Overall, I really enjoyed this race, and I'm already planning to run the marathon next year. Little Rock was a wonderful city to visit, and I wish I had longer to stay! This race is known for it's huge medals, and that is definitely the most popular reason why runners choose this race. The medals definitely did not disappoint this year, though I expected the half marathon medal to be bigger than it was as I have other medals that are of a similar size. The full marathon medal was about 4x the size of the half marathon medal, and many people were about this medal. The t-shirts were a big disappointment as the half marathon shirt was white and all shirts were unisex sizes. I'm sure this is partially due to the amount of effort and costs put towards the medals.

Parking for both the expo and race was somewhat easy, and I was able to park about 1/4 mile away each time for free.

The course was great overall. There were some hills, but they were only moderate at most in difficulty. There was a good amount of crowd support, which is always really nice to see as a runner. I've been trying to my half marathon time down to 1:50, and I PR'ed in this race at 1:49:14, which is over 3 minutes from my previous half marathon PR.

The race management was great prior to, during, and after the race. They kept potential runners updated on availability in each race. The atmosphere was very fun just before the race with people tossing beach balls around waiting for the start.

Like I said, I'll more than likely be running this race again next year. Definitely planning on running the full marathon and staying a bit longer to enjoy Little Rock!

This race is often a topic of conversation at nearly every other trail race that I've done in the St. Louis area, and I finally had the opportunity to sign up for this race this year. Overall it was a really fun trail race, and I understand why everyone likes this race so much.

The Skippo is a 6ish mile loop throughout Castlewood Park, which is known for having very technical trails. The race started with a 20k option (2 loops), and now also offers a 10k and 30k option. I chose to volunteer on Saturday for the 10k option, and ran the 20k on Sunday. The first two miles of this trail loop are flat and an easy warm up for the rest of the loop. Then comes the steps...about 216 steps to be exact. The stairs seem to be never ending, but the view at the top is totally worth it, especially in the fall at Castlewood Park. After the stairs there is a downhill portion that is technical enough to keep you on your toes. There is a low creek crossing after mile 3 that was kind of refreshing, but gets your feet wet. Cardiac hill comes after that, and it is very appropriately named since most runners choose to walk up this hill. After cardiac hill, there is a nice, easy downhill run to the end of the loop.

There were adequate aid stations along the loop with water and Gatorade. There was also trail mix and GU at the end of the first loop. Afterwards, there was water, beer, pulled pork, and lots of snack foods for everyone. Everyone received a nice long sleeved black tech shirt as well as a cool finisher mug at the end of the race. The 20k finisher wooden medal was somewhat plain, but the 30k finishers had really cool belt buckles.

There is limited parking for runners, but the shuttle service provided seemed convenient and easy to use. Plus, I figure if there was more parking at Castlewood, then there would be fewer trails to enjoy.

Overall, I had a lot of fun at this race, both running and volunteering, and I would gladly run this race again!

This was my first time running a MO' Cowbell race, and it was a really fun run! Although I hadn't trained very well for the race, I was able to finish the race with not much difficulty. This is a race to arrive early to in order to find parking, which was adequate and conveniently located near the start/finish line. However, there was a lot of traffic getting into and out of the parking lots. There were many porta-potties, but the lines were very long even 45 minutes before the race. There is a fun cowbell ringing tradition performed just prior to the race starting that really gets you excited just in time for the race. The course went throughout downtown St. Charles and New Town, and was a nice course overall - mostly flat except a never ending hill from just before mile 10 until mile 11. There were plenty of water stops with Gatorade and some had GU gel packs as well. For the relay, it wasn't well marked where the relay teams traded off beforehand and where the relay teams met up again. I did really appreciate all the spectators and cowbells - definitely helped encourage me to continue on with the run! The medals were ok for this race - they were somewhat plain and there wasn't much of a difference between the half and full marathon medals. One big complaint that I heard about was that they ran out of medals, which was a huge disappointment to many people. However, the race director made a facebook announcement about the shortage of medals and promised to mail medals to the runners who did not receive a medal. The Ex-MO' was one of the best expos that I have been to for a race! There was plenty of vendors and fun activities that included the Brooks signature team, a zero gravity treadmill, and free fitness classes.

Overall, I really enjoyed this race more than I ever thought I would, and I would definitely do this race again!

Overall, this was a fun Halloween themed race. The overall planning and management of this race, however, seemed like an afterthought, especially for a GO! St. Louis race.

Packet pickup was easy and convenient for locals. There were several Big River Running locations to choose from for packet pickup. They printed name stickers for your bib so that you were able to pick up your bib from any of the locations.

I registered the week of the race so I am still waiting for my race hoodie to come in the mail. These were unique for this race, but I still would have preferred a long sleeve tech shirt over the hoodie. I did really appreciate the GO!'s promise to mail our hoodies to ensure that all participants still got one.

The aid stations were sparse for this race. Race stations were promised to be at every 2 miles, and the second one for this race wasn't until almost mile 5. Both stations did not have enough volunteers, and I decided to pass the second station since there was a line to get Gatorade. The trick or treat village and spooky area (both great ideas) were very small and sparse as well.

St. Louis is not one of the most scenic cities for races, but I really enjoyed running by the riverfront. Otherwise the course was ok, and there more spectators towards the end of the course to cheer on runners. The course was somewhat hilly in the first half of the race, but relatively flat for the second half.

There is convenient parking close to the race, but I think paying $10 for parking is somewhat ridiculous especially when you've already paid for a race!

As I said before, there were many aspects of this race that were poorly executed. Running out of hoodies early on and having poorly stocked aid stations were a big disappointment for this race, especially since it was a GO! St. Louis race.

What really made this race fun was the participants' Halloween costumes. There was a costume contest, and pictures of all the costumes were posted on Facebook to help decide winners of the contest.

Despite the race management errors, it was a fun race and I would still run this race again next year!

Pros:
-convenient pre-race packet pickup options
-really nice t-shirt
-fun yoga warm up prior to the race
-fun, slightly challenging course in a beautiful scenery
-easy parking access at the visitor's center
-free post race cold brew coffee from Kaldi's

Cons:
-Because I had registered after the t-shirt guarantee date, I had to pick up from t-shirt on race day after having picked up my race packet prior to the race day. The pick up lines were not well labeled on race day; however, I was still very pleased to get the t-shirt in my size on race day.

A great race that I will surely run again!