Madison Montana Half Marathon done. State #10 and half #16. Absolutely the prettiest and most brutal race i have ever run. You meet at a gas station at 5:30 am for the 1 1/2 hour bus ride up to Clover Meadow. It is a rough ride with many bumps and cows running in front of the bus. When you get to the race finish at Clover Meadow you get off the bus for about 15 minutes to use the bathroom and then you get back on the bus for another ride of 13 miles to the start line. Long morning before the start. Race starts uphill and pretty much goes to heaven before you finish. 9,200 feet to start and goes up to 9600 feet along the way back down to 8500. Major hills that had me not only walking slowly but at one point i was stopped and almost felt like crawling. OMG those hills and no air. LOL. It did have some sweet downhills but it seemed to be more uphills. RD said to add up to an hour to your PW time and that is probably where everyone would finish. I normally do a half in sub 2:30 but this one took about 3:46. RD was a true class act and he put the medal around your neck and congratulated everyone for finishing. He also came on the bus as we were leaving and thanked everyone for coming. Great guy. Medal was awesome along with the views. I would recommend this one to anyone who wants a challenge, wants a beautiful and breathtaking course (LOL), and have smaller crowds (200 is the limit with this race). I did Missoula for my 50 States marathon completion in 2014 and i really liked that race but i loved this one. Give it a try.

Awesome race in the winter in Michigan. For the half it is 3 loops around the park while the marathon has 6 loops. Course is paved and this year was snow covered with a couple of inches. Wind chill was around 2 degrees. No major hills. Great Hoodie with a groundhog on it. They did run out of medals in the half and will mail them to everyone in the near future. Would run this race again.