Latest reviews by Mark Davidhizar

(2019)
"Rainy Mess but Very well run race"
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This is a race that I have now ran either the half or full 4 years and the first time it had really poor weather. Race day weather was temps in the 40a and off and on heavy rain. However, despite the poor conditions, the organizers did a great job on rolling with the punches and keeping runners informed on what was going on.

The expo was held on Friday (day before the race) at Carmel High School. The area of the school that the expo was in was crammed with vendors and other races. Did not seem like the area the expo was in was big enough. The process to get your bib and shirt was easy but still don’t understand why you can’t just get both of these items at the same table.

Race morning, as I mentioned was just pure rain leading up to the start of the rain. If the weather is bad, try to get there early and get a parking spot in the parking garage. This will give you a dry place to hang out and get ready. Parking in the garage was free.

The start corrals were well marked but very full. Since there was poor weather, the race decided to start everyone at once instead of in waves.

The course has a few gills, mainly at miles 10 and 16. There are a few rolling hills.
The course is well marked with no concussion on where it goes. Aid stations were full of volunteers. I made sure to thank every volunteer and police officer on the course for being out on such a bad day.

Overall, the city of Carmel once again rolled out the red carpet for runners and made every effort to make this a great experience. Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the race. Register early to save some money.

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(2019)
"First time, ready to do it again "
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The 8k and 2 mile walk took place on two very different courses.  The 8k was run through the streets of downtown Chicago, while the 2 mile walk was along the lake shore primarily.  Race day weather was perfect.  Temps were in the low to mid 40's with very little wind, and the foretasted rain showers held off for the morning. Tina and I had planned on having someone pick up our bibs for us from the expo on Saturday and we would just drive up on Sunday morning for the race.  We were fortunate enough to find a hotel room at about half price a couple of days before the race, and the hotel was only a couple of blocks away from Grant Park where the race starts and finishes. To save even more money on Parking, we took the South Shore train from Indiana Dunes to McCormick place where the expo was held.  We relied on the city bus then to get us to the hotel from the expo.
Expo
As mentioned above, the expo was held at McCormick place.  This is common for bigger races in Chicago but still some what of an inconvenient as it is not centrally located in Chicago and is away from down town.  Also making matters worse, there was Comic Con going on in McCormick place so this made parking a nightmare.  Thank goodness we did not drive.
The expo wasn't too large, and when we got there, it wasn't too busy.  When you go in, you go to the left side of the room to get your bib first, then you have to go a crossed the room to the other side to get your shirt and hat.  I am not sure why races make you do this all the time now.  They need to start making this process easier on the runner and just have the bibs and shirts together in one location.  There really is no need to separate these two things.
We did look around the expo some but really wasn't much that we were interested in.  I did stop by the Fort2Base table and introduce myself in person since I am one of their ambassadors for this years race.  One thing I was surprised by was that there was none of the official race merchandise for sale.  Nike is the official sponsor of the race, however, none of the official Nike race gear was at the expo. In order to get the Nike gear, you had to go to the Nike store, Fleet Feet, or wait until the post race party.
Race Day
Race was held on March 26th.  The start/finish line was located in Grant Park.  It is the same start/finish lines as the Chicago Marathon.  The park offers a wide space for gear check, after party, and long stretches of streets for starting corrals as well as for post race needs.
Prior to the race, a runners handbook was emailed to all registered runners which included all information that runners would need including maps of the course and start/finish area.  Clearly marked on the map was where gear checks were located. taking gear to gear check was easy and fast.
To get into your starting corral, you had to be able to show your bib to get in.  Each bib was clearly marked with what corral you were to start in.  You could move back corrals if you would like but you could not move forward.  Corrals were vary spacious and far from crowded.  Maybe this is also because I was in the very back and not in a hurry to move forward.
Corral A started promptly at 8:30 and went off very smoothly.  The course follows part of the marathon course especially for the first mile or so.  And just like the marathon is very flat until the very end when you turn onto Roosevelt.  There were 2 aid stations on the course, both announced to have water and Gatorade.   I did notice at the second aid station that there wasn't any Gatorade but I could smell it.  There was also no water and volunteers were scrambling to get water bottles off a truck to poor cups of water.  My guess is that the water they originally used was contaminated some how and had to dump the water and Gatorade that was poured out.  Luckily it was a cooler day and if you missed the second aid station, it wasn't a big deal.
There were spots along the course that had more crowd support than others.  There was a lot of dead, quiet areas along the course and it felt odd running in a huge city and somewhat feeling like you were alone.  But it was still awesome to have the streets shut down for the race.
Post Race
After crossing the finish line, you walk for a little ways until you get some water and food.  Food consisted of granola bars, apple sauce, bananas, and peanuts.  The bad thing was that there were no bags to put all this stuff in and it was hard to carry.  I believe Chicago has a ban on plastic bags, or you have to pay 7 cents per bag if you want one.  Further down the line, you got your finishers medal.
There was also a post race party around Buckingham fountain.  There you can redeem your beer ticket and catch up with friends.  There was also live music.  My favorite thing was that one of the sponsors of the race were giving out mugs of hot chocolate.  The mug was free as well so it was nice to have something else to take home from the race.
My expereince
The Shamrock Shuffle was a very well run/organized race.  There were no issues on the course or at the post race party that I could see other than the Gatorade issue.  For it being an 8k, I really did enjoy this race and the environment.  It would have been nice to have more people along the course, but compared to other races I have ran, there were a lot of people out there still.  It was great to also meet a few BibRave Pro's that I had not met yet as well as see several friends that I had not seen in a while.  I would say there is a good chance that I will come back and run this race again in 2020.

