In its second year, the Morgantown Thirteener is run on a weekend full of races in Morgantown, WV. Saturday features the Mountain Mama 8k with the Marathon and Thirteener on Sunday. Great mountain scenery also provides plenty of ups and downs as the small race rocks through the quiet West Virginia University town. I paced the 2:00 group to a few PRs and had a blast. Here are my thoughts on the important things:

Expo/Packet Pick Up - The expo is small but more than adequate with lots of parking. Since the race is small, you can breeze right through grabbing your number and long sleeve tech shirt. We also received four lottery tickets compliments of the West Virginia Lottery and I won $1! Hey, free money.

Overnight - The University had plots of goings on happening on race weekend even though the football team was away. Since there are tons of hotels, it wasn't a problem getting a room in spite of the activities. Prices are reasonable and they don't make you stay longer than you want.

Weather - The mountains in September can be rainy, humid, hot or cool. This year was cloudy after rain had poured down the night before but dry and somewhat humid. The temperatures in the low 70s kept things from getting too warm or painful.

Race Day Parking - There is no parking at the Start/Finish. You can be dropped off there or take the shuttle from the baseball stadium a few miles away. It's a roughly 10 minute ride to the start so be sure to take that into account in your race morning plans. The shuttles run constantly and brought me back after the race with only one other passenger on board. It definitely didn't feel like any inconvenience as they sometimes can.

Start - Plenty of Port-a-Potties with gear check and walk up registration. There's lots of room to warm-up in the Coliseum's massive empty parking lots (safety!). Especially with the clouds it was a bit dark but the post lights have a far enough reach that I was easily able to get a mile in with going too far from the Start. There aren't any corrals but with roughly 600 runners across both races we seeded ourselves pretty close to correctly. We went off right on time.

Course - The thirteener course is a big out and back square essentially. Great for spectators who can hang in the middle and see runners numerous times, it also means plenty of water stops and as much crowd support as you'd expect in a college town on a Sunday morning. There aren't a ton of turns but there are lots of rolling hills with a few short steep climbs (elevation gain 511 ft.). The full is "mountainous" and very challenging from what I heard, covering an entirely different path after the races split at Mile 6.5.

Course Support - With the out-and-back-ness of the course there are plenty of water stops. I noticed a few Port-a-Potties out there but not at each one. Two stops had snacks and there were CarbBoom gels at Mile 8ish. There were also sour gummy worms, oranges and animal crackers to snack on. Something for everyone. Volunteers were friendly and stops were well staffed. The police, fire and EMS did a great job directing traffic and keeping the runners safe. Crowd support was sparse, mostly families hanging out with their kids and friends of runners bouncing around to different points.

Finish - The course was long. I had 12.05 at Mile 12 and 13.31 when I crossed the finish. Rounding the Coliseum you don't see the Finish line until you're on top of it which can be a little demoralizing when you realize you have to run an extra hundred or more meters. I did take some turns wide since I was pacing and wanted my runners to be able to take the tangents but several other pacers had similar outcomes. Coming through the chute you get a nice medal, the middle spins, bottled water, bananas and Powerade. Continuing on, you have pizza, Panera, fruit and beer.

Party Time - I was antsy to get back on the road home so I didn't hang out long. It was easy to retrieve my checked gear, use a Port-a-Potty and grab a snack. You get two free drinks with your entry and I gave mine to a grateful runner.

The weather held out for a beautiful morning and I had a great time at the Morgantown Thirteener. It's a well organized race with a challenging course, great swag and good food.