This is a great race if you are looking for a challenge. I can promise you that you will never, ever look at another road marathon course the same way after running this one. I live around 6 hours away so we broke up the driving in 2 days since we had the kids with us. We got into Roanoke around 5pm the night before race day and headed straight to the expo. This year the expo was at Elmwood Park, which was a really fun area to have it. There was a band playing music there and then booths selling race merchandise, plus other vendors. You could could also grab a snack or drink, it was the perfect pre race chill atmosphere! Plus, I had an idea of where the race would end the next day. I like to visual things so seeing where I'm going to finish is important to me! The race shirt was tech material and something I will wear often. I also bought a sweatshirt, hat, socks and a few stickers. I figured why the heck not, plus they said that the merchandise would only be sold there and online so I didn't want to miss out.

I booked a room at The Roanoke Hotel & Conference Center, which is a super nice hotel! It was less than half a mile walk to the start area. I don't know if you are like me but I do not like being far from the start, or having to take a bus and go early. I like to show up about 10 minutes before the gun goes off so this was perfect in my opinion. My hubs and kids came along with me and it was nice to have them see me off! The race went off right on time. We were mixed in with the other racers doing the 10k, half or relay. Everyone had a different bib based on what race they were running.

I knew going into this race that it would be tough, but I knew that I had to be tougher! The first mile was nice and easy and then we started to climb. I slowed my pace when I needed to, and then also walked the hills when needed. It was fun going back down the mountain and seeing other runners that were making the climb and being able to wish them well or let the know they were doing great! For such a small race there was A LOT of support on the course from the runners, to the volunteers to the people that live along the course that were out there cheering us on. I LOVED that part. More towards the end of the race I wasn't sure what hurt more, the climbing uphill or the downhills. Both of them are hard. However, the hard is what makes the Blue Ridge Marathon what it is. It's not a course you go run when you are trying to PR or BQ. It's a course you run when you want a good challenge or something different. You will not be disappointed from start to finish with this race. It was well run and I really enjoyed myself and am still smiling when I think back on it. Bonus was that I placed 2nd in the Masters for female and got a really unique award and also that they give free race photos!!

Super cute Halloween themed race that allows you to run or walk your virtual race wherever, and whenever you'd like all the while wearing a costume! Who doesn't love Halloween!

The Costume Dash Virtual Run is committed to the fight to treat and defeat childhood cancer. So not only can you run for fun, you can also run for a really good cause!

And lastly, the swag was out of this world! I loved the medal, the halloween tattoos (well maybe my kids loved them more!), and the super soft T - shirt that i can wear year round! They also included a bag you could use for trick or treating :)

Highly recommend!

The race is held on a 3.75 mile loop on a paved path around Cooper River Park in Pennsauken NJ. The course is mostly flat and you will run as many loops of it as you can/want in 12 hours or 24 hours. I decided to run the 12 hour race and it was my first time ever running this far or long in my life. My friend had run the year before and convinced me to sign up. Most of my friends that don't run thought i was crazy but was really looking forward to this race. You can bring whatever you want to keep at the start/finish area because each loop brings you back there. The thought of not having to carry a ton of stuff while I run appealed to me big time. I ended up buying a plastic tub to store my fuel, extra shoes, socks, body glide, sunscreen, etc all race day essentials and then also brough a cooler with a ton of ice, extra water - plain and others that I added my tailwind too. The ice really helped out big time on race day as it was SUPER HOT! The race itself also has an awesome aid station at the start/finish filled with many different types of hydration and a ton of good food (bananas, pretzels, chips, PB&J, cookies, gels, candy, oranges, etc) and then one halfway around the loop with just hydration. Bib pickup was either the night before at the local runnign store or again on race day before the start which makes things super easy. I went over with my friend and then my hubs was going to then take me home at the end of the race. Race started at 7am sharp so we ended up getting there about an hour early to get ourselves ready. One of the nice parts about this race is that it's your race, you can run as many loops that you want in the time frame. You could hang at your area for as long as you like to after each loop was done. For most of my loops I stopped back to my area to fill up my water, make any changes to what I was wearing if I needed to, grab more salt tabs or food, if i could eat at that time. You could also then see others that were back at their area and wish them well. It was so awesome to feed off of other runners energy or cheer them on when you knew they needed it knowing that when things got hard for you someone else would be there to lift you up. I did what I needed to do to survive this race and I loved every single minute of it! I highly reommend this to anyone that is interested in running a loop or certain amount of time for an ultra. The race was very low key and overall one that I plan on doing every year that it's available. For your entry you get your bib, which by the way has a nice personalized positive note for you on the back, a t-shirt and a medal. Depending on how many loops you do you get a skeleton charm to attach on to your medal when you finish. For 1-9 laps you just get your medal, for 10-14 laps you get the bronze skeleton, for 15-19 laps you get the silver skeleton and for 20+ you get the gold skeleton! I ended up with 15 laps so I scored the silver one!

