This is the second year that I have ran the Portage Winter Blast Half Marathon and the course is the same as last year. The event also holds a 5k and new this year, a 10k. The 5k started at 8:00 (a little further up the road than the half and 10k) and the half and 10k started together at 8:10. Both races started on time. The half marathon and 10k run along the roads for the first 3 miles, then on bike trails for the next two miles. The first 5 miles have a couple of small hills but nothing to worry too much about. Soon after the 5th mile, the 10k runners and half runners split off.
The Half marathon course resumes on the bike path after the split. This is the section where the tougher hills come in. After mile 7, you are running back on the roads again. The city of Portage does a great job of ensuring that the runners have a lane of the road to run on. Right before mile 9 came the first challenging hill, on an overpass. Right after mile 9, it was back onto the bike path for basically the rest of the race. The head wind, plus a log of twists and turns between miles 10 and 11, and 2 more challenging hills at 10.5 and 12.5 miles really tests you. The finish is located in the local high school parking lot where the race began. I measured 13.1 miles exactly.

SWAG
The shirts for the half marathon and 5k were great. For some reason for the 10k runners, they were a different material. You can read more about that in my blog: Why My Wife Hates Her 2016 Winter Blast 10k Shirt (with good reason) – Daddy, Did You Win?
https://daddydidyouwin.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/why-my-wife-hates-her-2016-winter-blast-10k-shirt-with-good-reason/
But really, the half shirts were great.
Also, free race photos will be available later in the week.

Awards
Finishers medals were awarded to all half marathon finishers. Also plaques/coasters were awarded to top 3 in each age division. Looks like they were designed by an elementary student. Pretty cool!

Aid Stations
I believe on the course there were 5 or 6 aid stations with water or Gatoraid. All of which were staffed well and also very loud and encouraging.

Post Race Food
Wide variety of drinks (non-alcoholic) including chocolate milk, as well as cookies, chips, granola bars, and doughnut holes (my personal favorite was the red velvet doughnut holes).

For the price of this race (it was one of the cheaper half marathons I have races), it is worth the money. Very well run event.

The Niles Frigid 5k is held on the 3rd Saturday of January in Niles, Mi. It is a small town race with low flare and not much in extras as far as swag. It is a simple, small town race and I like that.
Packet pickup was from 10-8 on Friday and then a couple hours before the race at a bike shop just a block away from the finish line. Parking was pretty easy to find on race day and was right by the finish line. A negative (and it's not a big negative) is that you had to walk between a quarter and half mile to the starting line from where you park. But really, we are runners, we can walks little or include it in your warm up.
The race started from the boat launch parking lot in town and headed south along the riverine a gravel road. Most winters this would be snow covered but the day before the race, temperatures were in the 40s which melted all the snow and then froze over night making it very slick in a lot of spots. Also the melted snow left a lot of pot holes in the gravel road as well. Just had to watch your step.
The course was out and back basically with the first half being on a gravel road and the second half being on a icy bike path. Yeah, it may have been slippery, but it's also January in Michigan. That's kind of what you get this time of year. The view of the river along the finishing stretch made for nice scenery.
Swag: everyone who registered on time received a nice looking red tshirt with the race logo. Nice looking shirt but not a fan of Polly/cotton blend. Also if you registered early enough, you got personalized bibs.
The awards were also nice and original for age group winners. Top 3 in each age group received a snow flake medal with the race logo on it.
Overall it was a pleasant experience and a great small town event!

The 2016 Resolution Run was in its third year this year. This was the first time I have taken part in this event. The proceeds from this race benefit the local food pantry. The race had about 200 runners involved. Parking was easy as was packet pickup. The race starts at a local church in town which offers a large room for runners to come in and warm up before the race begins and after you have finished. There were also restrooms that were open to runners inside with no lines noticed. The course was well marked with cones and paint on the roads. The only reason why the paint could not be seen was that just a few minutes before the race started, it started to snow. But I did see the paint on the roads during my warm up, so it was there. The course starts in the church parking lot before taking a quick right turn, run a block down the road, then another right, run a couple more blocks then a left turn, a couple more blocks and another left (you get the idea. The first half a mile there were a lot of turns. After that the course straightens out. The course is an out and back course, so naturally, the last half mile had a lot of turns as well but wasn't as bad as the field of runners thinned out. The course was real flat with no real elevation changes on it. One of the aspects of this race that was great was the volunteers. At every turn there were volunteers, not only telling you what direction to run, but shouting words of encouragement. They really were some of the best volunteers that I have seen out at a race.
Post race, the food was good. Middleburry is in Amish country and there was cookies and donuts from local Amish bakery's, as well as fruit, water, and granola bars. Awards were give to the over all winner in both male and female and also to the top 3 in each age division (5 years). The tshirts could have been better. They were white and cotton, but this might be really my one complaint on the race. Other than that it was a very well organized race, great volunteers, and a great way to start off the new year.
For more on how my race went, feel free to read my blog review at https://daddydidyouwin.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/starting-2016-with-a-run-2/

