So here's the response I received over email from the group that runs that Rock-N-Roll marathon series. (It's in between the asterisks.) I'll give you my thoughts after your read that...
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Thank you for contacting us regarding the Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & ½ Marathon, and thank you for your patience in receiving a response from us. With any special event, especially in the first year of trying something new, unforeseen challenges can arise. We know we have huge improvements to make and are truly sorry for the way things turned out race weekend. The race definitely didn't go as we planned, and we are fully committed to righting the wrongs that played out at the race. As event organizers of Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series events around the country, our staff takes great pride in planning successful events. While a significant amount of time was committed to planning for this event, some elements did not go according to plan on race day, and we will be re-evaluating these elements for a better experience next year. Unfortunately we are unable to offer refunds for the race, however, we would like to earn your trust back. If you are interested, we are offering a limited time $50 discount to the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon and 1/2 Marathon (Register online using the coupon code FIFTYOFFAZ between today and December 20th) as well as a discount into the 2012 Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas event which will be sent to you as soon as registration details are available for next year. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us and for your feedback, which we will definitely take into consideration in our planning for the future
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I find this completely unacceptable. I am not going to spends hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to go to Arizona next month. (Not to mention that it's a little late to start planning that even if I wanted to or could.) I did not get what I paid for in Vegas. Any other business is expected and obligated to provide you what you paid for so why isn't this company held to the same? And giving people money off their other races is simply a ploy to get you to come out there and spend your money with them anyway at the expo etc.
I am debating what to do and welcome any opinions. I'll be honest as much as I have enjoyed the Rock-N-Roll series, with the obvious exception of the Las Vegas run, I am inclined to never give them another dime of my money until they resolve this issue in a way that is deemed satisfactory. (Granted I have already paid my money to run DC in March so perhaps I will still do that last one but then again maybe I won't..... tough call.) Thoughts? Opinions?
And this response was to the online feedback I submitted. I also sent them an actual letter to their home office... though I doubt it will get a better response...
Showing posts with label rock and roll half marathon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rock and roll half marathon. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Las Vegas Rock & Roll Marathon (and Stiletto Dash) Commentary
Let me start with the most important thing up front -
I would not by any means recommend running this race. That said if you are willing to put up with a lot of disorganization and a race that is way too expensive you may be up for it.
It was fun to run the Strip at Night but quite frankly you can walk the strip at night with drink in hand and it's just as enjoyable if not more so I suggest doing that.
As far as the Stiletto Dash goes it was entertaining and I somewhat enjoyed it (I certainly enjoyed laughing about a lot of things including the people who were way too serious about it!) but it was definitely not worth the price of admission by any means.
When I teach Effective Communication one the techniques I teach is what is called the sandwich strategy where you try and start your feedback with something positive and end with something positive - it generally makes people more receptive to your feedback. The times I say that it isn't acceptable to do that is when something is so incredibly bad that anything good is completely outweighed by the numerous issues... this is one of those times. Below is the letter I have written to the group in charge of the races... this should give you an idea of how bad the issues were. And to be honest as I have been reading the Facebook comments etc. there are many more issues that other people experienced (such as a lack of medical personnel) that I don't talk about in my letter because I didn't see or experience them myself...
I would not by any means recommend running this race. That said if you are willing to put up with a lot of disorganization and a race that is way too expensive you may be up for it.
It was fun to run the Strip at Night but quite frankly you can walk the strip at night with drink in hand and it's just as enjoyable if not more so I suggest doing that.
As far as the Stiletto Dash goes it was entertaining and I somewhat enjoyed it (I certainly enjoyed laughing about a lot of things including the people who were way too serious about it!) but it was definitely not worth the price of admission by any means.
When I teach Effective Communication one the techniques I teach is what is called the sandwich strategy where you try and start your feedback with something positive and end with something positive - it generally makes people more receptive to your feedback. The times I say that it isn't acceptable to do that is when something is so incredibly bad that anything good is completely outweighed by the numerous issues... this is one of those times. Below is the letter I have written to the group in charge of the races... this should give you an idea of how bad the issues were. And to be honest as I have been reading the Facebook comments etc. there are many more issues that other people experienced (such as a lack of medical personnel) that I don't talk about in my letter because I didn't see or experience them myself...
