I've said it before and I'll say it again: I LOVE Fargo! This was my fourth year running the Full Marathon and my third time having a break-through, PR race. Run this race and you're set up to run fast!

EXPO: The expo was pretty quiet when my husband and I came in the mid-afternoon, which was great. This was a big 10-year anniversary "get away" for us, so he had Friday off of work and the kids were with grandparents! I picked up my lanyard to access the Elite Athlete staging area along with a key to the apartments we stayed at on the NDSU campus (across from the Fargodome). There were numerous computer stations to "check in" to get your race number and a person was there to help as well. This made picking up your number very streamlined! The expo had some vendors and a few snacks, which was nice. It wasn't as big as it was pre-Covid, but it was still nice just to be back to racing in person again.

RACE SWAG: The medals are always an excellent quality and nice design - Fargo does this so well. For the full marathon, we received an awesome, cozy race jacket w/ a quilted front and zip pockets. That was especially helpful considering how chilly it was over the race weekend! Runners received a drop bag along with a number tag for it.

COURSE: With all of the flooding in this very wet spring, I do not envy the responsibility that race directors have! They had to adjust the marathon course a couple times due to flooding and I appreciate that they did their best. The course had quite a few turns but we certainly weren't running in any standing water.- so job well done, race staff! Fargo is a pretty flat course, which is nice for running a fast race. I ran with runners for the first half and then was mostly solo for the last half, which gets a little lonely. Usually I'm always by someone in Fargo, but the runners around the 3-hour pace did spread out quite a bit. The cheering fans and music do help to lift the spirits though! I did run a 5+ minute PR and was so happy with that.

AID STATIONS: Fargo has plenty of aid stations! When I checked out the map prior to running, I thought they were at every odd mile or so. While racing, it ends up being plenty and they offer water & sports drink. Energy gels were offered at select stations as well.

POST-RACE: My appetite struggles after a hard effort but I couldn't resist grabbing some post-race food to snack on later! They had a selection of donuts, potato chips, chocolate milk, bananas, water and probably a couple other things I'm missing, too. Very tasty!

LOGISTICS: Whether I'm staying close to the start line or having to drive in, Fargo is fairly easy to navigate on race morning. They do have a race shuttle option that I have used in previous years, too. For the Elite Athletes, they offered complimentary housing on campus. I would definitely stay there again. The rooms aren't fancy but it's a quick walk basically across the parking lot to get to the race in the morning. That takes a lot of stress off before racing!

I highly recommend Fargo and plan to be back in 2023. Oh and don't forget the FREE race photos - that's a huge perk!