What a huge difference from 2014. I even recruited 4 of my friends to run this race after having a great experience last year and boy, I was embarrassed. There were confusions about where the pasta dinner was -- and no, it was not where they kept telling us on the email. We went to the resort to get their past special and they had no clue - despite the flyers being up everywhere in the restaurant areas. We waited an hour for our food before we walked out. Drove over to Subways near the Interstate.

We did camp this year and they didn't bother to mow the camping areas as they did last year. So we were trying to sleep on thick, stubborn roots and grass.

Race start was the usual ~ they still had a lot of porta potties available (yay!). They changed the course this year and though we did plenty of climbing, I did notice that it wasn't as bad as last year. It did cause confusion on several courses, particularly the 10k runners who got lost due to poor marking.

The meadow portion of the course was there again - still not a fan. The upside to this portion of the race is that we pass through the best aid station in the race. Lots of music, food and drop bags. The downside of this station is only 1 porta potty.

The rest of the course was the same - still challenging to climb back up and over the second time around. The finish line was awesome! Plenty of people cheering us on.

Here's where it all goes downhill... There was no beer. The trailer was there but we were told no beer. What drove me crazy was that the volunteers were opening drinking their ice cold beer. There was also hardly any food left -- and there were still 50M runners out!
We waited around for the drop bags to return but eventually, we drove out to the area to pick them up ourselves.
Many people complained about the management & lack of communication and the email we received from the race management was weak. They blamed a lot of the issues at the resort & didn't really apologize for their part in it. Supposedly, the course will be held in another part of Devils Lake.
I'm hoping for a successful return of an awesome race. I was anticipating another amazing race but it fell far from what I was expecting. I will return again next year ~ still love the challenge.
But I'll bring my own food and beer :)