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(2018)
"A new 10k has been added"
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The Santa Stroll has been going on for a few years. I last ran it in 2015 when it was still only a 5k race. This was the first year of the event having a 10k race. The race is held in Downtown Elkhart, IN. The race supports Santa’s Pantry which is a pay it forward organization that operates year round.
Registration was done online or by mail. You could register early for $25. There was also a family rate that you could take advantage of as well. When you registered, you could chose between receiving a Santa suit or a race shirt. I went with the race shirt since I still had the Santa suit from 2015 and I knew I would not be running in the suit. Packet pickup was available in downtown Elkhart the night before or on race day.
The course, just like every race held in Elkhart, seems to change every year. The city can be difficult to work with when planning a race route, and then that’s still not sure thing that the course will work out on race day. More on that later.
The race starts in front of Elks Lodge in town and quickly makes its way to the towns bike paths and to the north side of town. A significant issue to the mornings race was the snow that started early in the morning and throughout the race. This created a slippery course that was out of the race directors hands. Not much she could do about it. Another issue, due to the snow, was that Welfield Gardens, which the course was supposed to run through, decided about 5 minutes before the race started that runners would not be allowed to run through due to the snow. This probably cut out about half a mile off the course.
Lastly, someone from the public, decided to remove, destroy, or hide some of the race signs from the course. This caused a lot of confusion from the runners especially on the second half of the race. Unfortunately, the volunteers didn’t seem to know the course at all. When all was said and done, i ran 5 miles. Before all the confusion, I was in 5th Place overall. No one passed me, but I think I ended up in 8th. Guessing a couple runners ran less than I did.
One of the best things about this race was the post race breakfast. All the food was donated to the race, and there was a very wide spread of delicious foods.
Overall, there were a lot of factors that were out of the race directors hands. I look forward to coming back in 2018. It is a fun race and really i didn’t hear people complaining about the issues with the course.

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(2018)
"Great Course, Great Support, Great Volunteers"
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The Columbus Hot Chocolate 15k was held on Sunday, November 18, 2018 in down town Columbus with the start/finish lines in the arena district. Weather was perfect with starting temps in the mid 30s with very little wind.

Expo

The expo was open for 2 days, Friday afternoon and all day on Saturday at the down town convention center. Parking was easy to find across the street and only cost $1 for each half an hour you were parked.
This was a smaller race expo than what you would find at major races. But it was easy to get your bib and race jacket. There were several vendors present, but seemed to only be a couple that were running related. There is an option to get your race packet mailed to you for a fee. For me, it might be worth paying the fee next year so I don’t use as much gas on the weekend.
As always, there were some chocolate treats for those at the expo to try. Call it an early sample of what you will receive following the race.

Swag

At the expo, participants picked up their race jacket. Every year, on social media, people get the opportunity to vote on the color jackets that runners want to see in the coming races. This years was black for men and a dark purple for women. Each year runners get a jacket, but the style changes. One year it was a thick/heavy hoodie, last year it was thick but no hood. This year it was a lighter weight hoodie. I appreciate the different style from year to year. The race also offered all participants free race photos which were up on the website later integrated afternoon.
Race Day

The Hot Chocolate Races have a 15k and 5k option. Both races start at 7:30 and run together for the first mile before splitting. This was a different course than what I ran in 2016.

