Race Review: Inaugural Oktoberfest 4 Miler

This past Sunday, Cassie and I ran the inaugural Oktoberfest Four Miler hosted by Mighty Squirrel! Because the race was so local to us and at one of our favorite places to hang out after work (I mean we found out about this race during a work happy hour at Mighty Squirrel), we decided to give it a go! This was the first year that this race was being run, so I tried to keep that in mind as I was evaluating how things were managed throughout the day.

We signed up for this race about a week ahead of time. I'm not sure if it's because the race was nearby, that it was a shorter distance than we generally race, or if we're just generally unprepared for every race until the last minute, but Cassie and I didn't make an actual race day plan until the night before. She tweeted our text exchange the night before the race and I had to share. 😂

As the race was starting at 10am and bib pick up was ending at 9:30, we thought it'd be good to get there around 9am since the race was new and we weren't sure what the flow would look like at the event the morning of. I picked Cassie up at her place around 8:50 and we buzzed over to the brewery for 9. I was pleasantly surprised at how much parking was available, because it's sometimes difficult to find a spot at Mighty Squirrel when you're just heading over for drinks. The race was completely sold out so I figured parking would be a nightmare, but we snagged a spot so close to the door of the brewery where packet pick up was taking place.

One thing that was kind of a bummer was the fact that even though they were originally planning to distribute medals for this race, I guess the company making the medals misprinted them so the race organizers decided to cancel the order. Because this was a RaceCancer event, you have to make a $5 donation to receive a medal which I opted into. I thought it would be so cool to have a medal for an inaugural race! The race organizers sent out an email updating us regarding the situation the night before, and also informed us of what happened at bib pick-up. You had the option of donating the $5, getting your $5 refunded, or getting 3 raffle tickets in exchange for the $5. I decided to just donate my $5. It was a bummer not to get a medal, but at least they were up front about it and had a back up plan. Cassie and I are both so curious as to how badly they could have misprinted the medal that they wanted to cancel the order, though. 😂 #novemberfest

As we were waiting for the race we made some BibRave friends, Danielle and Lars! Danielle was tapering for an upcoming marathon so she opted out of this race (which I mean I technically am as well but I'm a bad runner so I don't taper correctly 🤷😂), but her partner Lars ran and we were about the same pace so we were right around each other most of the way! It's always great to make some running buddies on race day.

The race kicked off right at 10am and to say that this course is hilly is an understatement. A better way to describe it is this race is a hill. Nearly the whole thing. 😂 The only part that isn't uphill is the very beginning of the race then about mile 3.25 to the finish. Cassie and I did a lot of speed-walking during this race, that's for sure. This is the course description sent to all participants the night before the race:

Course: The course has a brutal hill from mile 1 to 2 which kinda keeps going up past mile 3. Roads will have a partial closure--please stay to the right.

Even though the race was mostly hills and walking, we still managed to complete the race in 48:45 - not bad at all, in my opinion! This race also printed your results for you on-site, which is a fun feature I've been seeing at a few races lately. I love being able to take my results with me! After we finished up we headed back to the brewery for post-race celebratory beers. Each runner got two free drink tickets, and they were giving out free pretzels (which they actually ended up running out of - bummer!)

Overall I really enjoyed my time with this race. If I didn't know that this was the inaugural year of this race I probably wouldn't have been able to tell. The check-in process was smooth, the course was well marked and staffed, and the post-race party was a blast. We actually ended up staying a few hours after the race just hanging out and chatting with our new runner pals! I definitely would be interested in participating in this race again in the future.