Latest reviews by Andrew Wirfel

(2020)
"Challenging Course... Not Much Else!"
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Kudos to the police who were out in full force to make it a safe and fun event for all of us to run hard and enjoy through their coordination and safety in directing traffic through intersections and other neighborhood streets. Big thank you to you ALL!!! Honestly, if you were not able to coordinate it, I do not know how this race would function or survive without just shutting down allthe streets.

Hard to get excited for a recap of a race that did not have much of the logistics figured out during race day with the volunteers (ie bag drop, pickup, food, etc). It is a challenging course with a new downhill for the first half (rolling hills) and then a new uphill and two nice climbs around mile 10 & 11 (and more rolling hills). If you are training for Boston, or another hillier race in the spring/summer, this course may be the right fit for you since it is an early March race, but if you want a fast and fun race… this is not for you. It reads closer to a 500-600+ ft gain vs. 300 that they promote.

The email and digital communication leading up to race was great, timely and very accurate, but everything outside of it just did not seem to be correct or up to the standards of what their website and email communications were.

It is an easy and convenient race that if you are a local (you can show up and literally park a block away from starting line), should definitely look into and participate, but for out of towners and to travel in for this race, I would only do this if convenient for you.

Main street is a great street downtown to end on, but with a huge market happening on that Saturday with like 100+ vendors, you think they would take advantage of that and all the fans/students, but it was so quiet and no one was cheering on the runners as they were finishing… just not ideal, not fun and kind of disappointing.

Medals and trophies are quality and very nice.

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(2019)
"I am Ho Ho Ho for this Race - What a great way to celebrate the holidays"
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Great race, and great race management team with the GCXC crew.

The event itself had a a joyful Santa Clause full decked out and MCing his jolly self through the entire 5k race, a ton of awesome holiday swag to make yourself a santa for a day and the goodies and treats afterwards were all holiday themed from M&Ms, bananas, water, cookies and hot chocolate.

Great age group awards afterwards for all age ranges, which was a nice nice and topical coffee/hot cocoa mug and a spoon and there was a toy drive there for Toys-for-tots.

Parking was super easy with enough people helping you get into a parking lot, the course itself was a little odd and fun, due to ice conditions and just trying to navigate through some snow, ice and mud/grass areas, but for safety concerns and overall race management kudos, there were plenty of people out warning runners on the course conditions and of certain dicey spots.

The medal is a great item, that is holiday-themed and is of nice quality and again, such a nice and family-friendly ordeal that I would recommend to anyone who is looking to get outside, get the legs moving ahead of the holidays and get the whole family out for a fun-filled morning to celebrate with Santa.

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(2019)
"Nothing to WINE about here! AWESOME!"
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Great and well organized event that gives you everything from effortless transportation to the start line to tons of fuel, hydration and support on the course with just an overall great event from start to finish.

We stayed at the Radisson downtown and everything is just walking distance away and couldn’t be any easier to get around town, from beginning to end.

I will consider this race again for both half and full distances in the near and distant future.

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(2019)
"YES! It is Friday, under the lights... Let it rip!"
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What a fun and great event in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh at night on a Friday… so much fun!

The timing and event itself is a full on production and is a great event that I would recommend this to anyone, as they have groupings for every level and type of runner.

The only thing that is a bit of a bummer is the out and back type course with two turns to make it a some sort of out and back course, so not ideal for a straight road mile to just go out and rip it.

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(2019)
"Great Race for the Great Cause. You feel the LOVE!"
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The route is through its very similar trail path along the North Shore, starting at the loading docks area by Heinz Field.

Only drawback is the potential heat/humidity being later in the morning and in June.

It is a great race and a great community surrounding its beneficiary foundation, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), strive for Pittsburgh to be a community that supports equal rights and equal love.

The organization on packet pickup being VERY limited for a set amount of hours at one location makes it tough to grab ahead of race day and then race day was a bit of a mess with just one line for everything, but that was the only drawback or downside to it all.

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