What do you consider the top 5 or 6 road races (excluding marathons) in the USA?
What do you consider the top 5 or 6 road races (excluding marathons) in the USA?
Carlsbad
Manchester
Peachtree
Falmouth
Cherry Blossom
BAA Half
Those are all solid, but after getting off to a heck of a start this past summer, the BAA 10k could be right up there. CVS Downtown 5k is coming on strong too.
I would also toss in whatever races at the road distance national championships. Gates River has a pretty good rep as does Bix. I always wanted to run Crim, maybe in 2013...
Philly Distance Run would be top 3.
The Bix 7 definitely has to be included
luv2run wrote:
I would also toss in whatever races at the road distance national championships. Gates River has a pretty good rep as does Bix. I always wanted to run Crim, maybe in 2013...
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Bix?
Are we talking about how elites are treated?
Dorm rooms with no heat?
No place to change around the race start?
No baggage holding area?
Other than that, sure.
NYC Half
Gate river run
Cherry Blossom
Falmouth
Bix
Phili half
Peachtree Road Race 10k (Atlanta)
Bay to Breakers 12k (San Fransisco)
Cherry Blossom 10 Miler (Washington DC)
Gate River Run 15k (Jacksonille, FL)
BAA Half Marathon (Boston)
....these are the biggest 5 non marathon races I can think of.
Some favorites that I've run over the years
-Falmouth - all around cool vibe. great course. awesome time to be in cape cod
-Gate River Run - good weather for early spring/late winter, cool course, tons of free beer post race
-Cooper River Bridge Run- fun race, great post race party. tons of good looking women
-Boston & New York Marathons - great support, electric atmosphere
No love for Bolder Boulder :(
Crazy 8s
5/3 river bank run!
Peachtree sucks. How it got to be so popular I'll never know. The course is fine (for one that roams through downtown) but everything surrounding it is terrible: transportation both to and from, the after "party" with huge sponsors and little in the way of refreshments, the fact that it's a 10k in July... and in the hellhole that is Atlanta. I recommend skipping it.
The founders of the Falmouth road race installed a board of directors a couple years ago. This past year, the board fired the people who created the race, the Shermans and the Carrolls. They put the office manager in charge for about 6 months and then just gave him the heave-ho. He'd only been with the race for at least 20 years. Now this board seems to be bringing in McGillivry and his company to put the race on ...
Falmouth was a great race - but there is now a group in charge that seems hell bent on destroying it.
Bestville wrote:
Carlsbad
Manchester
Peachtree
Falmouth
Cherry Blossom
BAA Half
Why is the BAA half included? Is this a Boston thing because there are half marathons everywhere and the BAA one isn't all that great.
Other than that I like the list except you need to add in
Bay to Breakers
Utica Boilmaker
Bix 7
Cooper Bridge Run
Crazy 8s
Maggie Valley Moonlight 8K
Spokane's Bloomsday 12k should be in the mix at the top. A little over 50000 show up.
Manchester
New Haven 20K
Boulder to Boulder
Boilermaker
Falmouth
no particular order
NEW HAVEN
rnr half vab
Monument Avenue
Peachtree
Bix
Bolder Boulder
Bay to Breakers
The top race in St. Louis seems to be the St. Patricks Day Parade Run, a 5 mile race.
http://www.irishparade.org/site/run/index.html
despite the name, the race is always on a Saturday. It preceeds the parade, so there are actually some spectators.
13,000 runners last year.