Leading Ladies Marathon

Race this course if you want a PR! I arrived in Rapid City, SD a few days before the race and ventured to the bib pickup the day before the marathon. Since this was a COVID approved event, there was no expo the year I attended. However, Elaine, the race director was at packet pickup and was genuinely thankful for each runner that traveled from far and wide to run. She did an absolutely fabulous job of managing the event under the restrictive circumstances. We received a cute shirt, lip gloss, a few pins, and a runner's gel pack in our pickup bag, along with our bibs. I believe most years this race is a women's only event, however, this year exceptions were made to allow men the opportunity to run. We stayed at the Marriott in Deadwood the night before and had zero issues making the drive to the start line. There was plenty of parking for my husband so he didn't need to just drop me off, he stayed for the start. Leave it to 2020, there was a hiccup with the timing mat company and they actually didn't start setting up the start line until the time we were due to race. Usually, I wouldn't care but this year they were calling for record high heat, so I wanted to start as soon as possible in an attempt to beat the heat. The course starts on a packed gravel road on an incline for the first mile and then drops about 300 feet for miles 2-3. After that, it's easy running on a slight downhill, turning to black top around mile 5. The scenery is GORGEOUS-babbling brooks, wildflowers, deer, waterfalls! To my surprise the temps were quite cool too, but I knew as I dropped from 6,000 ft elevation into the canyon, the heat would be an issue. There were plenty of aid stations however, again because of COVID, they were not stocked. They offered only water and gatorade which was fine by me. There was one more hill at mile 12, but it didn't seem too bad. Around mile 17, I could feel the affects of the downhill on my quads but my main concern was that it was starting to warm up. Still, the views of rock formations in the Black Hills and the occasional cheers from the bikers (possibly stragglers from Sturgis the week before) kept me distracted. By mile 20, the heat was a definite factor. The forcasted high was 99 degrees which was totally usual and it reached into the eighties when we were running. The race management and volunteers offered to mist us frequently on course which helped slightly. Another point to mention was that they did not allow headphones this year. My legs were completely depleted by the finish line but I was just so happy to have run this marathon when so many had been canceled in 2020. I PR'd by 3 minutes even with the heat challenges. The medal was super cute and there were plenty of snacks provided in the brown bag lunch you received at the end. I loved the beauty of this course! I'd definitely run it again if I lived closer!