I have so many thoughts about the Polar Dash. Let's start with the positive. Despite all of it's high profile problems, Team Ortho does put on a well organized race. Or at least, this one was. Packet pick-up was at a Sports Authority, which was nice and easy to find in the cities. The swag you get for this race is second to none. A beautiful 1/4 zip, a useful buff, and a hideously ugly, but extremely warm, penguin hat. I wear that hat for all my cold weather runs and races now.

On race day, the heated pavilion was great, as temps were hovering in the high teens on New Year's Day. The race had staggered starts for the Half, 10k, and 5k. I think it would be better served to start all at once, but more on that later. Overall, the race is solid as a majority of it is on roads and bike trails.

Now for the negatives. First of all, I alluded to it earlier, but Team Ortho has had some high profile problems, of which I would label "sketchy" at best. But that doesn't bother everyone. Not a fan of the parking situation. I know it was due to the location, but we had to park fairly far away. Normally I wouldn't mind walking to the start, but in cold weather, that wasn't very pleasant. The double out and back nature of the course wasn't my favorite. But where that ran into problems was in the last 5 miles or so when the Half catches up to the 10k runners. Weaving around runners isn't conductive to running or racing. If all races started at once, a lot (but not all) of this would be avoided I think.

All in all, I would be hard pressed to not recommend this race. It is well run, plus it's one of the only January races longer than a 5k.