After a year or two off, the 5k Santa Stroll was back for 2015. This was the first year that I have ran this race. The proceeds from the race goes towards Santas Pantry which is a pay it forward organization that strives to serve others expecting nothing in return. They even have classes for school age kids which focus on teaching kids how they can serve their community.
Course: The race is run in downtown Elkhart, IN. The race starts in public streets, makes two turns and is on bike paths/sidewalks until the very end. The first quarter mile is filled with some sharp/tight turns. So if you are a little further back, watch out. Most of the course is run beside the Elkhart and St. Joseph Rivers. It also involves 1.5 laps around the Elkhart Island which can be confusing making sure you don't turn off the island too soon. But the island is probably the most scenic part of the race. Along the course is one water station, a hot chocolate/cookie station, and a candy cane station. The course was very well marked, so other than the 1.5 laps around the island, it's hard to get lost. Plus at every turn, and there were a lot of them, there were a volunteers making sure you go the right way and encouraging.

SWAG: if you registered early, you were guaranteed a disposable Santa suit to wear during the race. I did not wear mine, other than the hat due to race morning temps at 55 degrees and also, they didn't look too comfortable. A lot of others did wear theirs however. The suits didn't have the race name or logo on them anywhere, so I would have rather had a shirt, especially silly given the $35 registration fee ($50 for a family).
Awards: fastest "Santas" (both male and female) won a medal and $25 gift certificate to the local running store. Age group awards were very generic ribins. very much a letdown.
Race Organization: this was ranked fairly low. I don't believe there were too many runners involved in planning this race. Just seemed somewhat disorganized and also took a while to do awards after the event, I would say about an hour and s half after the race started.
Post race food: this would get my highest marks. Donuts, subway sandwiches,cookies, fruit, granola bars, candy bars, water, hot chocolate. A very nice spread.

I am not giving up on this race in the future but would love to see some improvements made such as doing away with the Santa suits and going to race shirts. Also would like to see course improvements do the course isn't as crowded early on.

This was the first year of the Ugly Sweater Run, which supports the Elkhart Community Schools and the Tolson Center which provides after school activities for kids in town. The race was run on Saturday afternoon at 4:00.
Packet pick up was offered the night before from 6-8 at the towns Ice Skating park and before the race from 2-3:30. Instead of shirts for the runners, hats were given out. For a runner with a lot of race shirts, a hat is a nice alternative.
The race started on the streets for the first quarter mile. The first recommendation I would give to the race director is to change the start. 15-20 past the starting line was the first turn. Nothing bad happened, but if it was a colder day with ice on the roads, it could have been bad. After the first quarter mile, the rest of the race was on the city bike path/wider sidewalks. All the course was paved. There were several very tight turns at the beginning as well. The course was decently marked and not too many problems with following the course. It was apparent early on that the mile markers were way off. The first mile was at .9 and the second mile mark was at 1.5. The third mile mark was at 2.5. It was hard to tell if the finishline was coming up because of the location of the mile markers, but the course did end up short. Many of us measured it as 2.7 miles. The course was not too difficult as it was mostly flat except for a couple bridges you had to cross over the river.
Following the race, you were handed a button (kind of a finishers medal) and a ticket to go to a cafe about a block away and get hot chocolate and cookies for free (very tasty).
Awards were held right after the race. Not a wide variety of awards. Age groups were 15 and under, 16-30, 31-45, and 46 and over with only 1st place receiving awards. There was also awards for best ugly sweater as well. There was also a Santa there for pictures as well as a couple reindeer.
While the course was short, I did take the time to talk with the race director following the race. They were very open to recommendations to make the event better for next year. While the course was short, I can appreciate a new race director taking recommendations well. The race director did state they want this to be an event for both serious and non serious runners alike.
While some changes are needed, I would recommend this race in the future and plan to run it again next year.