Very well organized race. On the smaller side but very well executed. Parking was easy, plenty of…read morewater and snacks, and very friendly volunteers and staff. They did a good job sending reminder emails. They even emailed everyone their bib number the day before the race. Made pickup so easy! I was very impressed with the fact that they called out the runner's names as they crossed the finished line. They also had a Half Marathon where people were still coming in after everyone else had left and the setups were all taken down, they waited for them. That's commitment and says a lot. Thanks for not abandoning them!

since i enjoyed this race so much last year, mainly due to the rabbit on the medal and all other…read morerace memorabilia, i decided to sign up again this year, along with several other friends. i picked up my race packet at sports basement sunnyvale the day before the race, and upon seeing the official race shirt with a logo of the white rabbit from alice in wonderland, i immediately regretted not purchasing it at the time of registration, but was told that i could arrive early at the race and purchase one on the spot, provided they had extra shirts to sell and in my size! upon arrival race morning, i parked and immediately headed over to the registration tent to find that they had quite a few shirts for sale, and quite a few in my size as well. i loved that they had a woman's cut shirt, which is more fitted and flattering than the men's cut shirt, which is just a traditional t-shirt. the fabric was a stretchy cotton/polyester blend which ensured a snug fit and comfort to the wearer. they also had the hi-tech tees available for those who prefer the lighter, non-cotton material. note that purchasing a shirt on the spot is $10, as opposed to just $5 if you opted to include a race shirt with your registration fee, but they did accept both cash and credit card which was much appreciated. as with last year's event, there were 3 distances to choose from, the half marathon, the 10k, and the 5k, all of which were runner and walker friendly. they even had a special hiker start for the half marathon, for those who planned to walk the entire 13.1 miles or require about 3 hours to complete this distance. i again chose to run the 10k and since my garmin device was actually working this year, i can report that the actual distance run was 6.14 miles, pretty close to the official 6.2 miles for a 10k event. and it was the same fast course as last year, with some gentle rollers and dips thrown in along the way. the fact that it didn't rain this year ensured that i could run a traditional race, vs a "muddy buddy" or "tough mudder" event, running through puddles, and mini rivers, and muddy patches. volunteers were terrific as always, directing participants in the parking area, manning the aid stations along the course, handing out medals at the finish line, and restocking the refreshments at the finish pavilion post-race. i loved this year's medal more than last year's, b/c the face of the medal bore the white rabbit, in a little blue coat, in position to run, and the lanyard holding the medal had clocks all around, as well as the name of the event. very clever, and cute idea, and my favourite brazen finisher's medal to date! as an added bonus, since i finished 1st in my age group, i got to take home a 2nd medal, one that bore a gold frame with the index finger pointing a "1." and now for a few negatives.... -as with last year, we had to pay $6 to park on hellyer park's property, and despite the fact that i arrived almost 1 1/2 hours before my event start time, i still had to wait in line to pay, and that line stretched all the way outside of the main park gates. -none of the official park restrooms was open, so the 1000 or so runners were relegated to the porta-potties. although there were quite a few scattered throughout the parking areas and near the start/finish line, i felt that the lines were longer than last year since i couldn't use the structures, which i know provide several extra stalls. i actually saw one guy with his back turned, going against a wall b/c he just couldn't wait! sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, right? :) -the refreshments area was pretty big, but for some reason, moved as slow as molasses! a majority of the 5k and 10k runners had already finished running, as well as a small handful of half marathoners, but the line barely moved...i might have walked about 5 feet toward the tables in 5-10 minutes, and was only able to get some water. i gave up waiting for the actual food, which included chips, cookies, cake, pretzels, and its-its ice cream sandwiches, since i actually had to leave for another engagement after. i felt that the volunteers should have kept these lines moving faster, and i suspect the culprit was small children who needed extra time choosing or reaching for their post-race food. this was a huge downer for me since brazen usually does a terrific job keeping the refreshments' line moving quickly so that all runners can refuel as soon as possible after racing. aside from these few points, i still very much enjoyed this event and will likely sign up again next year so that i can add another rabbit medal and tshirt to my collection! thank you, sam, jasmin, and the brazen team for putting on yet another terrific event!

ZombieRunner Vasona Lake 1/2 Marathon took us along the Los Gatos Creek Trail through Vasona Park…read moreall the way up and over to the Lexington Reservoir. Part of the race was on a paved trailed and the best part of the race for me was the unpaved trail that took me up and over to the reservoir. This race was a relatively small race with only about 100-150 runners. Pros: Pre race packet pick up Tech T's Race started on time Well stock aide stations Friendly crew Course was marked with pink ribbons to keep runners on course Cons: Trail was not marked with mileage markers. This made it difficult to know at what mile I was at through out the race.

