Jungle Run Half Marathon
Jungle Run Half Marathon
( 1 review )-
Los Gatos,
California,
United States - July
- 13.1 miles/Half Marathon
- Road Race
- Event Website
Erin
San Jose, California, United StatesOverall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Good experience at the Jungle Run, the second event from the folks at FirstWave Events I've run in 2014 (the other being the Santa Cruz Half Marathon). The course started and finished at Los Gatos HS and took runners through a handful of residential and commercial areas between miles 1-4ish before picking up the Los Gatos Creek Trail (I think) from miles ~5-11ish. There's a fair bit of climbing on course, something I wasn't expecting, but it was manageable at ~500' total and was nearly constant ups from ~5-11. The event also featured a 10k option, which began later than the HM (I think), which made for a little congestion on the somewhat narrow paths that wound around the dam at the LGCT, but again, it wasn't too bad (and truth be told, it was nice for this runner to at least have some company and some other runners within sight!). We hooked up with the 10k folks around HM mile 9ish, split from them do to an out-and-back (which was mentally annoying and shitty) uphill between miles 10-11 or 11-12, and then did a 300m lap around the HS track before finishing on the adjacent grassy area.
This is my second event with FirstWave Events, and I am again impressed with the race's organization and quality. Runners got a nice v-neck technical (or at least the women's was) t-shirt, along with a medal, and AG placers all got funny little tiger tchotchke things (in keeping with the jungle theme). Only weird thing was that the AG weren't the typical groupings--mine was 30-39--but not a big deal. And finally, besides the great organization, tough course, and high quality, the post-race runner refreshments were awesome. Shaved ice FTW.
Definitely a good race experience and worth doing again, but I wouldn't expect extremely fast times, just due to the course.