Dear Competitor Group,
I am a frequent participant in Rock-N-Roll events over the last 4-5 years. Perhaps not as frequent as your “Rock Stars,” but having run 8 different races, scheduled to run DC in March and having registered for 3 that I was unable to run due to other obligations that came up I feel that you guys have gotten quite a bit of money from me. In addition to your registration fees (which seem to continually be going up) – I have yet to go to an Expo and not buy something from your merchandize area. I list all of this out for you so you understand how I fit into your “demographic” as I continue with the rest of this letter.
I have just completed the Las Vegas Half Marathon and I have to say I couldn’t be more disappointed. I was excited at the idea of running the strip at night but I now have to say it was without a doubt, hands down the worst race I have ever run (and that’s saying a lot given the number of races I have done both Rock-N-Roll and otherwise). I did enjoy getting to run the strip at night but that pales in comparison to the issues I experienced. Specifically my issues include:
Expo
1. The fact that the Zappos area had it’s own cordoned off area was very confusing and made it difficult to navigate. I recognize that they were the major sponsor but it made it difficult to find everything in the Expo.
Pre-Race
2. Gear Check – where the heck was it? I have heard so many people complain that they couldn’t find it and we were no different
3. Getting to the Start Line – from inside the Mandalay we tried to follow the signs only to be turned around and told to go a different way and we had to muddle our way through to attempt to find the start line. Finally we gave in and climbed through the hedges in front of the hotel (a fact that I am sure the hotel is less than thrilled with).
4. Corrals – Clearly you guys weren’t even remotely patrolling who went into what corral
Race
5. Wave starts were way too close together. Everyone was tripping on one another
6. WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY (get the picture) too many people. Clearly you guys allowed in more runners than you were prepared to handle. The half was a total zoo. You could hardly move
7. Clear lack of proper corralling – there were so many walkers in the way of actual runners that it was unsafe. Most of these people had high numbers on (such as 30-40) and I was in the 17 group and was surrounded by these people.
8. Your designation of half to the right and full to the left by a cone that was less than a foot tall was a joke! Who could see that given the massive numbers of people? I felt really bad for the marathoners who were hoping for a decent time because they clearly couldn’t get it given the number of people they had to navigate when they merged with the halfers.
9. Water stations – I was doing better than mid-pack for the half and when I got to water stations pretty much all of them were at least half empty and most of them didn’t have any Gatorade (or Cytomax or whatever you call it). This is absolutely unacceptable for any marathon but especially one in such a dry climate.
10. Volunteers – Clearly you guys were incredibly deficient on volunteers throughout the course. Given how much money our entries are at worst case you need to hire some people.
11. There were random cones and such that people were tripping over – again this was exacerbated by the fact that there were WAY to many people allowed into this race
12. Entertainment on the course – why no cheer squads? Far fewer bands than I expected. When I did this in 2007 there were acts like Blue Man Group and Cirque out there but there was none of that this year (or at least none that I saw)
Post-Race
13. I was actually worried for my safety at the finish line due the large number of people and the fact that it was clearly not large enough for everyone. It was a mass of people that could have been very dangerous had anyone fallen or gotten pushed up against a fence.
14. The space or area and the number of photographer stations seemed to be the same number as any other race which would have less people. Do the math! More people means more space and more photographers.
15. Given the crushing mass of people I wanted to skip the photographers but it was difficult to do so which is unacceptable
16. Food? What food? There were so many people I couldn’t even get to it. My body desperately needed it but I was out of luck.
17. Upon exit of the secure runner area I asked literally a half a dozen people where I could find a shuttle (yes there was 1 sign but I had learned by the start line experience that I couldn’t necessarily trust it and good thing I didn’t) back to the hotel yet not a single one of them had any idea. They all told me to go to the Information booth. (Volunteers in that area should be better prepped by you guys with these types of answers.)
18. Post-Race Parties – The times were too close to the end of the marathon given how long it took to get out of there so we didn’t get a chance to partake.
Stiletto Dash
I also signed up and participated in this… to say I was disappointed is an understatement.
1. There was such a lack of organization it was appalling. I understand this is your first time doing this but it was only 250 people so really you should have been able to do a much better job
2. Communication issues – half the time we couldn’t hear what was being communicated to us because the bullhorn wasn’t enough to overcome the noise. Even in the back room it was very difficult to hear. Since we’d had no real instruction prior to arrival we were completely reliant on trying to hear what the heck the people were saying at the event.
