Madison Mini-Marathon

Madison Mini-Marathon

Madison Mini-Marathon

( 41 reviews )
100% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Madison,
    Wisconsin,
    United States
  • August
  • 3 miles/5K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, Virtual Race
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Laura

West Allis, Wisconsin, United States
45 26
2014
"2014 Madison Mini"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Laura 's thoughts:

This is my second year running the Madison Mini and my first year completing the M2 Challenge (run both the Rock 'n Sole Half Marathon and the Madison Mini Marathon, get a third medal!).

Overall, I love this race. Easily one of my favorite races and one that I will continue to run every year.

T-shirts/SWAG: I really wish that the race management would offer the women an XS shirt option. I ordered the small two years in a row and it is easily 2 sizes too big on me. So now I have two shirts from this race (last year and this year) that I can't wear. What doesn't make sense to me at all is that the "in training" shirt for this race fits me just fine. Besides the tech shirt, there is a "virtual race bag" that gets e-mailed to all participants with coupons, etc. I can't say I've ever used any of the coupons because they're all for Madison-area businesses and I don't live in Madison.

Aid Stations: I have to say that out of all the 1/2 marathons I've done, this one is hands down the best in terms of aid stations. They are very evenly spaced and I feel like there are more of them towards the end, which is really nice since the weather tends to get warmer towards the end and I always end up wanting to drink more (I don't like to carry a bottle with me when I run). The cheer stations were awesome as well.

Course Scenery: This course runs through downtown Madison, through some beautiful neighborhoods and through the Arborateum, which not only keeps you shaded but provides a very serene backdrop for the race. Towards the end, the course runs through the UW campus and back to the Union, where the after-party is.

Expo: The expo for this race is quite disappointing, I feel. Packet pick-up is only one day (all the other 1/2's I've run have the expo for two days) and there are very minimal vendors, 5-8 at the most. The space for the expo is very small and parking for the expo is nonexistent. My husband dropped me off and circled some blocks waiting for me to come back out, as there is quite literally nowhere to park.

Elevation/Difficulty: This year the course was changed to include Camp Randall and more hills were added. I didn't anticipate how challenging those hills would be, especially the Cemetery Hill. It did provide quite the challenge in endurance for the race.

Parking/Access: Parking is a nightmare and quite expensive. We parked in the structure on Langdon and paid $12 for 3 1/2-ish hours, which I think is ridiculous. Most of the structures were full well before the start time, which makes it harder for spectators that come a little bit late to find someplace to park. Then, you always have to walk a few blocks to get to the start/finish lines.

Race Management: I feel that the race management for this race does an awesome job of communicating with participants, sending out e-mails, updating the website and Facebook and Twitter, and ensuring that participants have a great time. I think the post-race party location should be changed because it's simply too small to be enjoyable for the amount of runners and spectators that are there.

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