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| - I came better prepared this year. From the previous review, you could tell I was absolutely livid about the parking situation, so this time instead of exiting on Indian Bend, my friends and I exited earlier on Pima Rd and took Hayden up to the parking area. There was still a long line but faster than waiting an hour in the car last year.
There was group yoga warm ups at around 6:30 and again at 7:00am, which made it a nice way to start the cold, brisk morning with a stretch. Everyone was suffering because it was so cold this time, but moving around made it better.
Now that I'm a more seasoned runner, I did the 15K instead of the 5K, which is about 9.3 miles. This was my first experience being in the first corral of runners too, which was kind of intimidating for some reason even though it was a fun run. One of the girls was in a specialized wheel chair so she even had a 1 minute head start, but she flew like the wind leading the way.
I was expecting actual hot chocolate along the run this time, because of rumors, but instead there was tons of Gatorade stations. If you didn't want Gatorade, there was also water available and port-a-pottys at each station. The one chocolate stop I was looking forward too was not hot chocolate. Instead it was just Godiva candy. Even though I was slightly disappointed I survived.
I layered on so much clothing because it was so cold that I felt overwhelmed during the run after the first mile. I now will never run with a hoodie, over a long sleeved shirt over an undershirt, so that's one thing I might change next year.
The course itself was nice. Nothing extraordinary. Running through Scottsdale is always nice since there are plenty of trees lining the way. You even ran past the Butterfly World building during the run. There are a couple of hair pin turns on the run, so that was my only complaint. It wouldn't been alot easier if they rounded those couple of turns a bit better.
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