A few more thoughts on yesterday's marathon. While this was the 17th Trailbreaker Marathon, it was not held last year due to the director or others not being able to put time into it so it looked to me like there were new people running things. Hopefully they will take some advise and make some suggested changes to the race.
I know this is a low key race and did not cost much ($40 on race day) but most people I talked to agreed that they should have at least given a medal to the finishers. You heard that right, no medal to the finishers! No certificate of completion either. I guess I should be grateful for the long sleeve T-shirt I received (which is not bad though). I would have gladly paid an extra $10 to insure a medal at the finish.
Someone wrote 2 years ago on MarathonGuide.com that this marathon was a joke. And I can see why he/she would think that if you were looking for a top quality marathon. There were only 7 water stops on the entire course. Not enough if you ask me. There was no food available (except for some orange slices at one stop) and there was virtually no fans along the course. Maybe 2 or 3 out to the tower and then maybe a dozen at the tower. There were definitely more police at road crossings than fans and the police were very friendly so that helped. I knew this coming into the race so I was not surprised at what was there. I wasn't expecting a high quality marathon.
The after race area was poor as well. There was Popcorn to eat! Just what I want after 26.2 miles of running. There was cold water so that was a plus. But they had the festivities in a small (1 basketball court sized) gymnasium and they had a band playing WAY TOO LOUD!!! I couldn't stand it so I went back outside.
I don't want to complain too much here, just hopefully the people who run the race will make improvements is all. $40 isn't a lot for a marathon but they can improve. The course was safe and barely ran on any roads and only crossed a few streets so that was nice. It was also nice to have the bag drop, so I hope they don't lose those features.
Will I run this again? Depends if I need another long run at this time next year again and if the weather is good. If either of those is a "no", then I will not run it. If both are a "Yes", then I will see if a friend wants to join me and enjoy the scenery and not worry at all about running a good time while I do have a good time.
I hope I didn't sound too much like a complainer. Just want everyone to know what they are getting into if they run this race.
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3 comments:
Great job on what sounds like a real tough marathon. Your time was great! Having to climb up the tower cool! This is a great training run! Hope the Princess sang well this morning!
Wow, no idea until now you ran a marathon this weekend. But i agree- there should be better course support and of course, a medal. You should get SOMETHING for running that far!
Hi --
I'm one of the members of the new group that runs the Trailbreaker. This year was our first stab at it -- as you know, it wasn't run last year.
We were happy just to have pulled it off at all this year, but we're looking to make it better each year. Your comments are much appreciated.
We'd be very interested in hearing some specific suggestions for improvements, in addition to the ones already noted. I am very curious to know what the food preferences would be -- we know that popcorn is lame, but what would you really like to see?
Please, let us hear your suggestions.
Thanks very much for running the Trailbreaker this year, and we hope we see you again next year -- please, tell your runner friends that next year's run will be vastly improved!
-- Brian Running, Waukesha Park Foundation
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