3. Your standards for shoes are questionable and need to be more defined. Some of the girls were running in heels that there was no way in creation that the heel itself was 3 inches. Maybe if you include the upper part of the shoe it was but that’s not how something like this should be measured. You also originally said no boots but then changed that. Pick a standard and stick with it. You can’t expect us to go back and continually check to see if you’ve changed your minds about the standards.
4. If I recall correctly you said only women could participate but you let men in. That’s fine that you didn’t let them “win” but they got WAY more attention from you guys touting them to the media than us women who the event was intended for.
5. You cold have done the event in half the time – there was way too much standing around and waiting
6. The most disappointing part of the whole thing is the necklace. The WHOLE reason I did this was because you said (and I take this directly from your website ”The red carpet will be rolled out for our dashers. Each participant will receive:
Swanky, swag bag stuffed with products, exclusive offers and goodies!
Sparkling silver finisher’s necklace
This necklace is beyond a joke. It’s like a kids piece of jewelry. It’s cheap and I doubt if it’s even real silver. I expected something like the Nike Women’s Race necklaces (especially given the hefty $100 entry fee).
· Please do not tell me – “Well it’s for charity” because I really am not concerned with that. That’s great that you guys wants to do something for charity – I wanted to run this event for the great necklace I expected to get.
· And as far as saying the bag was stuffed you must be kidding…. There were a few items. The word stuffed is a gross overstatement
· Bottom line is on these points alone I think this was false advertisement and as such I would like a refund for my entry fee.
To combat some retorts to some of these things which I have seen on Facebook
· You never stated how many people you would allow into the race. Had I known it was 44,000 with the vast majority being Halfers there is no way I would have signed up for this race. But that said there are lots of very large races (see New York & Boston) who do just fine with this many runners
· This may be your inaugural in Vegas but you do dozens of other runs so you are not new to this
· I have no issue with walkers overall; however, for the safety of the runners they need to be AT THE BACK! And you need to ensure that they start in the proper corral.
So here’s what I am left with… whether I sign up for another Rock-N-Roll race is certainly dependant upon the type of response I receive from this letter. I cannot in good conscience recommend your Las Vegas events (marathon or Stiletto Dash) to anyone at this point. The question is whether I shout that from the hilltops or not…. I am torn because I have so enjoyed your other races but I feel people deserve to know what they are getting into especially given the steep race fees for all the Vegas events. I ran this race back in 2007 before you guys took it over and frankly it was a better race then.
I’ve heard you want to expand this race – not only is it a bad idea from a satisfaction perspective but I can’t imagine that is safe. You guys weren’t prepared for a race this size you certainly would be even worse off with more people.
A Very Disappointed Runner,
Michelle
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Saint Louis Travel & Rock and Roll Race Write-Up
I'll be honest I wasn't real sure what to expect with Saint Louis in general but I really wasn't expecting much. Pretty much the arch was the only thing that came to mind (beside the Cardinals baseball team but being a Cubs fan you know how I feel about them!) I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the city!
I arrived in on Saturday morning and met up with Mel and BJ. We headed towards downtown and on the way needed to stop for lunch.
Imo's
This is a pizza place that is a Saint Louis institution apparently due to their unique cheese provel. (Not sure how you spell it but I am guessing that my guess is close and no it is not provolone.) The pizza is very thing crust - Mel described it very well as like a saltine cracker crust. The pizza was okay but certainly nothing to write home about. I ate it but do not think I would ever go back again.
After that it was off to our hotel to get checked in so we could go to the Half Marathon expo to collect our goods.
Crowne Plaza Downtown
I've already told you all about my affinity for the Intercontinental Hotels Group so the Crowne Plaza was a natural selection for this trip (especially since there isn't an actual Intercontinental in this city.) I had chosen this hotel before the race course was even announced and got lucky that it was about half a mile from the start, finish and expo! Woo hoo! Upon arrival they had a room ready for us and we were pleasantly surprised to find we were upgraded to a suite. Even better - we have an incredible view of the arch and even though we are a few blocks away if there was a baseball game going on we could see into the stadium for the whole thing!