Perfectly fine local run…read more Positives: -Nice size race, not too much crowding at the start. -Lots of porta-potties, which is an underappreciated feature--long lines before a race are so irritating. -Nice t-shirt -Good announcers -Easy to get to for us South Bay types -Convenient packet pick up at Running Revolution so you can also get your gels and any last second stuff like new socks -Nice medals for a local race--above expectations. -I like the finish on the track at LGHS Negatives: -The race route is not completely closed off, you share the trails with walkers and bikes etc. but that's not too bad (unless you are running for a PR in which case you may be irritated). -The course is net downhill for the first half and net uphill the second half--not too much, but enough to be notice. Argh!

i first ran this race 3 years ago and very much enjoyed the event, but was not able to participate…read morethe past 2 years. fortunately, my schedule allowed me to return to los gatos and participate in this event this year. for this event, participants had 2 events to choose from: half marathon (13.1 miles) 10k (6.2 miles) i chose the half since it was the distance i ran 3 years ago and i'd hoped to better my time this year! i guess 3 is my lucky number, b/c i beat my time by 3 minutes! the pros: +GREAT RACE DAY conditions, about 59 & cloudy at the start which was awesome for july (sun did not come out until about 1 1/2 hours into the race) +MEDIUM-SIZED event with 1000 or so total participants, most of whom were local runners +BIB AND PACKET pickup party 2 days before the race at running revolution in campbell and on the eve of the race at athletic performance in los gatos, both of which are near the event site. if you couldn't make either one, you could pickup your packet the morning of near the start line. +at least 3 different areas with PORTA-POTTIES near the start line, along with portable soap and water dispensers. lines weren't too bad pre-race. +FREE PARKING at los gatos high school, either by the track (right next to the start line) or at the front of the school (just a couple blocks away) +AWESOME PACERS! i saw signs ranging from 1:30 to 2:15 and know that these volunteers gave their time and efforts to helping many of us achieve our goals for this race. i want to especially thank my pacer, linh, who paced the 1:50 group for keeping us entertained and motivated throughout the entire course, especially the last stretch going up the hill! +SCENIC COURSE from mile 5 to the end along los gatos creek trail and heading up to the lexington reservoir area, decent amount of shade while on course! +CLEAR MILE MARKER signage at every mile, except for 13 since it was the final turn before the finish line +VARIETY OF POST-RACE REFRESHMENTS, which included bagels, cream cheese, bananas, plums, nectarines, and strawberries. they also had snow cones this year, which was a nice bonus since it was very warm after the race! -LOTS OF FRIENDLY VOLUNTEERS assisting with bib pickup and registration pre-race, manning the aid stations on the course, directing traffic (especially on some potentially confusing turns) and handing out medals and bottled water at the finish line -$50 for half marathon if you did early bird registration, $65 if registering closer to the event date. very reasonable considering what you get in return. -UNIQUE JUNGLE RUN FINISHER'S MEDAL with a tiger on it! -DRI-FIT SHIRT with a big colourful tiger on the back (matched the medal this year!) i especially appreciated the fact that they had both women's cut and men's cut tshirts this year. -JUNGLE-THEMED TOP FINISHER PRIZES. while i didn't place at this event, i did get to see some of the awards ceremony and the unique "jungle-themed" awards that were presented to the top finishers, including a totem-pole-like plaque and small tiger statue. the cons: -not really an ideal "pr" course since this course has many rolling hills, is net downhill for the first half, and net uphill for the second half, with a steady incline from miles 10-11.5 (when legs are very tired) -first part of the half marathon (up to mile 5) was a bit boring since we ran along residential streets -while mile markers were present at every mile, i found that most of them were a bit short of the actual distance, esp since my garmin signaled each mile completion after i passed the official race markers. i also got 13.04 miles at the end, which falls slightly short of the true half marathon distance of 13.11 miles. overall, a very well-organized local event and a great excuse for visiting los gatos, one of the nicer towns in the bay area that i rarely visit since it's a bit of a trek for me. i hope to be back next year for this event and attempt to beat my time again!

