Latest reviews by Tina

(2016)
"The Biggest Little Race You'll Ever Run"
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The third annual Randy Miner Memorial Country Run was on June 11, 2016. The Randy Miner Run has two race distances - a 1 mile race and a 4 mile race. The 1 mile race is run at 4:30 in the afternoon followed by the 4 mile at 5:00. Being an early June race you never know what the weather will be like - last year there were storms and this year was heat. The temp was in the low 90s with a real feel in the high 90s.

Packet pick up was just before the race where you got your bib, shirt, and a few coupons from the local sponsors. You also put in the bottom of your bib for door prizes which would be given out after the awards. The race director, Todd (a good friend of ours we've gotten to know pretty well over the last few years), always has a good variety of door prizes from hand crafted award shelves to running related books to training logs to dvds and then the final big door prize is a 55 inch smart tv - you wanna make sure you stick around for the door prizes lol.

Awards are given to the top 3 overall and the top three in each age group for the 4 mile and then the top three overall and top 1 for each age group in the 1 mile race. Top 3 awards in both races are hand crafted (by Todd) wooden clocks and the top awards for age groups in the 1 mile is a wooden plaque. Very cool awards in my opinion.

The last two years I have run the 1 mile race with my daughter who is now 8 and this year was no exception. However, after seeing the top female in my age group won with a time of over 12 minutes I decided to ditch my daughter and see if I could come home with some hardware lol. The race started right at 4:30 has us go around a baseball field in a grass area for about a quarter mile and then we get on the roads for the last three quarters of a mile. We got through the town of Etna Green and then end up right back where we started. My garmin had a distance of 1.03 - I don't think you can get more accurate than that lol.

After the 1 mile, the 4 mile takes off right at 5 and is basically a big rectangle. My husband will have to give you more details about that one. You can read his review at https://daddydidyouwin.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/randy-miner-memorial-country-run-some-days-you-just-dont-have-it/

At around 6:00 they started with the 1 mile awards while the rest of the 4 mile runners were finishing. After awards they started drawing for door prizes. When all the smaller door prizes were given out they put all the names back in the hopper and then drew for the tv - and guess who won? Yep, me!!! It was a nice surprise to an ending of a great little race lol.

You can read more about my race at https://parentteachrun.wordpress.com/2016/06/16/hot-hot-hot-randy-miner-memorial-run/

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(2016)
"A Great Cause"
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Allowing Christ To Shine (ACTS) is an organization dedicated to help the children of Haiti and have even built a school for the local children to attend. With this race, they not only wanted to raise money to feed the kids at the ACTS school but also wanted to help the local cancer community by giving a donation and buying benches for the community to enjoy and remember all those families affected by the disease. When registering you had the option of getting a race shirt (cotton) or a race tank (also cotton). I thought it was fun they gave you the option of getting a tank top.

Packet pick-up and late registration was easily located off of US 30 in Warsaw, Indiana from 7:00-8:45. The kids mile was a free race with the option to buy a race shirt for $10. We opted to have Chloe and Derek run the mile, while Emma would run the 5k with me. Mark would be taking the weekend off after racing the last few weekends and then also running next weekend. The mile started at 8:30 and was a an out and back on part of the 5k course. The 5k and 10k were scheduled to start at 9:00. At 9:00 the directors started us down to the starting line (why was this not done a little before 9:00??). After some random talking because some people showed up late to register (if you say the cutoff is at 8:45, then it should be at 8:45 . . . ) they let myTEAM TRIUMPH take off about 9:08 and then said we would wait another 3-4 minutes to give them a head start. So here's my deal - They should have gotten us to the starting line before 9:00 if they wanted myTEAM TRIUMPH to take off before the rest of us. The gun ended up going off about 9:12 and we were off. The first two miles were on the road around the local neighborhood and then for the last mile we got on a bike path around Pike Lake and had some really nice views. My only issue with the course was there was only one water station and it was just before the two mile mark. With as warm as it got, I wish they either had the water station a little sooner or had another one at about the first mile. Not often do I have to use my own water but I did this time - it got warm and there wasn't much shade for the first two miles.

Around 10:00 awards started with some door prizes of water bottles and lighted wrist bands with the ACTS logo. After giving out several door prizes the 5k awards began. Overall male and female winners received a medal and a wooden plaque. Age group awards went five deep with top three getting medals and forth and fifth getting ribbons. The awards were taking FOREVER and I was getting annoyed . . . Overall, I enjoyed the race but I just wish they would fix a few things about the starting time and then the water stations. Not sure we'll do it again, but we'll definitely keep it on our radar if we have a free weekend.