There is a bar in the hotel (which is apparently open until 3am on weekends) but they have a lousy tap selection (just lousy Bud!) and we didn't check the place out because we wanted to go see the town when we decided to grab a drink. There is no hot tub at this hotel which is a bummer but overall this is a great place to stay.
Marathon Expo
After dropping off our bags we headed to the Convention Center for the Marathon expo to pick up our numbers etc. and check out what "goods" they had there. As usual Rock and Roll Marathons do a great job of merchandising. They had some fabulous designs on their shirts etc. and I am happy to report that they (as best I can tell) have stopped selling finisher shirts at the expo. (As we like to say at the expo the only thing you have finished is coughing up some money!!) The expo was a little smaller than I had hoped and pretty packed but all in all not bad. The shirts definitely leave something to be desired. They are very plain comparative to other race shirts.
BJ raved about gooey butter cake (which I had never had but Mel had and said it was fabulous!) so we headed out to Park Avenue Coffee for what some folks claim is the best gooey butter cake of anywhere. Along the way we wandered through a park area with some art which was very interesting.
We had beautiful weather and it was great to see so many folks out enjoying it. There are a lot of really pretty and interesting buildings to check out as well.
Park Avenue Coffee
After a stop right down the street at a very cute pet shop (where there were some cute dogs "shopping" that we enjoyed visiting with we arrived at our destination for some yummy goodness. I have to say they did not disappoint! We ordered 3 different flavors of gooey butter cake to share: traditional, double chocolate and pumpkin. (We tried to order Turtle but they were out. Bummer!) The traditional and double chocolate were melt in your mouth delicious. I am sure the pumpkin was good too (Mel & BJ said it was) if you like pumpkin but I do not so I didn't even mess with that flavor. We all decided that it was a good thing that gooey butter cake is a Saint Louis thing and not down the street from any of us where we live because we might all be 300 pounds!
Square One Brewery & Distillery
You didn't think we'd spend a day wandering about the city and not find a brewpub if there was one did you?! Luckily this one was right down the street from Park Avenue Coffee. We found ourselves a table in the bar area and proceeded to order a sampler to contain one of each beer they have. This actually meant 3 samplers since each contains 4 beers and that's the number of varieties they had available. These sample sizes were 5oz samples which is larger than the standard size which was just fine with us!
We decided to grab a little snackage and ordered some pretzels, beer cheese soup and a scotch egg. The pretzels were decent, the soup was okay but nothing fabulous and BJ said the Scotch egg was really good though I was not a fan of it in general (it was my first time trying it and I don't think I'll have it again irrespective of where I am eating it.) The beers were really quite good with a wide variety including several IPAs, a pumpkin, a weiss, a stout and a few others. Had they bottled there was one or 2 I would have considered buying to take home with me. Definitely stop here to try the beer!!!
We then wandered back towards our hotel. We walked passed Busch Stadium which, in spite of the beyond lousy company it is named for, is a great looking stadium. I really look forward to coming here some day to catch the Cubs beating the Cardinals there for a game. Obviously the city is very excited with them playing in the World Series and all over town there are signs and such, the fountain is red, some statues have jerseys on... it's great to see so much excitement about America's Favorite Pastime.
Apparently Saint Louis is also the birthplace of Toasted Ravioli so BJ had some recommendations from folks as to where we should go for that. It was Saturday night so lots of places were so packed it was out of the question but we found a great place.
Trattoria Marcela
While this place looks small when you step into the bar and hostess area we found out that it is really rather large with a nice outdoor area as well. Since we didn't have a reservation and didn't want to wait until 8:30pm we opted for a table outside. (The weather was nice enough to make this doable.) We ordered the toasted ravioli as an appetizer to share and I will be honest - I loved it so much I wish I had ordered it as my main course! They brought out some bread with hummus which I found strange. An Italian place serving hummus just seems all sorts of wrong to me. Dinner was quite tasty as well and the portions are huge. But by far my favorite part was the Toasted Ravioli and I would go back just to have that again!!!
Solutia Rock and Roll Saint Louis Half Marathon
While Competitor Group is the official company that puts on all these races the main presenting sponsor of this inaugural race in Saint Louis was Solutia. The first impressions we had in the city of the race was that Solutia had done a really great job of signage throughout the city about the race and wishing the runners luck.