I don't know how one can be a cyclist and give ACTC a low rating. This club is huge, with thousands…read moreof members and 5-10 rides every day. Rides range from short social slow-paced to hardcore-millions-feet-of-climbing-with-no-bathroom-stops, so you will certainly find something to your liking and skill level. They have a bike academy, which is 2 6-week modules held twice a year - you learn basic biking skills, such as lane positioning, gearing, etc. and more advanced things, like adjusting brakes and riding in a paceline. It's a lot of fun, even if you are an experienced cyclist, and the instructors are AMAZING people! A few things that are more on the negative side and worth pointing out are the snobs and the average age of the members. Snobs are not really the club's problem - it's just the way cyclists are. There has never been a ride when someone didn't try to make me feel like an inferior piece of crap because I don't bike to work, don't have the coolest gear like they do or don't ride a century every day, with 7,000 feet of climbing, in 2 hours. Cause hey, that's how you need to prove you're for real. If you have enough patience and can ignore this, it shouldn't bother you as much. The average age is an interesting issue. Most riders seem to be way over 60. I guess that's when you have a ton of time on your hands and a lot of money too - cycling is an expensive hobby to have. There are not that many people under 40, and those that are tend to be hardcore pros, so I can't really ride with them - they take off and disappear. So, if you are looking to socialize, and you are under 40, this may not be for you. If you are looking to become a better cyclist, riding with older people is great - they are in great shape and ride very fast, but not too fast so you can keep up.

Retired and new to cycling, ACTC has about 4-6 group rides of different levels every day of the…read moreweek, so I am always able to find a few rides per week to my liking. They are a great way to meet other health-conscious people and explore the little-known back roads and bike paths in Santa Clara County and the surrounding area. Most beginner green-coded 'Grizzly Bear' rides have about a dozen people and many leave from the centrally located VTA lot near Coleman x Winfield (near Oakridge Mall) and go to downtown San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga, or Morgan Hill. ACTC.org's online calendar posts the rides, states how many miles, and rates them on difficulty, since some people (like me) don't like hills, while others love them! No RSVP is necessary; just show up. There are mountain bike rides, too. Most rides include a coffee or food stop near the end. The club sponsors several large annual rides and overnite camping trips, too. ACTC Membership ($25/yr for a family) includes accident insurance, mileage tracking, a Bike Academy for teens and newbies, a July pancake breakfast, with Awards given at the end of the year; it is a great bargain!

This is my review on my run!…read more Hmm...driving to pick up my bid and packet the day before the event was useless. WHatda waste of gas! Next year, if I do the race, I will just pick up my packet the day of. There was practically no one picking up their packet the day of. Just be there about 15 minutes early, and you will save yourself the drive to pick up the bid. Yea, no water stations or mile marker. I like how the run took place in Great America for the first .75 miles, but I thought the entire run should've take place in GA. We ran the 2.25 miles around the parking lot. That part was definitely not fun! =( At the end of the race, they passed out medal and water bottle. Bagels, and banana, fruit snacks, and oranges were served. Not too bad! $25 (family pack) goes directly to charity and they feed you, give you a medal, freebies (playing cards, and pens/pencil), water bottles (which they sell at great America for $4), a shirt, free parking, and a ticket to go into GA to bond with your friends and family. Can't ask for more=)

This is the first time I've done a run at Great America. Though it was fun to run inside the park,…read moreonce we got outside it was rather quite boring as all we were doing was running in the parking lot. Two thirds of the run was in the parking lot and it was easy to cut the corners in the parking lot, so in the end the distance didn't even end up being close to 3.1 miles. They only had one mile marker at mile one, and it was at least 1/3 mile off, and there were no water stations. Packet pick-up was the day before at one end of the Key Point Credit Union. There was only one sign to direct people to where that location is. My friend picked up his packet in the morning shorty after 9am, and he said they were completely disorganized. They were still stuffing the bags when he got there. By the time I got there they had gotten their act together. Unfortunately the only "goodies" I got in my bag were just flyers, which I ended up throwing in the recycling bin. The only thing worth keeping was the 10% off sports basement coupon. I did like that entrance into Great America was included in our registration as well as free parking before 7:30am. We got a finisher's medal after crossing the finish line. They gave us a bottle of water at the end of the run, but it wasn't even cold. There was slices of oranges, bananas and bagels available for us at the end, but no napkins. This is only the second year Mission City has done this run, so hopefully it will get better as the years go on.

I only signed up for this race so that I can officially say I completed the Run the Bay Challenge…read moreseries. I ran the 408k (8k) in March and now the 415k (5k). The last in series is the 510k (10k) in October. Coming from the south bay, I needed to get to the race earlier for bib pick up since the pick up day locations were both in the north bay. No problem, I'm used to that. However, the pick up on race day was not too organized as our bibs didn't have our names printed already and they were scrambling to locate additional bibs for the runners. Parking was not too bad. They had provided a map of lots garages that offered free parking so it pays to get there earlier. If not, I was able to find parking nearby on the streets. There is only one start time so you need to arrive here on time. I believe there was over 1100 runners that day. I've ran many 5ks in the past and I can honestly say that this one was one of the more difficult ones due to the hills. I wasn't prepared for that and didn't realize the amount of uphill running I would be doing... even if the hills were gradual, unlime crazy SF hills. The first mile was almost all up hill. Thankfully, the last third of the race was downhill so you could make up your time. Mile two was both up and down. There was only one water stop from what I can remember. Volunteers were spread out directing runners where to go. It was a pretty uneventful run since there wasn't much to see or listen to in the entertainment department. You do receive your medal once you cross the finish line and results are listed online quickly. As for post race goodies, there were a handful of vendors and food. You are given Hint flavored water since they sponsored the event as well as pop chips, bagels, and bananas. Two down, one more to go. See everyone next at the "Let's go 510k" this fall.

