Chisholm Trail Marathon Race Review

I thought I was being pretty brave by running a small inaugural marathon.  I wouldn't have tried this one had I been in top shape, partially because I figured that with it being a first year event something major would go wrong.  But nothing did, and I was really glad I gave it a go!

You can read my personal race recap here.  In this post I will give an overview of the event to help others decide if it's the right marathon for them.

As a whole, it was clear the race was designed by runners for runners.  A 12-person board, including 3 friends of mine, organized the event.  I didn't meet everyone on the board, but I know 4 of the members are competitive runners, and I am betting that the other 8 are as well!

The expo was small but enjoyable, and we even picked up some free items, which is becoming more and more rare at race expos.  My daughter and niece got free balloon animals, and there was also face painting available for kids.  It had the usual vendor offerings centered on running gear, gadgets, shoes, and fuel.  Packet pick up was fast and the race tech t-shirt was one I'll wear.  If you like to get in and out at expos, you'd love this; if you want to spend hours at the expo, this is not for you.

Expo at the Wichita Indian Center

Expo photo op area

The course is two laps of 13.1 miles.  The event also offers a half marathon if you'd like to run just one of those laps.  The course was basically a big narrow rectangle, with only 12 total turns in the full (6 in the half).  If you've read many of my race reports, you know that for me the fewer turns, the better!  I always lose momentum turning, plus it's easy to pick up extra distance if you don't/can't run the tangents.  My Garmin measured the certified and sanctioned course at 26.11 miles - it's usually short on straight courses, and I had about the same reading for the Phoenix Marathon (my standard disclaimer on GPS watches:  the certified race course is correct and your Garmin is wrong when they don't match).  Other runner's Stravas that I creeped on referenced had the course at 26.36, 26.29, 26.39, and 26.29 miles - all very close, especially considering that in marathons with turns a lot of people will get readings of 26.5 miles.  I didn't at all mind running the same course twice, but if you really need to lie to yourself about how close you are to finished in the later miles, you might think twice about this one.

The course

A potential downside to any course with few turns is that if it is windy (which is always a possibility in Wichita!), you'll have long stretches of running into the wind.  In 2019 it was nearly calm at the start, and the first time I felt the west wind was in the final couple miles of the first loop.  I again felt the headwind in the final 10K of the race, but for Wichita it wasn't bad (15 mph or so). Some people dislike long straights because you can see so far ahead on the course, but I like that!  I don't pay attention to the scenery and sights, so can't comment on that, but it is Wichita so you're not going to have ocean or canyon views...

The weather anywhere in the Midwest in the spring is a complete roll of the dice, but we had a great race day in 2019.  It was around 45 degrees at the start.  As I mentioned, the wind picked up some towards the end of the race, but the temperature didn't rise much above 50 degrees by the time I finished at 10:27 a.m.  I think we all know that any race day can bring any weather, so it's just about playing the weather odds.  If you're going to run a marathon in Kansas, the best times to do it are probably late March and late October to early November, so they picked a good time of year for this one!

The course is not pancake flat, and my Strava measured it as having 451 feet of elevation gain.  Other runner's Stravas that I creeped on referenced were very close to that, at 505, 466, 467, and 465 feet gain.  Most of the gain is between miles 2-3.5 on the first lap and miles 15-16.5 on the second lap.  There is a gradual decline on the other side of the course, I believe in mile 10 and mile 23.  Compared to where I live and train, it's all flat!  When you do encounter the inclines, you're still feeling good, so they aren't a big deal, in my opinion.

This looks worse than it was

I received an elite entry for the race, which required a previous sub-3:00 marathon for women and a previous sub-2:30 marathon for men.  As part of this, I received a VIP wristband, which gave me access to an indoor area, including indoor bathrooms, right next to the starting line.  We also had a separate gear check and light food and drink available pre-and post race.  If it had been super cold or raining, this indoor area would be very helpful!  I wouldn't pay $25 extra for it (I am super cheap though!), but I enjoyed the access I was given.  After the race I picked up my bag very quickly, although the bags were not secured (e.g., I walked up to a table that my bag was sitting on and grabbed it; I could have grabbed 10 others had I been so inclined).  I would advise against bag checking valuables at any race, but definitely don't do it at this one.

The half marathon and full marathon started 0.1 apart so they could share a finish line (since the marathoners didn't go back on the little tail of the course to the start/finish before starting the second loop).  The full marathon started 1-2 minutes before the half.  They started the full and then when the full leaders came even-ish with the half start, they started the half runners.  The road was divided for the first bit, and the finish line had two clocks.  At my pace there were no problems with merging the two races down the road, but other paces may have been crowded.

