WHAT WAS AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?
I appreciated the purple shirts this year since it was nod back to the old "Paint the Town Purple" campaign and we always need purple shirts for the warm September games. I also liked that the marketing department got some of the big players from the department out for race day. I saw Jim Phillips walking around chatting people up. Venric Mark at the final turn was an awesome moment for me and for the few people that recognized him. It hit me watching people finish how unknown members of the team are. I knew who it was when I got close enough (he doesn't look like an All-American, but lucky for us, he is), but I had to tell everyone else in our group who we blew past. My family didn't get to experience a Pat Fitzgerald moment like I did, but another awesome moment was exiting the field through the locker room building in the north endzone. I had always wondered what inside the building and what it looked like, so needless to say I went in and out a few times during the course of the event.

WHAT WASN'T SO AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?
Thanks to an increase corporate sponsorships, they moved the post-race area to outside of the stadium in the northeast corner of the stadium. However, I really do like being on top of Walker Terrace. An even for Randy Walker should involve a trip up to a terrace. One of those new sponsors was a local Subaru dealer though, so I can understand the change in venue. One of the better parts of the post-race activity was the activity for dogs, which was noticeably absent this year. I will admit this though: I only missed it because I like making fun of Snickers. A lot.

Read more at http://tkmarathonman.blogspot.com/2013/08/race-report-run-for-walk.html?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=37

WHAT WAS AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?

It's hard for young races to develop atmosphere so quickly, but in its second year, it's hard to duplicate the achievement the BTN 10K organizers have accomplished. It all starts with the shirts, which boasted 13 different varieties (12 teams, one generic). Organizers reached out to alumni groups to have presence at the race and to recruit runners. This move I think got the alumni running in the race even more jacked up than they may've been otherwise. In addition, universities sent cheer squads and mascots to the race to mingle with fans and give people additional photo opportunities during the course of the day. Finally, the post-race tailgate was amazing. Throw in the cooler temps, it felt like a Saturday tailgate. People didn't want to go home because they were to involved with the DJ playing tunes, the rows of bags boards and other games, sausages on the grill and cold Goose Island flowing.

WHAT WASN'T SO AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?
I can't really decide if this race was oversold or not. At 13,000 participants at a very expensive $50 a head, obviously they either could have gone more expensive or had even more people there. The parking lot where the post race festivities took place was crowded, but wasn't shoulder to shoulder like the Chicago Marathon can be. The lines for the Alumni tents were as crowded as schools wanted them to be. Northwestern has a natural low turnout and only gave out mints, so not a big deal. Wisconsin was giving out BTN Hockey sticks and had Blake Geoffrion signing items as a former Badger and Hobey Baker winner, so that was a long line. The beer and sausage lines had no excuse to be as long as they were. The sausage line was a little more understandable because there were two kinds of sausages that were weird flavors and was served buffet style. The beer line, especially since 312 is served in cans, is inexcusable. I won't blame the volunteers for pouring slow because we all love volunteers on this blog, but either more volunteers were needed or cans should have been served. In addition the race photo company stunk (no pictures found. I wasn't going to buy any but I would have liked to see pictures at least) and the BTN coverage of the race was underwhelming though I did make the broadcast.

For more, check out my blog entry: http://tkmarathonman.blogspot.com/2013/08/race-report-big-10k.html

WHAT WAS AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE

Move over, Green Bay Marathon. The Grandma's Marathon has the best post-race party. The free food is still better in Green Bay, but Grandma's trumps them in every other category. What was a close call for post-race beer back before the CGBM organizers bent over for Miller became a wash-out when Grandma's used the Budweiser connection to have Goose Island at the party. Second, the bands were fast and furious all day in terms of quantity and the quality was off the charts. If it wasn't for having to get our car, we probably would have stayed until we had to go home. If we did that, we probably would have partied until my uncle couldn't feel his hamstring pull anymore. It definitely made us regret not getting a second night at the area hotels.

WHAT WASN'T SO AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE

The Pre-Race and Post-Race areas were kind of crappy in terms of layout. Let's start at the start. Our gear check was on the road where we were dropped off, accessed the porta-potties, and lined up for the race. That's a lot of action going on, which resulted in a deadlock in the waning moments before the race. In addition, the Grandma's Marathon suffers from what usually happens when you have a point-to-point race. You have this awesome, amazing finish line waiting and you know you have 26.2 miles to get there. Unlike Boston where you start in the downtown area of Hopkinton, we started behind a car dealership. I think a lot of people ran faster just to get out of there. The finish line area post-race was also poorly placed as we didn't know where to get food, where to get our gear check bags, etc.

For more, check out my blog entry: http://tkmarathonman.blogspot.com/2013/06/race-report-grandmas-marathon.html

WHAT WAS AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE

It's a summer tradition that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I am guessing it is easier to plan for a race where there is a cap. You set it at an arbitrary number and you know exactly what you need. The Bellin Run went into the last day of registration at over 18,500, which was already flirting with a record. They then had a walk-up crowd of over 1,000, paying a premium of $35, just to be a part of it. How do you do that? The organizers get major points for being able to handle that. The Bellin Run also gets major points for its recruiting efforts of getting lots of people to do this that otherwise would not have bothered. My wife and I participated as a member of the Brown County team in the Corporate Challenge. I am guessing the organizers give the groups ideas of how to recruit people to run, offer perks, and more. Our perks included an extra gift and 50% off the registration fee. There was also efforts to get kids and other Team Triumph members to participate in the weekend's events.
WHAT WASN'T SO AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE

I ran dumb. That's about it. I have run this race a number of times, so I should know how to adjust to the very few shortcoming of this race. The Bellin Run has the same problems the Chicago Marathon has when it comes to having lots of people in a small area and sharing your start line with your finish line. It's hard to imagine the race growing much more because of this because I simply don't know where the people will go. Registration exceeded 20,000, but it only had about 1,000 more finishers. What happens when the gap between registrants and finishers closes? It's such a tradition and I'm sure the course hasn't changed much over the years. There's a reason why the header for this section doesn't have harsher language. It doesn't suck, it just isn't awesome. I'm curious to see how they will change as the numbers keep growing and growing. I have no doubt that they will do it.

For more, check out my blog entry: http://tkmarathonman.blogspot.com/2013/06/race-report-bellin-run-10k.html

WHAT WAS AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?
The spectators were awesome this year. I would argue this is the best they have ever been. There weren't as many dead spots on the course. It seemed like everyone wanted to come out and see the race. Part of this is probably because the weather has sucked in Green Bay until recently and they just wanted to take advantage of a nice day. Even the Tank party zone was actually hopping and extremely loud. Any gap in the Fox River Trail was packed with people. Cars were honking at every point imaginable. Check out my twitter feed and you will see the signs my wife, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law made for me. As a pacer, you can only do so much motivating. The rest comes from outside sources like the spectators, and they were in full force on Sunday.

WHAT WASN'T SO AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?
Yes, I am still sour grapes about not reaching my goal time of 3:15:00. I was 3:15:12. Part of the reason this why was my watch. As it happens during marathons, you run a little extra during a race. I had been counting on the big clocks at mile markers so I could stay on pace with the gun time just to guard against me judging our splits on our chip time. I feel like I could have controlled our pace a little better if I could just look up and see my time and judge what I needed to do based on the time that actually matters instead of the time on my watch.

For more, check out my blog entry: http://tkmarathonman.blogspot.com/2013/05/race-report-cellcom-green-bay-marathon.html