The 2nd annual Honor Run took place on 11/15/16 (Sunday). Packet pickup was at the mall in Florence. The pickup was on Friday but conveniently for out of towners 3-9pm on Saturday night and supposedly Sunday morning. The packet consisted of a nice long sleeve tech shirt, a couple coupons for skyline chili and a sample. There was also a virtual bag that we for via email.

The race day itself was pleasant, 39F start (the year before was 19F). Sunny skies slight wind, going up to the 50s at finish. The mall was open early for us to warm up and use the bathrooms. The race was to raise money for the veteran flights to visit DC. At the beginning of the race they talked about their focus, said that they had increased by 200 participants from last year, sung the star spangled banner and we were off. There were maybe 5-10 veterans on motorbikes with flags riding with the runners that seemed to be watching out for the participants.

Every two miles there was a water/Powerade stop. There were people along the course giving out candy or tissues. No gu or other items at water stops that I saw. Port a potties were near most of the water stops. Course support was good. Lots of volunteers and cheering people considering the "cold" and rather ... Less traveled roads. We did use some of Florence's major roads, but the last part of the race (miles 5-11/12) where near the airport and on the highways coming into the city. The course to me (coming from flat central iowa) was rather rolling hills. Even some of the local participants mentioned the hills near a golf course. I didn't see the golf course but that may have been part of what I considered to be part of the airport. There was one kind of uneven area as we walked through a parkinglot at around mile 5. Overall, very good course. After the race, we did get an email stating that the cops had led us on a wrong way in the beginning and we were actually short 0.3 of a mile. According to my mapmyrun app, it said the course was 13.1, so I'm not complaining. They will fix that next year I'm sure.

From the back of the pack member, my experience was good. I knew going in that the course limit was 3 hours 20 mins. I had been doing pretty good until mile 5 when my hip went out and I had to walk the rest of it. At the end of the race, there was a cop, followed by a school bus, followed by a city vehicle picking up cones, and a street sweeper. At mile 11 the cop came up behind me and said that I had to get to a certain point in three minutes or I'd have to get on the bus. Being from out of town I wasn't sure where that was. And my hip was bothering me, I was really hoping and okay with getting in the bus. But I tried jogging a bit. The cop asked someone near me what time he had (2hr50 mins) and at that point the cop I'm assuming figured we were close enough to finish. The cop went ahead a little bit the other vehicles never passed us. As we got into the mall we had another .5mile or so in the parking lot to get to the finish, and at that point the cop left us and the bus passed us giving us a thumbs up sign. They were very sweet.

As I crossed the finish line, there were a lot of people standing around to cheer us in. They may have been there for the kids mile run that happened after. I received my medal, even tho I wasn't expecting one. The medal was super heavy and very nice from such a small race. There was food available, skyline chili hot dogs, oranges, bananas, chocolate milk, cookies..... An email was sent to me of my official finish time which I appreciated.

It was a very nice race and I would recommend it.

HF#11033.