Race Report – 2015 Scottsdale Challenge Half Marathon

             As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of the running shoe store, Road Runner Sports. The main thing I like about them is how active each store gets in the running community surrounding it. They put on a lot of great, free events, are a great resource to look for local races, and occasionally they support a local runner/blogger who is looking for help to achieve his goals (cough… me… cough). I’ve been involved with the Scottsdale and Tempe locations for more than 3 years now and the experience has been great.

            So when I found out that they were planning on putting on their own half marathon and 5K race and they were going to start it all off in Scottsdale, I knew I had to sign up and be a part of it. Here is a company that has become huge in the running community on a national level and if anyone was able to put on a killer event, it should be them. I am already an enormous fan of their Thursday Adventure Runs that they put on (basically a free scavenger hunt type run that is tons of fun), and so I was excited to see how this new venture would turn out.

            The race included 4 different event options: the half marathon, the half marathon challenge, the 5K, and the 5K challenge. The challenge races included what you could call obstacles, but were less of the “get over this hill or through this mud” and more “do this many pushups or burpees or carry this keg there and back”. In other words, the course included challenges, not so much obstacles. Personally, being at the height of my training for the 7 Dirty Thirties, I chose to just run the half marathon without the challenges. Although, when running past the challenges, they looked like a good time!

            Road Runner Sports has packet pick-ups down to a science, so needless to say, that part of the event was very well organized and easy to navigate. The morning of the race, I showed up at West World and parking was clearly marked and easy to find. As I walked up to the race, the first thing you saw was an information booth and the vendors were already set up. Start line, finish line, bathrooms, pre- and post-race food was out, and what I’m getting at is that it was all ready, set up and easy. So far, so good!

            The race started on time, which as many runners can tell you, is pretty rare. The challenge half marathon went off first and then we went off a while later. The course was challenging but not crazy. There were some hills, but there were also some downhills. At around mile 5 or 6, we ran onto a golf-course path and if you’ve ever run in a golf course, it’s no walk in the park. Those paths roll up and down but it made for a really good challenge. Overall, the course was fast and gave a lot of opportunities to let loose and take off.

           

            The aid stations were well staffed and the volunteers were excited, enthusiastic and encouraging. Having done some events where the volunteers were rather… meh… getting a good boost at each aid station was awesome. For the first 10 miles, there was an aid station every two miles. I’ve obviously done races where aid stations were 5+ miles apart, but for a road race, I kind of felt that two miles was too far, but that could have been just me; just a constructive observation that I made. During the last 3 miles, there was an aid station every mile and that was great, especially in that later part of the race.

            Again, the course was challenging but fast. I felt great through the whole race and was able to finish at a really strong pace. The finish line had beer, chocolate milk, plenty of food and water, and the medals are really cool. I honestly have nothing but good things to say about this great event. I hope Road Runner Sports keeps putting them on and I wish them success!

            In other news, this was a training race for me and despite this, I was only 30 seconds from a PR (personal record) so I can’t say I wasn’t extremely pleased with that too… (Time: 1:41:34, PR: 1:41:04)

            Check out www.RoadRunnerSports.com to check out their incredible inventory of running shoes, gear, nutrition, injury prevention stuff, socks, etc. They even have some triathlon gear! They hooked me up with the Salomon Sense Mantras that I wear during all my runs, so show them some love!