Prairie Fire is about the only 26.2 race close to those in central Kansas, so it's pretty popular for us. It is part of a Spring/Fall series, with a special medal if you complete both races. This was my first full marathon, and a very good course to take my first attempt. However, the post-race support for us slower runners left much to be desired. It was for the Spring Half as well, but I thought that was a fluke until the Fall race.

Packet Pickup/Expo:
There was an expo, which was better than the Spring race, but still not very big. There was a lot of extra space in the room for more vendors. Otherwise it was very well organized and easy to navigate.

Parking (Expo and Race):
There was plenty of parking available in the immediate area.

The Race:
I have no complaints about the course. It was fairly flat and easy to run for a first time marathoner. it wasn't quite Rocky Mountain scenery, but not too bad for a city course.

Swag:
The medal was very nice, as was the finishers tech shirt. We also received a cooling towel with race graphics on it.

Race Management:
The race itself seemed to be managed well. Everything went the way it was supposed to. The added feature of RaceJoy was very handy for my wife to follow me around on the course to cheer me on.

Course Support:
This is were I have an issue with this race. I noticed in the spring race that some of the post-race support was lacking. They ran out of Mylar blankets, even though there should have been enough for everyone. The food tables were getting scarce without many volunteers. I'm not fast, but I did finish in 2 hours, so my time shouldn't have been an issue. Fast forward to the fall, and I had an even worse experience. Now I did slow greatly in the last 10 miles, so I finished in over 5 hours. However, when I got to the finish line, all of the food tables appeared to be getting packed up, or they weren't manned. Again, there were no mylar blankets given.

There were enough hydration stops, but still disappointing. The water was warm and didn't taste all that great, and the gatorade wasn't much cooler.

Overall:
I enjoyed the race, and it was a good course to attempt your first 26.2 or PR. I was just disappointed in the support given to slower runners.