Bears Ears Marathon and Half Race Reviews

Hilly Course with net downhill

I had big expectations for this course, but wondered why it didn’t have a ton of entries if it was a BQ course. I decided to do it anyway, it was in the right location and the right date. Packet pickup was easy and non-eventful. Day of the race was well organized and started on time. Easy to get to. I ran down the road from my hotel for my warm up. The race had just a couple turns to the main road which was great. The course had very, very distant mountain views that reminded me of a race I ran in Texas with very distant Mountain View’s called Marathon 2 Marathon. The race does open up to beautiful rock formations as you get to about mile 25, and it is drop dead gorgeous! The worst thing about this race is that it’s run along a highway with a narrow shoulder and large semi’s driving 80 mph. I had to jump into the grass a few times to feel safer and also stopped a few times to be thankful I wasn’t killed. I think orange cones are definitely needed on the course. That said, I wouldn’t do the race again. However organization was good and all the water stops were well stocked and had great volunteers! The weather was also great!