I ran the Country Music Marathon last year. Not sure how it fits into the old/new situation...it was technically the 15th year, but that's because Rock n Roll took it over, so it hadn't been theirs the whole time.
Anyway, my thoughts:
The race was on Saturday, which is odd for most races, but fairly normal, I think, for the Rock N Roll series. I'm not sure if they do this so that they can draw a bigger crowd for their concert that evening, or because the organizers are based in San Diego, and this allows them to return on Sunday and be back in the office on Monday. Either way, it does add some stress for out of owners, who either have to take more time off on the front end, or just accept that they're going to be on the later end for expo/pickup. I was in the latter, as we left Friday morning, got to Nashville around 3 or so, and went immediately to the Expo. First off, it was swarmed. took the better part of an hour just to get bib, gear bag, and t shirt. Then had to take additional time to try to exchange shirt (unsuccessfully, but that happens) and corral. Then into the expo itself, it was very crowded, and very picked over. I was disappointed with the event specific gear (but they did have finisher gear the next day that was nicer). After a while, I just decided one expo is like another, and didn't feel the need to stick around.
In the final documentations, sent about a week before the event, they announced that this race was going to be a test of sorts...in that they WOULD NOT HAVE CLOCKS ON THE COURSE. Apparently they'd gotten feedback from participants that they weren't helpful, since many runners wear a watch, and people don't like trying to do the math to subtract the time from when they crossed the start line, then calculate splits, etc. Overall, I am OK with this, but it should have been announced long before final details were sent out. I don't run with a watch. I run with my iPhone, which I had already decided not to wear in the race, since the whole gimmick was the on course entertainment. So, a week before the race, I had to decide if I wanted to buy an expensive watch, program it, get used to wearing it, etc, or just go without. I went for the latter. As a result, I tried running on feeling, but didn't really have a sense of how I was doing until about mile 17 or 18 or so....and that's only because the course went past a bank that had a clock outside. Really, an odd move overall, and definitely one that I felt should have been announced sooner.
After the expo, went to hotel. I was booked at the "host" hotel, a Hilton, because I get points there. Unfortunately, the entire lobby of the hotel was being renovated. Not their problem, but it made for very cramped quarters on race morning when every runner staying there was trying to grab breakfast, stretch, warm up, etc. Also, we (and a lot of runners I spoke with) ended up with rooms overlooking Broadway, which is the starting line...but also the main entertainment area. Not great when you're trying to sleep before a race, but 800 bachelorette parties are partying til last call.
Race morning, gear check went fairly smoothly. Lines for portapotties....not so much. This is when it was beneficial to be staying at the host hotel.
Corrals were a bit of a mess. Race volunteers are amazing people, and they really do have a difficult job. Unfortunately, they were using a very thin piece of string held between two volunteers to differentiate the corrals. The problem was, these ladies couldn't see or communicate with each other, across four lanes of runners. So they weren't in unison in moving forward, didn't have any way to discourage people hopping up into other corrals, etc.
I knew the race was going to be crowded, and I know that in any race, you will inevitably encounter people walking very early, even though they are in high corrals. These are usually people who agreed to run with their friend, entered the same expected finish time, didn't really do any training, and now they're in Corral B, even though they are going to put in about a 6:15 marathon. No problem with people taking their time, but this race seemed to have an inordinate amount of them walking, in the first five miles. So it took forever for the early bottleneck to break up.
The bands: As advertised, they were set up every mile. Unfortunately, at least a quarter of them were on a break when I went by. I know musicians need a break, but perhaps fewer stages, with bands rotating, would eliminate down time. But, more to the point, the fact is, you run by each band in an instant. The stages are quite tiny, so you might not even hear them until you're about 15 seconds away, and then you're out of ear shot when you're 15 seconds past them.
Post race is a fairly decent set up, although they need to find a way to provide more shade. It was over 80 degrees by 11 am, and the entire runner's recovery area was in the sun. But hey, no need for mylar blankets when it's that warm. Also, the overall setup was a bit odd. You go through the recovery area, get all your food, drink, medal, photo, etc, then you can meet up with family. Then there's finish line entertainment, then the free beer, then retail, then you need to walk all the way to the other end of the parking lot (of an NFL stadium) to pick up your back from gear check. The retail at the end was nice, and like I said, there was some nice "finisher" gear. So I went there, and asked if I could exchange my shirt from the previous day. They directed me to a different location. I went there, and they still didn't have any size men's large. So I have a huge XL instead. I went back to check out the finisher gear, and found a shirt I liked. Unfortunately, they didn't have it in the color I wanted in a large, only in XL. They did have it in another color, which I bought, but that means I now have two t shirts from the same event, both of which are grey. Really surprised that a large is so hard to stock.
Overall, it was fine, but nothing outstanding, and I don't think worthy of the price. Some of the issues happen at every event, but some of them (no clocks, hotel issues, etc) seem like they should be managed when you're dealing with such a large race management company.
I chose that race specifically because it allowed us to visit friends in Nashville, but after seeing their operation, I don't think I'd travel for another Rock N Roll run event. They put one on here in St. Louis, and I am considering doing the half, but only because it actually falls on a weekend when I'd be scheduled to run 13 miles in training for another race. I wouldn't go out of my way to run one of their events, but if you got a free entry, then I wouldn't skip it either.
