Knott's Coaster Run and Iron Reef update

Yesterday we headed back out to Knott's for the 10th Annual Knott's Coaster Run. I had previously done this event 3 years ago and I have to say this years event was great, some things better, some things not so much (which we'll get into below). 

We also have some Iron Reef pics from our visit last Wednesday. 

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Our Sunday morning started about 2 1/2 hours after our Saturday ended. Due to the time change we were up way too early with too little sleep. 

The start line at about 6:00am

After getting our bibs, hanging out a bit, seeing some of you who came out, we started to get in our corrals. And this was the one big issue of the day. 

The corrals made no sense. 

Usually corrals are sorted by your projected finish time. Now, I'll be honest, I can't remember if I put in a time when we registered, but I don't think we did. It seemed that the corrals were sorted by registration date, which makes NO sense. 

Hanging out in Wave 6, behind walkers and people with strollers. 

Even the people behind me were confused, or they were confused at how tired I looked. LOL. 

Now I'll admit, I'm not the fastest runner, usually around 10:30 per mile on my normal runs, but I admit it and will always put myself in an appropriate corral/wave/whatever. My wife walked the 5k and stated in the back, as it should be. 

Corral issues aside though, I will admit, that there was enough gap between waves that it really wasn't as big of an issue as it could have been. But catching up to the previous waves walker 3-4 minutes after the race started was kind of weird. 

Headed into the park

And here is the BIGGEST improvement over the last time we did the Coaster Run, actually running through the park. The last time we did it we ran around the park, but never in it. So this was awesome. 

Beware of Boomerang supports

Log ride looks awesome in the morning

Running through Ghost Town

Lines for character pictures weren't that long at all

Fog Alley

Heading out of the park

Looping around the Marketplace, through the tunnel and into Soak City

Believe it or not, this was actually my first time in Soak City. We'll certainly be checking it out this summer. 

The 5k/10k split. If you did the 5k, your course was entirely on Knott's Property (which is awesome). For the 10k the 2nd half of our race was on nearby streets, which was totally fine. Lots of great staff out to cheer you on. 

I ended up finishing the 10k in 1:03:46 and a pace of 10:07 per mile. Not my best, not my worst by a long shot. The 2nd half of the race was faster due to not having to dodge strollers and walkers.

And of course, no day at Knott's would be complete without some Boysenberry Pie. 

After a tasty breakfast at Mrs. Knott's, a post race selfie, showing off the medal in a theme park. =)

Overall, I'd give this race about a 8 out of 10, it's well organized, the course is great and the minor weirdness regarding the corral placement aside, we had an absolute blast. 

I would suggest having people with strollers at the very least start in the back next year. If you are pushing a stroller and can pass me more power to ya. But we'll certainly be back next year. 

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Moving on to Knott's Iron Reef construction, they are starting to work on the outside of the building now. 

And apparently the ride vehicles have shown up at the park as well. 

The station is receiving a bulk of the work

Ground work for the building

An overview of the work area, looks like the brick is staying. 

Not sure what they are doing on this end yet

A peek inside

Around the rest of the park, is this thing ever open anymore? 

Jaguar was closed for a brief refurb, but was back open over the weekend. 

Montezooma's Revenge just returned from it's rehab and is running great as always. 

Lastly, not sure when these were replaced (probably been awhile) but they look great. I don't normally go into Camp Snoopy, just always find it weird when I'm without kids. =)

Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this update, we hope you enjoyed it. 

We'll be back at the park on the 28th for the Boysenberry Festival. Looking forward to trying out lots of great food. 

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