The race was set to start at 7:30am so we woke up way to early so we could all put a little fuel in our bellies and get ready to head out. The weather was about 50 degrees which is always a tough one for me to decide what the heck it is that I want to wear. I was thinking that the race was going to be a really bad one for me so I decided to go ahead and put the long sleeve shirt on underneath the short sleeve shirt I wanted to be showing since I figured that stopping to walk so I could toss my long sleeve shirt and put my short sleeve shirt on wouldn't be a problem. (Tip for any runners out there who are new to this - always check for cheap long sleeve shirts that after you wear a few times you don't mind tossing out. These are great for runs that start out cold and then you can just toss it when you are warm enough. I paid $4 or so for this shirt and had already worn it about 20 times in training runs so I had more than gotten my money's worth. And not to worry - it's not littering. The race volunteers pick up all the "discarded"and generally donate them to goodwill or homeless shelters etc.) Boy did I choose badly! (more later...) And as I pretty much generally do I ran in a tutu :) I chose to wear my Tutus for Tatas attire since I didn't run the Race for the Cure earlier in the month.
We got to the start line and near our corral. (That's one of the many things that the Rock and Roll Series does well - they do a lot of corrals to make sure people shouldn't be tripping all over one another.) They announced the race would start a few minutes late so we just hung out. It was a great area to start in - neat buildings near us and the arch in the foreground. After they played the National Anthem it was time to get started. They started letting corrals go and we started moving forward. Before we knew it we were up and it was our turn to be off and running.
I will spare the gritty details of 13 miles of running but I can tell you that I seriously goofed with my clothing choices because I was roasting by mile 3 but didn't want to slow down or stop to rearrange my clothes til about mile 9!!! The course was a very pretty course - in fact I would be willing to go out on a limb and say in the 15 half marathons I have run overall it was the best course as a whole yet! Good support on the route and lots of spectators which is always motivational! A few more rolling hills than I expected but no ridiculously steep ones which is a bonus. I finished pretty sure that I ran a personal best (we call them a PR) but hadn't worn a watch so I didn't know exactly what my time was. I would have to wait til I got back to the room to check.
After the race there was the usual snacks and photos. There was a beer garden by MGD that I simply could not bring myself to drink no matter that I was thirsty and it was free. The medals look fabulous! And frankly it's all about the bling ;)
Got back to the room and I got my big disappointment. While I was pretty sure I'd run a best when I logged on to look it up the online system didn't have a finish time for me. Apparently there was something wrong with my timing chip :( It logged my start and my 5K split but not my finish :( Mel said she saw me and she is certain I finished in front of her so when we looked up her time I knew I had run a PR because her time was better than my previous best time. Now I just really want to know exactly what my time is so I have that benchmark. They are looking it to it to try and piece it together with pictures etc. I sure hope that works out. On a happier note though all 3 of us (Mel, BJ & myself) ran PRs!!! That was cause for celebration!
Our traditional post race is that we run for shower time meaning first person to finish gets to shower first etc. So we all finished up our showers and headed out for some much desired lunch.
Morgan Street Brewery
Lucky for us this place was about half a mile from the hotel. We wandered in and got a seat right away. Great comfortable atmosphere and a pretty good looking menu. We of course ordered the sampler which included their pilsner, pumpkin ale, Oktoberfest, Honey Wheat and Decades their anniversary beer. All were quite tasty (as usual I didn't like the pumpkin) and we each picked our favorite pint to enjoy after the sampler was finished. The food was decent food nothing to jump for joy over but certainly food I would eat again. I had a burger and they have these unique sides instead of fries called Conniques which are deep fried mashed potatoes. Very interesting and pretty yummy.
After that we decided to wander over right to the arch so BJ could touch it (his requirement for the trip). It was a beautiful day so we were quite happy to be outside! We got some pictures outside and then wandered inside to check the gift shop. We had figured that there was a long wait to go up in the arch so we were okay with not doing that. Well thanks to BJ's keen observation we changed that plan! There was virtually no wait to go up in the arch so we decided to go for it. Tickets for an adult to go up in the arch are $10. The little elevator you get on is really quite small and holds 5 people. This is definitely not a place for someone who is overly claustrophobic. The elevator does almost a stair step movement to get up the arch - it's really a fascinating thing from an engineering perspective. It takes 4 minutes to get to the top crammed into the car like sardines.
