University of Okoboji Marathon

I have run this race many times because I have a place at the lakes. I knew it was going to be hot as the temps the day before were around 100 degrees. The morning was cooler and storms were in the forecast. The storms did not come until around 9:30 or 3 and half hours into the marathon, there were 70 mile an hour winds the rain was going sideways and the sky was pitch black. My husband picked me up at 23 miles and said they were pulling runners from the course. I took along two fellow runners. As we drove back to the start the radio said they were pulling runners, but there were still people running. There was no communication out on the course to let us know what was going on, so I did not get to finish the race and it was very disappointing to have been so close and not finish.

I wish I had more positive comments. I started around the front of the pack and there were two stops at the first half that had no water. No water at the start, no water at the half and they ran out of water at one of the later stops. The course is quite hilly on a cement bike path (I wondered why there was no elevation map). There were only bananas at the end. NO food on the course. Most of the sparse water stops were self serve. After the half the marathoners and half-marathoners separated and the marshalls did not know where to send the marathoners. I had to ask and the woman I asked said she 'thought' I took a right!!! The only markers were some paint on the road with no way to tell which markers were for halfers and which for the marathoners. The markers were on either the left or right of the road with no organization that I could figure so it was hard to know where to look. The only mile markers were painted on the road, either I missed some or they were non-existent. It was quite hot (I expected that) but to run out of water is ridiculous. The stops were very far apart at times (at one point more than five miles on a hot day (remember that two stops were un-stocked with surprised volunteers). The announcements at the end were great. The medals were very small and fairly generic. The awards consisted of another of the same small medal with engraving on the back. In sum, the few people were nice but this is by no means scenic and a runner can do so much better.

Coming off of running Grandma's Marathon a month earlier, this was a disappointment. It gets terribly hot this time of year, the course is difficult, there are limited areas for spectators, and the course is congested. You share the course with Marathoners, Half Marathoners, Triathletes, and 10K runners. The course was not marked sufficiently when these groups veered in different directions and I ended up running the wrong way onto a busy highway and only finished because a driver stopped and asked if I got injured and then offered to take me back to where I made the wrong turn. If you're looking for a PR and runners to push you, I wouldn't go here. If you're looking to be challenged in every imaginable way and possibly run 27.2 instead of 26.2 because you ran the wrong way...this is your course.