I was basically treating this as a long run as opposed to a "race" since I had 7 miles on the half mary schedule. I pushed it a little bit and kept my heart rate and effort a little higher than my typical long runs, but it was hard not to in the race atmosphere. I liked the cross country aspect and didn't mind the loops. There were enough people around to keep it interesting when we went through the crowd and cheering sections.

Nothing really - it wasn't a bad run for me

Water, banana and TACOS! It sounds horrible, but they were actually quite tasty!!


The main purpose of this festival is the collegiate, high school and junior high competitions so there are lots of people milling around and on the course warming up during the "open" event for the public. The really fast folks probably hate it because they very quickly lap the slower, recreational runners (like me) and because of the narrow cross country course have to weave in and out of clumps of people. It's certainly a different experience from a road race, and a nice change of pace, but not the type of event I'd want to do all the time.