I immediately fell in love with Coeur d’Alene. It is a beautiful, clean, and friendly little town right along side a breathtaking lake. I can see why you would invest in a lakefront vacation home here!

The course starts in McEuen Park, takes you by said lakefront homes, and then out along the northeast shore of the lake. This 8 mile out-and-back portion of the race was by far my favorite. There is hardly a step you take where you are not able to see the glistening lake. You do battle one incline at mile 5 and again at mile 11 on the way back. It ended up being not as detrimental as I thought it would be since it was relatively short and still at the first half of the race. The last 10 miles take you back through the park and headed north on the North Idaho Centennial Trail. I wasn’t a huge fan of this part of the race since it takes you away from the lake (the first 16 miles spoils you) and you merge with all of the other races. This results in a little more congestion than I normally prefer for the later stages of the race. Overall, it was a stunning course with a fun amount of difficulty!

The aid stations were plentiful and fully stocked! Every station had plenty of water, Gatorade, and Gu in addition to the friendly volunteers cheering you on. The only setback here would be the congestion on the second out-and-back and trying to dodge other runners headed both directions.

The swag was great! The lightweight hoody will come in handy for training in the inclement PNW weather come winter and their logo is pretty sweet. The medal was cool as well! If you ran all three races in the series, you could put them together with the magnets along the edge.

Due to COVID safety, there wasn’t a formal expo… BUT they had amazing wraps at the finish and complimentary massages. So I’m going to count that towards their expo points 😉

Parking was plentiful near the park and my buddies were able to follow me along the first 16 miles and pull off at viewpoints along the trail.

Overall, this was an extremely well managed race with thorough communication before and after the event. I would not hesitate to sign up for another Negative Split event in the future!