Latest reviews by Sara Brewington

(2017)
"Awesome marathon for great charity causes"
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I decided to run this marathon with a good friend after she signed up early in the year. I absolutely loved running the Chicago Marathon. The Chicago Marathon is well known for it's crowd support and flat course.

At the expo, there were tons of vendors with the Nike Chicago store being the largest one. There were many fun booths and a lot of awesome merchandise. The set up for packet pick up went flawless and the lines were very long despite the large crowds. There were also several convenient shuttles to get to the expo.

The t-shirt for the race an average well fitting t-shirt. There were many options for Chicago Marathon swag from Nike, Saucony, North Face, etc to purchase at the expo as well.

I can't review transportation or parking for the Chicago Marathon as I walked to and from the race. I purchased a public transportation card $30 prior to the race, but did not use it and probably would not purchase it again. We stayed at a hotel about 1 mile from the race, and there were many hotel options on the Chicago Marathon website.

Despite the race being in October, the weather can be very unpredictable in Chicago at that time of year. It was warmer than what we were hoping for this year. The race course was flat and had great scenery overall. The biggest issue for the course was the inaccurate GPS tracking in the city with the tall city buildings. My pace and timing were quite off in some miles, which I wish I had known about before the race. Because of the heat, I didn't run my best and missed my goal of being sub 4 hours by a mere 4 seconds. It was still a new marathon PR, and I hope to hit my goal of being sub 4 at my next marathon.

There were plenty of aid stations throughout the course for the warm day and even fire truck hoses spraying to help keep people cool.

I ran for Team Word Vision, which is the largest charity for the Chicago Marathon with about 2000 runners so there were several charity tents for Team World Vision. World Vision is worldwide humanitarian organization seeking to bring clean drinking water to communities in need.

I love reminiscing over this race still, and I am having a really difficult time not signing up for this race again next year. I will definitely be running it again, and looking forward to fundraising for World Vision once again someday!

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(2017)
"Definitely not flat with a few gentle rolling hills..."
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
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I decided to sign up for this race since a lot of my running friends were running it, and we used their 4 person discount. The race was ok overall, but I had my expectations high for a half marathon PR.

Good:
- The race shirt was nice, fitted well, and was a well made shirt that I will continue to wear often
-course support - several hydration stations about every 1.5 miles with a different electrolyte supplement - Gatorade, Heed, and Skratch
-Medals were HUGE! They also awarded the top 4 in every age group
-offered many prizes for a scavenger hunt that involved local businesses
-race management was good with well planned out activities before and after the race
-lots of free parking close by to the race
The bad
-The course was unexpectedly very hilly and more difficult than I had imagined. The course description online said "flat with a few gentle rolling hills." The elevation chart on Strava literally looked like a roller coaster.
-Not that the race director can predict the weather, but it was warmer outside than what I had been planning. There was very little shade on the course, and the course turn arounds were somewhat confusing. I also don't like running near the finish area whenever you're not actually running towards the finish line.
-The expo was disappointing as there were only a couple of venues, but advertising showed a lot more potential.

Based on my overall experience, I probably won't be running this race again because of the difference in course description vs the actual course.

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(2017)
"Hills, heat, humidity, and more hills!"
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This was my fifth year to participate in Hospital Hill. It's definitely one of my favorites for sure! There are plenty of hills in this race, and it is one of the most challenging half marathons that I've raced. Because this race is usually the first weekend in June, its usually hot and humid. This year was definitely no exception, but the weather is just part of the challenge.

Expo:
-The expo is usually a decent size with a variety of vendors. In years' past, I thought there were more vendors, and I didn't see as much apparel to purchase from some of the local running stores as I've seen in the past. I usually look forward to getting good deals at expos!

Swag:
-Hospital hill is unique in the fact that they usually offer something other than a t-shirt for their race. This year's swag was pajama pants, where were of good quality and feel comfy and warm. The sizing was a bit off on the pajama pants so I ended up with a youth large size. In previous years, my favorite swag items were a backpack and a long sleeve 1/4 zip pullover.

-Probably one of the biggest (and really only) complaint I heard about this year was the size of the bib numbers - they were HUGE. The 5k was in the shape of a bunny, and the 10k/half was a top hat. While these bibs were unique and went along with the "magic" theme, the bibs were difficult and awkward to wear.

Parking:
-There are a couple of large parking garages and open parking surfaces close to the race and the expo that make it easy to find parking close to the events all weekend long.

Course:
-There were ample water/aid stations every 1.5 miles, which was definitely needed with the weather this year. My only complaint was that the water stop between miles 10 and 11 was a bit off, which through me off a bit since I had gotten used to drinking gatorade and water every 1.5 miles prior to that. I always carry a handheld water bottle on me, just in case, but I tried to be super proactive on hydration considering the weather for this race.

