Signed up for the Hayden Lake Half Marathon initially and my plan was to do back to back halves with the Spokane Half Marathon the next day, however plans changed race day.

Packet Pick up: either at the Kootanei Fairgrounds the Friday before the race (essentially just bibs, shirts, etc there) or on race morning. Some vendors present on race morning though.

Parking: literally on the side of the road leading up to Honeysuckle Beach. It's a small race, but still that seemed so odd to me. I was really hoping nothing was hidden underneath the pine needles to punch a hole in my tires.

Race Distances: Marathon, Half Marathon, Quarter Marathon

Start Time: marathon at 7:30 AM, Half Marathon at 8 AM, Quarter Marathon 830 AM

Pre race: While walking to the race start, I noticed cones on the sign of the road with different colored arrows. The marathon had started as I was walking to the start and the marathon runners were essentially running on the side of the road. At that point, decided to go from the half to the quarter marathon

Want to switch races: not as easy as dropping down or going up to whatever distance you want to switch to. You literally had to go to the timer and tell them what race you wanted to go to so they could move your number to that race, the system wasn't smart enough to know if you were starting a certain time, you were with whichever race was going off

Pre race announcements: not your typical, get to the start, etc. We were running on an open course and cones/colored arrows were marking the course. No more than 2 people across. If you wanted to pass, you had to do it on the inside. If you were going too many people across, in the middle of the road, etc, you were penalized: first a verbal warning, than a 5 min addition to your time then DQ'ed. Did I see this enforced on course? absolutely not.

The course: it's Idaho, there's hills. You'll see some so be ready. Had to know what colored arrows to look for (marathon- blue, half-green, quarter-white), but there were times where two distances were on the same roads, but only one colored arrow. Just over a mile in, some of us were so confused because the white arrows weren't there. Things thinned out some, and there was a pretty decent hill between miles 2-3 (my time showed it). Then it was pretty much down hill with some of the same course on the way back. Saw people in the middle of the road at time and all types of versions of passing. There were some pretty questionable road intersections we passed through, though they had people there. One of them you could go straight or left with traffic coming towards you in addition to behind you.

Post race: some food, water, post race vendors. Not to excited

Not going to lie, I'd rather save the 50 minutes it took me to get to the race than go back next year. Almost felt like something you'd do on a group run, but if you're local, it's an option