I've run the half marathon of this race 3 different years and loved it! This year I decided to tackle the full on marathon because I was training for an ultra marathon in August and thought this would be a nice race to run an easy paced marathon. The expo is very low key as well as the swag. The race director wants to be able to keep the prices affordable, which he has and this is one of the ways he can do this. Aid stations are amazing and have a variety of offerings. It's normally pretty hot for this race so they tell you multiple times not to expect a PR and helps give you a good perspective of what to expect for race day. This year we had a pretty nice day weather wise, no rain but it became very humid as we were running the race. They also host an amazing after party at the local German club which gets you a free beer and something to eat. I won first place female in the MASTERS category so I scored an authentic german cuckoo clock!!! I will probably end up running this race as long as my schedule allows for many years to come.

This was my first ever 50k and I was told by others that this was a good one to run. They offer 3 different distances: 25k, 50k and 50 miles. We all had different start times with the 50m starting at 7:15am, the 50k at 8am, and the 25k at 9am. To give you an idea of race size here is how many finished in each category: 129 50 mile runners, 219 50k runners and 444 25k runners. Bib pick up was a breeze and was right before the start of the race, got a few pictures, went to the bathroom, stretched a bit and then it was time to head to the start. Each distance runs 1 extra loop with the 50 milers running a bit more each loop. You can park right outside of the trail along the main road so that was a non issue. They wanted the 25k participants to park inside the park because they would finish first and allow non racers to have a place to park since it's not closed off for the race.

The first few miles were a little tricky with me being a newbie to the trail and seeing lots of mud and puddles, and then we came to a stream and everyone was running right through it, and I think I said out loud are you kidding me LOL! Thankfully, my trail shoes weren’t too bad off though with being completely soaked. I know that my regular shoes would have felt 10lbs heavier. I do recall telling myself that not only was having fun and finishing with a smile on my list of things to accomplish for this race, NOT FALLING WAS ANOTHER at this point. I couldn’t believe how muddy and wet some sections were and how dry others were. It had been a bit of a rainy week prior to the race. I was glad though that most downhill sections were dry because I found going downhill to be the toughest with trying to be fast yet not fall!

I had read a bunch of reviews that others had posted about this run from years past and have to agree with them that the 1 mile paved bike trail that we had to run on for each loop was extremely painful. After running on the softer surface for most of the race and then going to that was pure hell for the feet. However, it’s only 1 mile so I told my brain to shut up and get it done.

Around mile 12 I reached this cool area that on their site they call the rollercoaster section. It was a single track that had a lot of turns and was really fun to run. Once I got through there, I was on my way back to finish the first loop, so exciting! I do love running a loop course because the second time around never seems so bad knowing that you have already done this before. Interestingly though I saw some things the second time around that we both didn’t remember from the last time.
All in all, this is a great race and I will return next year to tackle it again. Maybe next year I will try the 50 miler.