-Kansas City is full of hills, and this is one race where you really need to train for the hills. The first three miles are very hilly, and then the hills are mild until about mile 8 or 9. The hills seem to accumulate on each other, which is what makes this race hard. It may not be a PR race for many, but it is definitely a fun challenging race that I've enjoyed every year so far.

This was my second time to run the re-run, which involves a 5k on Friday night, and the 10k or half marathon on Saturday. This year the 5k was more downhill in the second half of the race, which was definitely appreciated this year!

Race management:

The race director always does an awesome job with this race, and it is easy to see how dedicated she is the race. There is a lot of history behind this race, and it is a very unique experience compared to other races that I've done.

Because 2018 will be the 45th running of Hospital Hill, there were very reasonable sales for the race through 6/8/17. Needless to say, I've already signed up to conquer the hills once again!

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(2017)
"New Hometown Half Marathon!"
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With this race being one of the biggest races in the area, I definitely had to run this half marathon! Overall, I was really impressed with how well organized the race was for a smallish town of about 50,000. This is memorial race that has a lot of meaning to many of people from the area as it commemorates the F-5 tornado that came through Joplin on May 22, 2011.

Expo:
The expo had several booths, which included the local running store and a few other small businesses in town. I wish there had been a few other booth for other nearby races at the expo. It was easy and efficient to find my race bib and t-shirt.

T-Shirt: The t-shirts were very colorful, and each race had a different color shirt. The shirts were also gender specific, which was nice. The women's shirt was a tank top, which is appropriate for this time of year. However, I would still prefer a tech t-shirt as most tank tops like this one are a bit big on me.

The race:

Parking was very easy to find close to the start/finish of the race. Being in a small town means the commute is easy and no parking meters. Bathroom lines were also almost not existent. I live less than 2 miles from the start line and left my house about 30 minutes prior to the race, and still had a few minutes to spare before the race started. This is almost unheard of with larger races!

The weather was overcast with a slight amount of rain towards the end of the race. Considering the time of year, I don't think we could have asked for much better weather.

Joplin is naturally somewhat to very hilly depending on where you run so there are plenty of hills in this race. The half marathon was somewhat hilly, but not terribly so. I have heard from other runners that the marathon is quite hilly in the second half.

This race gives a cool tour of the city of Joplin, and we ran through areas of Joplin that I had yet to discover. The crowd support was good overall, with plenty of aid stations along the way. The best part is first/last mile of the race where there are 161 banners that represent each life lost in 2011 tornado.

The race event photos were free, which is always a huge plus for me. The food at the end of the race was great with one of the local pizza places serving small pizzas that were were made right there with a brick oven.

This was definitely a fun race for me, and I definitely plan to make it a yearly tradition considering it is in my new hometown! I would recommend to other runners as it is a small town race that will more and more popular each year.

On a side note, I will be running the Chicago Marathon on October 8th, 2017. If interested and able, I would greatly appreciate any support towards my fundraising goal of $1500 for World Vision. Here's the link!: https://www.teamworldvision.org/participant/sarabrewington

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(2017)
"My first marathon!"
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After 6 years of racing, I finally ran my first marathon!! I chose to run this particular one because I am originally from the St. Louis area. I have run a few other GO! St. Louis events, and this was definitely a favorite and probably one of the most organized events of theirs so far.

Expo: Easy to find area at the Chafeitz arena, but parking was definitely busy. There was parking available in a nearby parking lot for $5. I absolutely hate paying for parking, especially for a race expo. I was able to find a nearby spot on the street close to the expo. This wasn't the biggest expo that I've seen, but there was plenty to look at from some of the local running stores. I would like to see more of the bigger nearby races come to this expo.

T-shirt/swag: This year's t-shirt was a pullover jacket, which I loved! It fit me perfectly and appeared to be of good quality. Plus, it had a neat design of the city with the arch included on the bottom of it.

Parking: The course was moved to start/finish at the Arch, which was a great idea, and I hope they continue this new tradition. Although parking is more limited, they provided shuttles and heavily suggested people use the shuttles, which helped a lot with race day parking. I conveniently found a side street near the Arch. Once again, I avoided paying for parking...

The course: There were definitely a lot of hills, which is no surprise in St. Louis! The race course went through several areas of St. Louis, including Tower Grove park, Anheuser brewery, and Forest Park. It was very scenic overall, though some areas of St. Louis are not all that scenic. I like the two bridges aspect of the course at the beginning of the race, but the Illinois side of the course is not the prettiest area.

Race Management: The GO! St. Louis management was great for this race. They kept everyone update with a text messaging system and facebook page. They also included information on shuttles on their website. The one big issue that I had was not being able to find my pacers. I was aiming for a 4:30 time for my first marathon. I was in corral C, but I only saw pacers for the 4:00 and 4:10 times. After talking to a friend who also ran the half marathon, the 4:30 pacers were in corral E.

In the end, training for and running this marathon has been my biggest running accomplishment so far, and I've very happy with my end time of 4:24:57! I am definitely planning to run this marathon again!

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