Given this is my 4th year attending the Runner's World Festival (it's only been around 4 years), it's safe to say it's one of my favorite events. It gets better year after year. This year they added a Friday afternoon trail race that was 3.8 miles. Why 3.8 miles? Because when you add the trail race, 5K, 10K and half, you get 26.2 miles for the weekend. Pretty awesome! The trail race was such a nice addition. It was pretty, some challenging sections and well organized. There was even a trail seminar given by Golden Harper (founder of Altra) after the race. As usual the 5K and 10K were saturday morning followed by a day of running seminars including one by Deena Kastor. Sunday morning was the half marathon. I have run the Hat Trick (5K, 10K and half) every year so far so of course I had to run all four races this year. There was no official title for running all 4, however they announced for 2016 that it will be called the Grand Slam, I like it! As I've been saying every year, this is an event put on by running experts and people who love running and runners. They know what we like and how we would like an event like this. Everything is super well organized, everyone working, volunteering and running are all so nice and so supportive no matter your skill level. And this year they added free race photos and free beer after the half! I was a bit down after a DNF at my first 100 mile attempt the week before but just being in Bethlehem with all these runner's world staff and fellow runners, it picked me right back up and reminded me why I love running so much. There's literally no words that would do this event justice, it's just the best and it's worth the trip if you aren't local.

Here's my full blog post: http://runningmarathonmom.blogspot.com/2015/10/runner-world-festival-4-for-4.html