You can read my full review and view pictures at: https://parentteachrun.wordpress.com/2016/06/18/acts-5k-and-10k/

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(2016)
"Sunburst 10k"
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Sunburst race weekend involves a family walk friday night and then a marathon, half marathon, 10k, 5k run, and a 5k walk on Saturday morning. This is my third year running in sunburst and the second year running the 10k. The 10k course was not changed from last year to this year but the half and full marathons did have course changes this year for various reasons.

Packet pickup was Friday night and had a small expo with mainly the local running store, Fleet Feet Mishawaka, having much of their merchandise for sale. My husband actually picked up my packet for me since he works in downtown South Bend and had to pick up his own packet for the half marathon. In the race packet was our bib, a copy of the local running newspaper and the race shirt. The race shirt this year was an improvement over last year but the women's cut still ran small and was still a v neck, but they did allow me to swap out for a men's cut with no issues.

As I said, the 10k course was the exact same as last year and did run a tad long according to my garmin (6.4 miles) but we all know GPS watches can have a little bit of variance when it comes to races. However, it was the exact same distance my watch said last year (and i used a different watch last year). I believe there were for water stations on the 10k and each station had water and gatorade. The somewhat annoying thing was each water station switched up what they offered first; some had water first while others had the gatorade first. I wish they would have been consistent but it's not something that will keep me from running it again. The course started in downtown South Bend and then finished near the campus of Notre Dame. The 10k started at 7am. They had someone sing the National Anthem and then started right on time. Right before mile 3 there was a hill as we entered Indiana University South Bend's campus. And then at mile 5 there was Hallelujah Hill which wasn't crazy horrible but the placement of it kinda sucked lol.

After the race there were cups of water and gatorade (no bottled water - which was kinda weird), bananas, cups of fresh fruit, bagels, popsicles and chocolate milk. They also had shuttles available to transport runners back to the starting area to get back to their cars.

To read more of my experience at Sunburst this year check out: https://parentteachrun.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/sunburst-10k/

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(2016)
"Beautiful Race along Lake Michigan"
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The race had three different opportunities for pack pickup prior to the race, in Milwaukee, Chicago, and then in Kenosha. We opted to do the Chicago pickup since we weren't sure if we'd make it in time for the Kenosha packet pickup. Pickup was easy and well organized.

We did end up getting to Kenosha in time for the expo and so we decided to check it out. Not huge - had a few local races and a small section of additional away you could purchase (we opted for some magnets).

Parking was a bit of a challenge on race day because you weren't able to park along the course which meant about a ten minute walk to the start area. The race was well organized with lots of port a potties and gear check where you could use your own bag. This race opted to have no pacers but did have signs out so you could line yourself up by your approximate pace.

The course runs mostly north and south right along the shore line which was absolutely gorgeous but sucked since there was 25-30 mph winds coming from the north. Running along the shore with such strong winds also meant having a little sand storm pelting you with sand as you ran by the beach area lol.

After the race they had water, cheese (it is Wisconsin after all), bagels and bananas. You could also go to the food tent and get a complimentary brat and beer. Oh yeah, there was chocolate milk as well on ice which was nice because it was still cold by the time we were able to get some.

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(2016)
"Holy Hills"
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I choose to do the half and half challenge which meant I ran a half marathon on Saturday in Wisconsin and then ran other half marathon on Sunday. I went into this race just to have fun and enjoy all the stories I've heard about the race.

The expo wasn't huge but had most of the sponsors represented as well as a few other races and a small shop where you could buy running essentials. They also had an opportunity for you to exchange your shirt if you chose the wrong size during your registration (or if you hate v-necks and that's what they offered for the females).

Getting to the start was fairly easy and they had a few different places you could park within short walking distance of the start/finish. Gear check was seamless and you were able to use your own bag.

I was amazed at the number of water stations throughout the race (there was one pretty much every mile) especially considering you never know what the temps will be like. Each station had water and GU Brew available and one station also had GU gels available in a couple different flavors.

There were two places to look forward to during this race: gummy bear trail where the volunteers handed you a cup full of gummy bears to devour and then popsicle hill where you received a push popsicle - and trust me, you wanted one after that hill lol.

The first half of the race were fairly easy in terms of hills. Once you got to popsicle hill though . . . There were two main hills in the half and it wasn't that they were crazy huge hills, it was the fact of where they were placed within the race - mile 8.5ish and mile 11ish. Killer after you've been running for that long.

After the race they had bananas, orange slices, water, and chocolate milk. There was also a food tent in which you could purchase a meal or, if you were a part of one of the challenges, you got a free meal ticket.

Overall, the race was excellent. I would love to do it again without the half marathon the day before lol.

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