At the top there are 16 (I think) windows on each side which offer a nice view. Definitely worth being able to say you did if you go to Saint Louis.
Then came time for our standard post run nap which was must needed at this point. Plus we needed to gather some energy for dinner :)
Mike Shannon's
Lately we have been trying to have a steak after our runs for dinner that night as a celebratory treat. We decided on Mike Shannon's because it was walking distance and had been recommended by someone. (We also try and go to a local place instead of a chain and this fit that bill.) Walking in there's great decor of baseball bats, balls and photos. Sadly the food and service didn't meet the standards of the ambiance or price. The service was haphazard. For example when our bread was dwindling she came by and asked if we wanted more, when we said yes she took the basket (with 2 pieces left) but never returned with more. The visits to the table were very infrequent to see how we were doing or if we needed anything else. The steak was an average steak but nothing special with very little flavor. The sides we ordered were below average as well - the mac & cheese was plain and boring and the broccolini left a lot to be desired. Bottom line - skip this place and head elsewhere for your money because it definitely was not cheap and it certainly was not worth what we paid for it.
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
We opted to go elsewhere for some dessert and Ted Drewes is another Saint Louis institution - this one known for their concretes (similar to a DQ blizzard). This treat was extremely tasty and very very well priced! I am not a big ice cream fan but I loved my Heath Concrete and would highly recommend that anyone in the area swing by there for a treat!
All in all it was a great trip to Saint Louis and one day I look forward to going back so I can go to Busch Stadium to cheer on the Cubs!!!
I arrived in on Saturday morning and met up with Mel and BJ. We headed towards downtown and on the way needed to stop for lunch.
Imo's
This is a pizza place that is a Saint Louis institution apparently due to their unique cheese provel. (Not sure how you spell it but I am guessing that my guess is close and no it is not provolone.) The pizza is very thing crust - Mel described it very well as like a saltine cracker crust. The pizza was okay but certainly nothing to write home about. I ate it but do not think I would ever go back again.
After that it was off to our hotel to get checked in so we could go to the Half Marathon expo to collect our goods.
Crowne Plaza Downtown
I've already told you all about my affinity for the Intercontinental Hotels Group so the Crowne Plaza was a natural selection for this trip (especially since there isn't an actual Intercontinental in this city.) I had chosen this hotel before the race course was even announced and got lucky that it was about half a mile from the start, finish and expo! Woo hoo! Upon arrival they had a room ready for us and we were pleasantly surprised to find we were upgraded to a suite. Even better - we have an incredible view of the arch and even though we are a few blocks away if there was a baseball game going on we could see into the stadium for the whole thing!
There is a bar in the hotel (which is apparently open until 3am on weekends) but they have a lousy tap selection (just lousy Bud!) and we didn't check the place out because we wanted to go see the town when we decided to grab a drink. There is no hot tub at this hotel which is a bummer but overall this is a great place to stay.
Marathon Expo
After dropping off our bags we headed to the Convention Center for the Marathon expo to pick up our numbers etc. and check out what "goods" they had there. As usual Rock and Roll Marathons do a great job of merchandising. They had some fabulous designs on their shirts etc. and I am happy to report that they (as best I can tell) have stopped selling finisher shirts at the expo. (As we like to say at the expo the only thing you have finished is coughing up some money!!) The expo was a little smaller than I had hoped and pretty packed but all in all not bad. The shirts definitely leave something to be desired. They are very plain comparative to other race shirts.
BJ raved about gooey butter cake (which I had never had but Mel had and said it was fabulous!) so we headed out to Park Avenue Coffee for what some folks claim is the best gooey butter cake of anywhere. Along the way we wandered through a park area with some art which was very interesting.
We had beautiful weather and it was great to see so many folks out enjoying it. There are a lot of really pretty and interesting buildings to check out as well.
Park Avenue Coffee
After a stop right down the street at a very cute pet shop (where there were some cute dogs "shopping" that we enjoyed visiting with we arrived at our destination for some yummy goodness. I have to say they did not disappoint! We ordered 3 different flavors of gooey butter cake to share: traditional, double chocolate and pumpkin. (We tried to order Turtle but they were out. Bummer!) The traditional and double chocolate were melt in your mouth delicious. I am sure the pumpkin was good too (Mel & BJ said it was) if you like pumpkin but I do not so I didn't even mess with that flavor. We all decided that it was a good thing that gooey butter cake is a Saint Louis thing and not down the street from any of us where we live because we might all be 300 pounds!
