I entered this race last minute. I was slated to run my FIRST ever full down in Elroy this weekend but it was cancelled due to flooding. The stars aligned and I ended up here, FOR A REASON.

The swag..not much, a ticket to a spaghetti dinner was nice, I didn't go, we stayed out of town that night :-( the T shirts, well, they said they ran out of or didn't order enough smalls or mediums, so we were offered a shirt from last year, oh well, I guess I didn't come for the shirt (really) not like they had the date on them anyway (bummer). It IS a NO FRILLS marathon anyway right? YEP...

The course, HOLY WHAAA, does it get any better than this? I think not. After you get past the first 6 miles (which really weren't horrible as they were just back roads after all with very little if any traffic at all) we jumped onto the bearskin trail...WOW, gorgeous, crushed limestone trail thru some of the most beautiful north~woods peace and quiet you will ever witness, with tremendous beauty EVERYWHERE you looked. We crossed railroad trestles we crossed gorgeous little rivers we went thru wetlands, we went thru sand country, and we saw it ALL.

There were an abundance of well stocked aid stations with cookies, bananas, candies, all sorts of things that were appealing to the hungry hungry runner, friendly volunteers with encouraging words and Gatorade and water.

AND if that's not enough, THERE WERE PACE CREWS!! how is that not a FRILL?

So, the only thing that was a downer was missing sizes and year on the shirts, no AGE group placements, that's IT folks, this race is a must do for anyone wanting the most gorgeous full marathon out there, I could NOT have asked for a better first full...EVER.