Further, I was never crowded on the course, and in this race you are more likely to have the opposite problem (no one to run with).  There were significant gaps between the top several finishers.  The top man finished in 2:21 and I was 10th overall runner in 2:57, so only 8 people came in within those 36 minutes, and the top 3 women were within less than a minute and a half (so the spread from 2:21-2:55:59 was pretty major).  Looking at the results, most marathoners probably didn't have a lot of company out on the course for the second loop.  The half was larger so you'd be more likely to have others to run with at that distance.  I was worried about passing the back of the pack of half runners in the final miles of the marathon, and this did occur, but wasn't as big of an issue as it has been in some other marathons I've run.  It would be nice to have the road divided for the final 3 miles or so to prevent this in the future, but this year it wouldn't have been possible due to road construction in some of that area that had the course quite narrow as it was, and also made for uneven footing on the roads in that area.

Not crowded/running solo

The one error on the course was with the mile marker flags.  There was one set of flags used for both laps of the course (e.g., reading mile 1/mile 14, mile 5/mile 18, etc.), but when running a 13.1 mile course twice, the mile markers don't line up like that (e.g., mile 1 and mile 14 are not in the same place).  I think they were correct for the half marathoners on their first lap, and correct for the full marathoners on our second lap.  Since I didn't run by my watch, I'm not really sure if they were right or not, but early in the race some marathoners were talking about being concerned by how far their Garmins were off so early, and I pointed out that mile 3 and mile 16 would not be in the same location, so perhaps that flag was mile 3.1 and 16 instead for us.  This answer seemed to make them happy, so I assume they were 0.1 off.  This is something that would be nice for runners to know about in advance (on the race website or via a pre-race email), because I imagine several marathons were concerned on the first lap.

The race had pace groups for many different paces in the full and half marathons.  I did not run with a group, so I am not sure on their strategies, although I did pass the 1:30 half pacers around the 10K mark. My 10K split was 42:04 (6:46 pace), so they were a bit fast (1:30:00 = 6:51.9 pace - although everyone in that group probably wanted 1:29:5X).  The race course was not lined with spectators, although there were many enthusiastic ones out in spots.  If you are someone who needs crowds to run in and/or by, this race is not for you, though!

The race had course clocks and timing mats at the 10K, half (13.1 mile), and 19.1 mile marks.  The 19.1 was because that was the 10K mark on the first lap.  I wasn't clock watching during this race, so wasn't too worried about these, but it might be nice to have one at mile 20.  There were cones lining the whole race course, and in general it was easy to follow, but in some places the cones curved in odd ways, probably due to how they were blocking traffic.  On the final loop I almost turned left a mile too early (on Rock Rd instead of Woodlawn) because of this, but the officer stopping traffic redirected me.  The intersections were well-controlled, with police at all of the busy crossings.

The announcers called everyone's name as they were coming in, and also did a great job mentioning placings and awards.  The race gathered a lot of publicity from local news stations, newspapers, etc. and was active on social media.

The finisher medals were really cute, and for age group awards the race gave free entries into next year's event for 1st place, and discounted entries for 2nd and 3rd (I believe 75% and 50% off), which I thought were fantastic awards.  They offered a quick awards ceremony next to the finish line for the top 3 overall male and female finishers in both races.  My award was a check, which is my favorite type!  If you love a plaque or trophy, these awards would leave you disappointed - or if you run this as a one and done marathon but win a free entry for next year (although, who really follows through on that one and done marathon thing?!).

Awards ceremony, wearing the race shirt

Shirt & finishers medal

I grabbed a banana and bottled water after the race, but didn't pay too much attention to the refueling options because I had to go to the media tent and awards quickly, so someone else will have to review those!  There was also a post-race party I didn't take part in.  During the race there was some entertainment for spectators who were waiting at the finish line, such as an Indian dance and maybe live music?

As far as lodging, I stayed with my parents who live just outside of Wichita, but there are plenty of hotels in the area.  Parking was easy as well, although keep in mind I was with people who know the area very well and I know it fairly well.  Wichita is not a huge city or major vacation destination like Houston or New York, but it is large enough to have things to do and any food you'd want.

The race didn't offer free photos like many are now doing, but I wasn't too worried because all of mine looked like this.  I blame my abbreviated training cycle/shortage of workouts, but you can't say I wasn't working for it at the end!

#dyingsohard

If you have any specific questions about this race (or about any other race I've run!), I would be happy to answer them!