation it has based on the hilly terrain. It takes place in Prescott, AZ, a mountain town about 2 hours north of Phoenix. The temperature here is always about 15-20 degrees cooler than in the valley.

There is a 2 mile, 10k, half and full option to this race. The race was $80 for the full and included a tech shirt and medal.

Packet pickup was the day before at the local YMCA, which is the title sponsor. The expo had a handful of local vendors.

The race starts outside the saloon on Whiskey Row in downtown Prescott. There's a shotgun start from an old west costumed guy and off you go. The out and back race starts around 5300 ft. elevation and climbs up to 6300 at the half way turn. It's on the roads, through some neighborhoods and up into a forested area where you run on a dirt road for the last mile before you turn around.

There were plenty of water stops and gatorade at every stop. The weather was in the 60's and sunny with mild humidity. The full marathoners started an hour earlier.

The race is pretty well organized. It is an open course, so when you're completely exhausted, moving over a few feet for a car to pass can be a chore.

The scenery is very nice, especially around the forested areas. The second half of the race is much more downhill, but still has some rollers in there to break things up.

At the finish, there is a nice selection of treats including pizza and every snack food imaginable. The medals were nice, and awards were 3 deep for each age group. There were just over 400 participants in the half. It was never crowded. It has a great small town feel.

I would recommend this race, with the disclaimer that you need to be prepared for mega-hills and elevation, so plan and train accordingly!

Rock n Roll Dallas was never on my radar. I switched to this event after I fractured my fibula at the end of 2015 and was unable to run in the Rock n Roll Arizona half as a St. Judes Hero.

Pre-race communication was good, plenty of reminders and instructions were sent to us. I picked one of the partner hotels that was within walking distance (.5 mile) to the start. Luckily I did not have to deal with the expensive parking fees.

I felt that the expo was a big disappointment. The DFW Auto show was going on at the same time at the convention center, and ALL the signage was for that event. Not one sign could be seen from outside the building. I was getting frustrated until I was inside the building and roamed around and finally saw a sign pointing to the expo. This expo was significantly smaller than RNRAZ – just a few rows of vendors. And some really weird vendors were in the mix – rebath companies, gutter cleaning? Random. Goodie bag was minimal – just a few snacks and coupons plus the shirt.

The weather on race day was upper 30s and windy. The start area was fairly organized. I utilized gear check for a jacket, and was super glad I did. The race started on time which was nice. Even though it was a Rock n Roll race, there were just under 10,000 runners and I never felt overly crowded.

The course had us running through the Deep Ellum district, and came back towards the start. Then we went on the freeway ramp and headed across the Trinity River on to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which was a cool sight to see. There were plenty of water stops and they handed up Glukos chews and gels, which was nice.

Somewhere around mile 7 or 8 there was a ridiculously large hill, and plenty of rolling hills in the second half. The finish line was actually up a hill. We ran under and overpass, and then the finish was at the top. The cold and wind was awful once you stopped moving. At the finish we had our complimentary beer, and there was also water, gatorade, chocolate milk, bananas and chips.

The medal and shirt were nice. This race didn't seem to have the same "energy" as other Rock n Roll races, and I'm not sure why there is no full option here. As an "out of towner", I would not travel to do this race again, but would consider it if I was local.

This was the first-ever hot chocolate race in Las Vegas. I was scheduled to run it last year, but it was cancelled due to construction issues. I have ran the HC 15k in Phoenix, so I was looking forward to the same level of excitement -if not more - because it was in Las Vegas!

The pre-race communication was great. Lots of emails leading up to the race. There was only packet pickup for 3 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Saturday. Not easy to find, either. Luckily it was in our hotel, but still no signage to get you there. And once we found packet pickup, it was a mostly empty room with just bare bones tables to pick up the essentials. I remember the inaugural phx race, it was in a rented out retail store and at least had pumping music, several booths from local vendors, photo opps - just way more energy. So that was a disappointment. I liked the embroidered jacket that came with it, as opposed to a t-shirt. I'm not sure why men got orange and women got blue, my friend who did the race who is a man wished he had the blue, and I wished I had the orange. Oh well!

The race started at the High Roller ferris wheel by the LINQ. We had a great backdrop for the race. The start area was pretty desolate though - just a few tents and hot chocolate inflatables that were set up way far out, not sure why they did it that way, unless they were expecting a larger crowd? I had to look hard to find the iconic happy marshmellows that are the mascots for the race. The 5k started at least 15-20 min late and the 15k started 10-15 min late. No idea what the hold up was.The race was small enough that I'm not sure we even needed corrals, but they did do a wave start. The course went out on the strip for like a minute before it turned off and became less and less scenic as we continued. The route was a bit of a disappointment, parts of it were an out and back on a highway with a long incline. It was a warmer than usual day for February, but luckily there was plenty of shade (and downhill!) on the way back.

There were m&ms on course, which I took advantage of. They were just sitting out in cups like "help yourself". might have been more effective if there was someone there yelling "m and m's" and handing them out. A guy next to me grabbed a cup thinking it was water and then laughed and said it was a cruel joke that they were m&ms not water. There was lots of water stops with nuun hydration, which was great. Volunteers were great, too. My gps showed the course to be a bit long, like 9.7 instead of 9.3.

At the finish we received our medals, which were nice. And we also got the famous chocolate cup with dippers and chocolate and hot chocolate. The cups had older branding on them, they had 10k and 5k on it.

If you're doing the race for the fun chocolate experience, I do recommend it. I hope that they are able to build out the race expo, and make the start/finish experience more fun in the future to match the HC races in other markets. It really has the potential to be epic when you put Vegas and Hot Chocolate together.