Square One Brewery & Distillery
You didn't think we'd spend a day wandering about the city and not find a brewpub if there was one did you?! Luckily this one was right down the street from Park Avenue Coffee. We found ourselves a table in the bar area and proceeded to order a sampler to contain one of each beer they have. This actually meant 3 samplers since each contains 4 beers and that's the number of varieties they had available. These sample sizes were 5oz samples which is larger than the standard size which was just fine with us!
We decided to grab a little snackage and ordered some pretzels, beer cheese soup and a scotch egg. The pretzels were decent, the soup was okay but nothing fabulous and BJ said the Scotch egg was really good though I was not a fan of it in general (it was my first time trying it and I don't think I'll have it again irrespective of where I am eating it.) The beers were really quite good with a wide variety including several IPAs, a pumpkin, a weiss, a stout and a few others. Had they bottled there was one or 2 I would have considered buying to take home with me. Definitely stop here to try the beer!!!
We then wandered back towards our hotel. We walked passed Busch Stadium which, in spite of the beyond lousy company it is named for, is a great looking stadium. I really look forward to coming here some day to catch the Cubs beating the Cardinals there for a game. Obviously the city is very excited with them playing in the World Series and all over town there are signs and such, the fountain is red, some statues have jerseys on... it's great to see so much excitement about America's Favorite Pastime.
Apparently Saint Louis is also the birthplace of Toasted Ravioli so BJ had some recommendations from folks as to where we should go for that. It was Saturday night so lots of places were so packed it was out of the question but we found a great place.
Trattoria Marcela
While this place looks small when you step into the bar and hostess area we found out that it is really rather large with a nice outdoor area as well. Since we didn't have a reservation and didn't want to wait until 8:30pm we opted for a table outside. (The weather was nice enough to make this doable.) We ordered the toasted ravioli as an appetizer to share and I will be honest - I loved it so much I wish I had ordered it as my main course! They brought out some bread with hummus which I found strange. An Italian place serving hummus just seems all sorts of wrong to me. Dinner was quite tasty as well and the portions are huge. But by far my favorite part was the Toasted Ravioli and I would go back just to have that again!!!
Solutia Rock and Roll Saint Louis Half Marathon
While Competitor Group is the official company that puts on all these races the main presenting sponsor of this inaugural race in Saint Louis was Solutia. The first impressions we had in the city of the race was that Solutia had done a really great job of signage throughout the city about the race and wishing the runners luck.
The race was set to start at 7:30am so we woke up way to early so we could all put a little fuel in our bellies and get ready to head out. The weather was about 50 degrees which is always a tough one for me to decide what the heck it is that I want to wear. I was thinking that the race was going to be a really bad one for me so I decided to go ahead and put the long sleeve shirt on underneath the short sleeve shirt I wanted to be showing since I figured that stopping to walk so I could toss my long sleeve shirt and put my short sleeve shirt on wouldn't be a problem. (Tip for any runners out there who are new to this - always check for cheap long sleeve shirts that after you wear a few times you don't mind tossing out. These are great for runs that start out cold and then you can just toss it when you are warm enough. I paid $4 or so for this shirt and had already worn it about 20 times in training runs so I had more than gotten my money's worth. And not to worry - it's not littering. The race volunteers pick up all the "discarded"and generally donate them to goodwill or homeless shelters etc.) Boy did I choose badly! (more later...) And as I pretty much generally do I ran in a tutu :) I chose to wear my Tutus for Tatas attire since I didn't run the Race for the Cure earlier in the month.
We got to the start line and near our corral. (That's one of the many things that the Rock and Roll Series does well - they do a lot of corrals to make sure people shouldn't be tripping all over one another.) They announced the race would start a few minutes late so we just hung out. It was a great area to start in - neat buildings near us and the arch in the foreground. After they played the National Anthem it was time to get started. They started letting corrals go and we started moving forward. Before we knew it we were up and it was our turn to be off and running.
