I received free entry to this run courtesy of Salem Hospital. Thus, I didn't know I was running this race until a week prior!

This was a great race for a great cause! The money was raised for The Center for Hope & Safety which is a group that helps domestic violence survivors. The course was on a closed campus of a local police academy (I believe?) which was really neat. For warm-ups, there is a fun exercise trail that I got to explore before running the course. The course itself has many turns, and is a 5K loop that you run twice if you are a 10K runner. Here (https://www.strava.com/activities/1888145769) is a link to my Strava data from my run just so you can see the amount of turns you run during the course. It seems to be on a closed practice driving course, and so it is mostly flat with only the slightest of inclines. Thus, the course feels rather fast. I did get misguided during my run once due to the volunteers not really know which turn I was supposed to take, but this was not a major issue. Aid stations were well-placed and the volunteers were very helpful in getting water to the runners.

T-shirts/swag: There is only a T-shirt included with your entry fee if you register early enough, but the T-shirt was a nice cotton t-shirt with a fun artistic design. It was so soft it quickly became my lounging around shirt! There is no other swag, unless you place top 3 overall in your gender. Then there were water bottles (blue, red, green respective for their place). There was no mention of finisher medals at all, so I was pleasantly surprised when someone handed me a medal as I crossed the line.

Parking: Really easy and ample parking. Close to the start and it's within the closed campus so you don't have to worry about it. It really couldn't be any better!

Timing: The timing is well-done by a local company that does MANY races of all sorts of competitiveness. Some runners noted that their GPS only clocked 6 miles, but my Garmin Forerunner 230 clocked 6.3 miles. Note that I was turned around and had to run some extra, but I don't believe that was more than 0.1 miles, so I think the course was the appropriate distance.

Overall: The race was great! It's fast if you want it to be, and it's laid back if you're just there to support their excellent cause. I will definitely be returning to support the cause next year.