There is Gear check located right by the starting line. I did not use it this year because I was actually parked close to the finish line. I had a heat sheet with me, so I left all my warm clothes in the car for me to put on quickly following the race.
Prior to the start of the race, a recipient of Make A Wish spoke about her experience with the organization. The race donates proceeds to Make a Wish. This was followed by the national anthem and then the start.

The course was covered very well by volunteers and police. There were officers at every intersection on the course. I made sure to thank every single one of them that I passed. They seemed very appreciative and even gave me words of encouragement in return.

The course had some rolling hills early but nothing too bad. It was a great course with running through some nice neighborhoods and around some of the towns parks and through downtown .

The course had 4 aid stations with water, Nuun, and Chocolate items. All the aid stations were very well maned with volunteers eager to help or to encourage runners.

The finish was just outside of the downtown hockey arena. It was a nice down hill for the last quarter mile or so.

Following the finish, those who did the 15k were given a bottle of water and their finishers medal. Each medal is city specific. The Columbus medal and a picture of the city skyline.

After the race you are able to go get your post race food. Of course it was hot chocolate and fondue. The post race party had a DJ playing music and plenty of photo ops. A couple of them had race volunteers ready to take your phone to take photos for you.

Overall, Columbus is my favorite Hot Chocolate race that I have run. It’s smaller than Chicago and I feel like they do a great job keeping runners safe and the volunteers were awesome. I would definitely recommend this race to anyone.

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(2018)
"Hilly but beautiful Half Marathon"
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This was my first time running the Indy Half Marathon at Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park. The race is held in Lawrence, IN which is a suburb of Indianapolis. Up until a couple of years ago, this was a marathon, half marathon, and 5k race. At the time this race began, it was one of only a few marathons in the state and was the only one in Indianapolis. Then a couple years ago, the original race comity decided to end the event.

However, the race management of the Monumental Marathon brought it back. They did eliminate the full marathon and keep the half and 5k going. With the new management taking over, they then created what is now known as the Indython. If you run any distance at the two races, you will get a third medal after the Monumental Marathon. As I have said, this is the first year that Tina and I have run this race, thus the first time that we have taken part in the Indython.

We headed down to Indianapolis the night before to the northeast side of town. Packet pickup was easy to find and right by the race course. There were just a handful of vendors at the expo and you were able to get your bib number and shirt and get out fast as you would like. There was some pretty nice race merchandise for sale as well. Packet pick-up went from 10:00am-8:00pm with no option for race day pick-up.
On race day, the race started at 8:30am. Most fall weekends, this probably not that bad, but this was a very warm day with temps in the 70s to start the race with high humidity. You were encouraged to get to the race at least by 7:30 to ensure partking across the street from the start/finish line. There was ample parking but I can understand their concern. While you are waiting, they did have camp fires going in the field to keep warm. I am sure this was more for the expectations that it would be a cooler morning.
The race started promptly at 8:30AM. The course starts outside of Fort Ben State Park for the first mile before entering the park. The first mile starts on the nice down hill. The second mile include roads and bike paths of the park before exiting on the bike path to local roads that boarder the park. Mile 3 was the start of the hills which continued through mile 4. Miles 3-7 were on the boarder of the park along rolling hills.
After mile 7, the course goes back into the park with a lot of the second half of the course was on bike paths. once again the bigger hills come back up and they were killers and continues up until about mile 11. At mile 11, you leave the state park again and start running the perimeter of the park to the finish. The finish was lined with spectators and besides at the start and around mile 4, this was the only place that had spectators because the state park was closed to the public for the race.
The course was lined with great volunteers at the aid station and also course marshals directing you where to go. The volunteers at the aid stations were primarily from the Indiana National Guard. They were a great support out on the course on a hot day. The aid stations were at miles 2, 4, 5.5, 7, 8.5, 10, 11, and 12.
The swag for this race was pretty on point. The shirt was a quarter zip jacket with the logo on the left side of the chest. The finishers medals were very nice as well. Not the largest medals but they were very colorful with a clear logo of the race on the front. After you cross the finish line, you are of course given your medal as well as a bottle of water, Clif Bar, banana, and a bag of chips. There is also a post race cookout. You could get a hamburger, bratwurst, or piece of pizza. There were also cookies and some other side items.
This is a tough half marathon, probably the toughest half that I have ever ran. The course had 351 ft of elevation gain which is just a little less than the total I ran in the marathon a week prior. With that being said, it was a beautiful course and would have been even better had the leaves started to change color (looks like that will happen later than usual this year). I got to see a state park that I had never been to before (too bad there is no camping). And it was a real challenge with the weather and the hills. If you are not looking for a PR and just want a challenging course, give this race a try

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