I will spare the gritty details of 13 miles of running but I can tell you that I seriously goofed with my clothing choices because I was roasting by mile 3 but didn't want to slow down or stop to rearrange my clothes til about mile 9!!! The course was a very pretty course - in fact I would be willing to go out on a limb and say in the 15 half marathons I have run overall it was the best course as a whole yet! Good support on the route and lots of spectators which is always motivational! A few more rolling hills than I expected but no ridiculously steep ones which is a bonus. I finished pretty sure that I ran a personal best (we call them a PR) but hadn't worn a watch so I didn't know exactly what my time was. I would have to wait til I got back to the room to check.
After the race there was the usual snacks and photos. There was a beer garden by MGD that I simply could not bring myself to drink no matter that I was thirsty and it was free. The medals look fabulous! And frankly it's all about the bling ;)
Got back to the room and I got my big disappointment. While I was pretty sure I'd run a best when I logged on to look it up the online system didn't have a finish time for me. Apparently there was something wrong with my timing chip :( It logged my start and my 5K split but not my finish :( Mel said she saw me and she is certain I finished in front of her so when we looked up her time I knew I had run a PR because her time was better than my previous best time. Now I just really want to know exactly what my time is so I have that benchmark. They are looking it to it to try and piece it together with pictures etc. I sure hope that works out. On a happier note though all 3 of us (Mel, BJ & myself) ran PRs!!! That was cause for celebration!
Our traditional post race is that we run for shower time meaning first person to finish gets to shower first etc. So we all finished up our showers and headed out for some much desired lunch.
Morgan Street Brewery
Lucky for us this place was about half a mile from the hotel. We wandered in and got a seat right away. Great comfortable atmosphere and a pretty good looking menu. We of course ordered the sampler which included their pilsner, pumpkin ale, Oktoberfest, Honey Wheat and Decades their anniversary beer. All were quite tasty (as usual I didn't like the pumpkin) and we each picked our favorite pint to enjoy after the sampler was finished. The food was decent food nothing to jump for joy over but certainly food I would eat again. I had a burger and they have these unique sides instead of fries called Conniques which are deep fried mashed potatoes. Very interesting and pretty yummy.
After that we decided to wander over right to the arch so BJ could touch it (his requirement for the trip). It was a beautiful day so we were quite happy to be outside! We got some pictures outside and then wandered inside to check the gift shop. We had figured that there was a long wait to go up in the arch so we were okay with not doing that. Well thanks to BJ's keen observation we changed that plan! There was virtually no wait to go up in the arch so we decided to go for it. Tickets for an adult to go up in the arch are $10. The little elevator you get on is really quite small and holds 5 people. This is definitely not a place for someone who is overly claustrophobic. The elevator does almost a stair step movement to get up the arch - it's really a fascinating thing from an engineering perspective. It takes 4 minutes to get to the top crammed into the car like sardines.
At the top there are 16 (I think) windows on each side which offer a nice view. Definitely worth being able to say you did if you go to Saint Louis.
Then came time for our standard post run nap which was must needed at this point. Plus we needed to gather some energy for dinner :)
Mike Shannon's
Lately we have been trying to have a steak after our runs for dinner that night as a celebratory treat. We decided on Mike Shannon's because it was walking distance and had been recommended by someone. (We also try and go to a local place instead of a chain and this fit that bill.) Walking in there's great decor of baseball bats, balls and photos. Sadly the food and service didn't meet the standards of the ambiance or price. The service was haphazard. For example when our bread was dwindling she came by and asked if we wanted more, when we said yes she took the basket (with 2 pieces left) but never returned with more. The visits to the table were very infrequent to see how we were doing or if we needed anything else. The steak was an average steak but nothing special with very little flavor. The sides we ordered were below average as well - the mac & cheese was plain and boring and the broccolini left a lot to be desired. Bottom line - skip this place and head elsewhere for your money because it definitely was not cheap and it certainly was not worth what we paid for it.
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
We opted to go elsewhere for some dessert and Ted Drewes is another Saint Louis institution - this one known for their concretes (similar to a DQ blizzard). This treat was extremely tasty and very very well priced! I am not a big ice cream fan but I loved my Heath Concrete and would highly recommend that anyone in the area swing by there for a treat!
All in all it was a great trip to Saint Louis and one day I look forward to going back so I can go to Busch Stadium to cheer on the Cubs!!!
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