Leading Ladies Race Ratings...

Ratings...
Registration & Process Fee: $75.88

Overall Race Rating (weighted): 4.3/5.0
Average Calculated Rating: 4.3/5.0
~ I would agree with the average. This was a really good race on a beautiful course with a lot of fun people. Great goodies pre and post race.

Race Director: Let's place race director...
~ First, nobody could replace the presence of the Leading Ladies Marathon race director. But, maybe we can make some suggestions. The start-- pull it back a little or have it wrap a different way. Currently, you jump right to an uphill without warm up. This is especially hard when you're already freezing. I know we don't want to congest the roads all day, but 4am meet to start at 6:30? Yikes! Not much we can do about that, except to push the start out a half hour or so. The heat shouldn't be a problem, since the sun is hidden by the mountains for the first few hours of daylight.

Organization: 4.5/5.0
~ This race is VERY organized. The runners received update emails during the weeks as we approached the race. Also, it's a small race, and the website is kept very simply without excluding any of the important point. There were 2 meeting points to catch the bus and they both seemed to go off without a hitch. There was a good amount of water stops that also had lots of snacks! Downside? We had to meet at 4 am to get the bus to the 6:30 start. It was SO cold for the first 2.5 hours of the race.

Course: 4.5/5.0
~ Great course. Running down the winding, scenic, mountain roads. Mostly rolling hills then a gently sloping downhill. My quads aren't thankful, but it doesn't hurt your time! Only part that I wasn't a fan of was an immediate uphill at the start without a warm up! This is especially bad since we were already freezing prior to the start. Also, the uphills are on these loose rock type things. They're a little like running in sand- every step you took you went back just a little.

Spectators: 3.8/5.0
~ I felt like the spectators that were there were very genuine. Everybody seemed very excited for the race! There wasn't a TON of room for spectators since we run along a major road, but whenever they could they were there.

Pace Group: /5.0

~ DNE

Runner/Corrals: 5.0/5.0
~ No Corrals, obviously, but the runners are EXCEPTIONALLY nice. I don't know if it's just because we're all women but I've never seen such a chatty bunch! Put 100 strangers on a bus and you wouldn't expect immediate chatter like that.

Expo: 4.0/5.0
~ I wasn't able to attend the actual expo, but it had a lot of cool things. There were some workshops and I heard from another Maniac that there were some pretty cool booths there as well.

Swag: 4.0/5.0

~Everything was very "Girls Power-esque" for this race, as it should be! The Tshirt? A red shirt with this years signature emblem: a Leopard Purse with "It's In The Bag" written on it. Definitely a cute idea and I had heard that the shirts last year weren't great. However, the dark brown and black on the dark red made it kind of hard to see. Would have been REALLY cute (and easier to read) if it were on a pale pink.

~Medals: Very different and cute. Same signature leopard purse with "Its in the bag" written across it. Very nice!

~ As soon as you were finished you were handed a rose with your medal.

~ Goodie Bag: There was some seriously cool stuff here! They had a little leopard colored box with chocolates inside. They also gave us 3 inspiration cards with quotes about running and runners on the cover.

~ Winners? Winners got BLING! Neckalces, bracelets, and earrings were the award for winners. Age group award? Leopard colored bags with inspiration stones inside. Mine said "Friends." Everybody together now... "AWWW."