I did this race last year (Sunday, 8/25/2013) with Steve and a group of San Jose Fitters (Phyllis,…read moreTau, Carolina, Cindy, April) but didn't start to become an active Yelper until recently; hence, the prolong of this review. I believe this race was organized for the very first time last year and it was a nice 12Km run (approximately 7.5 miles). The weather was gorgeous. The trail? Beautiful along the coastline - simply awesome. The T-shirt? Regular cotton - not the dri-fit kind. The Metal? hmmm... I don't remember any metal for ALL finisher (except for the the winners - Steve did get one for his division; so proud of him :-)) . Parking situation? Greg was gracious to give us (Phyllis, Carolina, Steve and I) a lift. We didn't have any problem finding parking but I remembered Greg did pay for us. Didn't I say he was gracious. :-) The volunteers were really really nice. Can't complain. There are raffle tickets to win something ... but it's not very well organized since they called out the winning number prematurely. Meaning, they started calling out the numbers before everyone finished the race - that's not a fair/right thing to do to the last batch of runners. They deserved those prizes as much as everyone else. Also, they should improve on the water handouts. With a race like this, they should have enough cups on the further out water station. A lot of people wanted drinks but they don't have any more cups and have to wait for the cup delivery. I knocked out 1 star for not well organized with the water cups and premature calling on raffle tickets. Another star knocked off for cotton T-shirts instead of those Dri-fit or Technical T-shirts. I love to collect and wear these T-shirts for my regular run and I don't wear cotton T-shirt for running.

A good race. The scenery was terrific, even on a cloudy day, the 'off' distance (4K) was an…read moreinteresting variant, and the cause for the fundraiser was a good one. I have to knock off 1 star though for starting 30 minutes late (i've never seen a race with that kind of a delay), and another star off for the totally inadequate signage. Which I have detailed in a (hopefully amusing) blog post: http://www.angus-land.com/2015/08/run-by-sea-4k-sign-sign-everywhere.html

May 16, 2010. My Mom's 47th birthday.. and the day I did my first cycling event. Although we woke…read moreup to some dreary, cold weather.. we still were down to complete this event. It sprinkled a bit but thankfully stopped by the time we arrived for check in. We got our ride started at 8:30am. Several uphill climbs.. many little hills.. lots of strawberry fields. Hence the name, Strawberry Fields Forever. So cute.. We met a lot of nice folks along the way who were friendly, caring, helpful, and supportive. Many people would ask us if we were ok while we were stopped on the side waiting for others who happened to get separated from us which was really kind. I saw lots of older folks with some nice, stylish bikes! Actually, most of the people doing the event had pretty bikes! Makes me want to pretty up mine too =) For my first time, I found that the event was not organized so well. But being that it IS my first event, I don't know what else to compare it to so I'm only docking one point. We checked in at a parking lot near Pajaro Valley HS because the HS got full.. but we weren't able to pick up the shirts we bought since it was at the HS. Also, we weren't told about the colored arrows on the road at all.. so when our map blew away, we somehow got onto the 65 mile trail (following the large group of people) and that cut into our trip an extra 20 minutes or so. Luckily, we ran into other cyclists who were kind enough to give us the map but then told us about the colored arrows spray painted on the road. We didn't really need the map now that we knew about them.. but it was still handy in telling us how much further we had to go. After we completed the 25 mile ride, we had ONE last uphill battle to face before we were able to grab lunch at the HS. We were super happy to be nearing the finish, but our tired thighs could just barely handle the last little surprise climb to the HS. At the high school, they served a nice lunch of chicken, several salads, brown rice, beans, juice, and fresh strawberries with chocolate and whip cream. Later on in the day when the other cyclists doing the 65 mile ride had finished, they had massage chairs set up in the cafeteria ($1/min) where we were eating as well as other interesting set-ups. I got to touch a newt and a golpher snake from this nice man's informational table. I think it was a program for HS kids. Overall, I enjoyed my first cycling event and only wished the weather was a little warmer. Perhaps if the sun peaked out a bit from behind the clouds.. but there's always next year! PS. They had 25 miles, 65 miles, and 100 miles ride options. Hopefully I'll be ready for the 65 next year!