I drove 6 hours for this race. My friend wanted to run her first marathon, but she wanted to run one that was bigger than our local races. We did not know the area or the course.
I went to the expo the day before on Friday about 4pm. It was small, but had your essentials. Lets talk t-shirt. It is a long sleeve tech shirt that is black and neon yellow. Gross. It will be going on my t-shirt blanket, The problem was they were setting up for the 5k race and we could one drive one way, which was not the way we needed to go. So, it took us longer to find the hotel.
The morning of we parked in a big field. it was wet from the dew. So, my shoes were wet to start. We had to walk about 1 mile to even get to the start and once we got there we had to go through security even medal detectors. Finally, we found the start line with 2 mins to spare. We left 1.5 hours before start time. We were off. I have never been on an air force base so that was cool. At about mile 9 and 10, there we a spectator section and got to see my family cheering me on. That a little difficult. I like to see my cheering squad. The finish line food was your normal- water, Gatorade, banana, granola bars, ect. Then we had to make the walk all the way back to our car in the field about a mile after the race. OUCH. legs were dead.
Overall, I liked the course except for the on ramp you have to go up at like 21 and the hill and mile 23. It was a very hot day for the middle of September. We started the race in the 60's and finished in the high 70's. I would recommend this race, but I am not sure I would drive the 6 hours to do it again. I have other races to do.