This is a race to benefit the Parkinson's Program of Manhattan, which provides care to over 150 people throughout the community with Parkinson's Disease. It's an incredibly inspiration race and experience, as many of the participants either have PD or a member of their family does. The race is a fun and challenging course that starts at Tuttle Creek State Park and goes up and over the dam on Tuttle Creek. The aid stations are manned by volunteers or members of the Parkinson's Program and the finish line is packed with spectators. There is food, beer, and drinks at the finish line and they give awards for many of the fundraising goals they have and for age groups and overall. This was a really fun experience and I can't wait to do it again!

I can only say good things about this race. I ran it as a pacer and quickly realized that this is the perfect race for a PR. It begins out by Kanza Prairie with beautiful scenery and rolling hills. For the first 8-10 miles, it is just straight downhill. There are many aid stations and tons of people on the course to help keep your mind occupied. As you cross the bridge into downtown Manhattan, there are streams of people throughout the course to cheer you on. Many of the people I was pacing found their family and friends along the way. As you get closer to the K-State campus, the course starts to get pretty hilly and a lot more challenging. Since I was the pacer, I was picking up people who looked to be struggling from the hills. People seemed happy, and from the stories, it seemed like a lot of PRs fell that day. The race finished over by the KSU stadium, where there many spectators, food, beer, and massages available. The medal doubled as a belt buckle, which I thought was cute and clever. Overall, a great experience. I can't wait to do it again next year.

This was my first marathon and it was perfect for that. I ran with the 4:00:00 pacer for the first 20 miles and they were awesome and incredibly helpful. There were tons of aid stations throughout the course where they provided water, Gatorade, and Clif Gels. Everyone was very encouraging and I had a fantastic time. Can't wait to do it again.

This was a hard race and a hard course. The race started on a section of road and easy prairie trail and eventually led to some of the rockiest trail I've ever run on. I actually spent a lot of time walking because I was not looking to turn an ankle. There was a bit of elevation, but really that wasn't too bad at all. It just felt like I spent the whole time running on rocks. I was pretty happy to be done when the race was over. I finished in over 2 hours and was 3rd female. I felt like I was going so slow the entire time, but it was just impossible to go much faster.