The Herriman Oquirrh Mountain Marathon was run on a
beautiful Saturday morning in June. It was a small field of competitors, 57
total for the half marathon.
The communication for this race was sparse. So sparse in
fact that I started to think I was never going to get an email. Lucky for us
the website was packed full of information. Packet pick up was held at Run Gr8
and manned by their staff. It was quick, easy, and efficient. As usual the guys
and girls at the store were super helpful! They even ran a water station at the
race. Loved that they gave us a coupon for the store, it will come in handy.
The race director was quite an enthusiastic fellow at 6 in
the morning. Because there was such a small field only two buses were required.
Unfortunately, the second bus was delayed due to transporting racers for
another race. Once we were able to leave, we took the 20 minute bus ride up
Butterfield Canyon. That was a pretty scary ride in a bus! That alone might
prevent me from running this race in the future.
This was a nice course. Downhill Butterfield Canyon was a
little brutal in spots, I am not sure what would have hurt more, just running
it or holding yourself back so you didn’t burn out before mile 13. I was pretty
sore for a couple of days after, sorer than after my marathon. I really liked
that we got to run through a neighborhood and there was very little traffic to
deal with. The hardest part by far was the distance between the last water
station (mile 7 or 8, my run tracker was off due to the GPS signal up the canyon),
and the water station at 11. They really needed to put another station in there
somewhere. With that said, I did receive OUTSTANDING customer service from the
race director. He was in a van constantly driving the course checking on
runners and making sure everything was okay. As he drove by me I used the
universal signal for drink and less than three minutes later he drove by with a
drink for me!
The medal really was nothing to brag about. It
was small but not a bad design. The after race support was about the same,
nothing to brag about but not bad. We had water and food and really what more
do you need? Yeah I love races that offer a little extra but it seems like this
race is well on its way to establishing a name for itself. We give it three
shoes!
