This was the first time that I had ever been to the state of Texas. Coming from the mountainous west coast the scenery was definitely different in Texas flying in. I was expecting a very flat course when in actuality it had a pretty decent amount of hills. I will review the race itself next but my main takeaway from this race was a huge lesson learned in terms of knowing the conditions on a race day and adjusting your strategy accordingly. This race has a later than I am used to start of 8:30am probably so it is actually light out when people run but it was unusually warm in the morning, 70 degrees by 10am…in December. The start of the race was cool with overcast skies which led to me and many other runners taking off hard and fast and going for a PR. Texas is more humid than the northwest and the warmer temperatures meant that going out at PR pace for the first half especially during the long uphill middle section was a mistake. I bonked at mile 9 and slowly dropped from 7 minute pace to 7:15 pace by mile 11. Then I things went really south and my final mile was nearly 9 minutes and I wobbled to the finish and am still recovering from cramps and dehydration a day later. Essentially don’t make the rookie mistake of going out too hard in any race and then run a responsible pace in a race when the conditions are different than what you run in at home. As I continue to run races around the country, especially in the south I will take it much easier and only go for that PR when the course and conditions suit it. On to the review…

EXPO/Packet Pick Up: The expo was at a convention center only a few hundred yards from the start line. I went on Saturday afternoon and had zero issues easily getting inside and finding the expo. The convention center is huge and many other things were going on including a youth cheerleader/dance competition so among the hundreds of runners walking around were dozens and dozens of young girls in bright outfits and makeup. Parking is limited in the area, I had friends drop me off but the DART (commuter type train) drops off right at the convention center. Bib and event weekend shirt(not a tech T-shirt) were easy to pick up and seamless. The rest of the expo was pretty large and had some really nice BMW(event sponsor) cars inside that you could get in and check out.

Parking/Access: As with any downtown major city race parking is going to be a real issue. I took the DART (commuter train). This worked fantastically as I was staying with friends near Plano. Parking was free at the train station and the ticket was only $3, I was able to use it both ways because the ticket was good for the entire AM, if you run the full you will likely need to buy the $6 all day ticket. After getting off the train at the same convention center as the expo I spent quite a bit of time warming up and stretching in the event center along with many many others, plenty of room and warm with real bathrooms.

T-Shirts/SWAG: I really liked the medal for this race, it is something I had never seen before (see attached picture). It had picture of the Dallas skyline including the event center and the cattle drive statues that area near the start. The really unique part is that there is a hinge in the middle of the medal that folds back the sky above the skyline so that the top of the medal is a jagged skyline and the sky now becomes something that you can use to prop up your medal for display, it was also attached to a high quality ribbon. I like to wear event shirts for my races however I could not do that in this case as at the expo you get a Dallas Marathon weekend T-Shirt (not a tech Tee). The shirt had a great color and design and is definitely something that I would wear outside of a running event. You do still get a Tech Tee, but you get this in the finishers area after the race because it is a finishers shirt. This design was less interesting and a little plain but I have a hard time criticizing the swag in a race where they give you two shirts at no additional cost. Great SWAG.

Aid Stations: The aid stations were well stocked and spaced every 1.5 to 2 miles they all had Gatorade and water. There were even several aid stations from local community groups along the course. The aid station around 7 miles also had liquid energy packs that were given out. I didn’t hear anything about things running out at any time during the race.

Course Scenery/Elevation Difficulty: This was run mostly through downtown and surrounding neighborhoods in a large loop, no out and back repeats of scenery which is nice. Near the beginning of the race you run through the famous triple underpass and past the book depository and grassy knoll where JFK was killed (I also recommend the trolley tour around town that focuses on the assassination, it was really interesting as an out of state tourist). After a rather quick and slightly downhill first 3 miles the next 5 or so miles is filled almost entirely with uphills. I kept my pace up through those uphills when was just too much effort expended and I paid for that in the end. Around mile 7 we entered highland park which my friends who I was staying with tell me is a rather historic and very expensive part of town. I did find it very pretty. The last few miles of the course were a pretty non de-script trip through neighborhoods and downtown.

Weather: Surprisingly hot, at least surprising to me, I know its not unheard of to have highs of 75 in Texas in mid December but the cool start temperatures led to a lot of people going out too hard (i saw lots of walkers or people stopping to stretch on the course which I rarely see at my pace because most runners are quite experienced if you are running in the 1:30’s. I didn’t stick around to see many marathon finishers but I fear that the heat likely led to some carnage as people were trying to finish in the afternoon. It was humid, normal Texas humid which isn’t like the deep south but certainly more than I am used to in the northwest.

Race Management: This was very well run. Great EXPO, SWAG and organization. The corral control was very strict and something that I am not used to seeing outside of extremely large marathons, they had people checking to the gates to make sure you were in the right corral and the fences were 6 ft tall keeping people in so it would be hard to skip into the wrong corral. My only complaint would be there there were only 4 different corrals and they were long and narrow. I probably should have entered the corral sooner but even getting in 15 minutes early I wasn’t quite able to weave my way to the front where the quicker pacers were. The start of the race was quite an event, a very talented national anthem singer, and giant 40 foot tall arch over the start with a huge video board playing a get psyched video and fireworks being shot off the top of it that made it feel like I was at a football game. Very cool. The finish area was well stocked with tons of freebies that you would expect at a race including an area to get your finishers shirt and then gear check pickup was a breeze. They also had a well organized family reunion area. I also give this race credit for having so many types of events. They had a 50k Ultra, Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k, 5k, Kids Race, Friday Mile as well as 4 man Marathon relays and 2 man Half Marathon relays (I saw several people ran the first leg of relays and then continued to finish the race on their own as well. Races were held over 3 different days with only the Half or further on Sunday but they really did have an event or distance for everybody.

This was a great race, don’t try to PR here and just enjoy the organization and course. Also make sure to get some BBQ in the area after the race, food after any race always tastes amazing but BBQ in Texas was something else. The brisket that I had at Hutchinson’s was something that I probably could have eaten with a spoon because it was so tender, the knife was not needed.

I would definitely recommend this race, and it is one I would like to do again someday, pace myself better, and better enjoy the finish.

I really enjoyed the portions of this race that could actually be controlled by the organizers. I flew in from Seattle late Friday night and stayed with some friends in the area. I attended the EXPO on Saturday during the late morning. This was my 10th state that I have run at least a half marathon in, and my 8th time doing a Rock & Roll Race. As always with a R&R race the management is top notch which is why you pay a little more for these races. I arrived at the race my normal 1 hour and 15 minutes before the start and other than the workers setting up the event, it was deserted. Likely due to the 40 degree temperature and the 20mph winds. I personally took refuge in a Port-o-Potty for 30 minutes just to stay warm.

EXPO/Packet Pick Up: The location was really easy to access right off the interstate and there was only a tiny line of cars trying to park. I had a friend drop me off while I did the expo for 30 minutes, he left so he didn't have to pay to park. Packet pickup and shirt pickup took mere minutes and I was on to the expo (One minor complaint that I didn't notice until race morning was that there were no safety pins in the pick up bag, i certainly might have missed them if they were in a supply box but I feel as though just having the 4 in the bag when you get your bib should just be standard). R&R expos always start with the R&R gear shop and they had some nice printed banners with all of the runners names on them. I made use of the free Brooks Gait analysis that they had set up. I always run in brooks shoes but this allowed me to confirm that I am using the correct Brooks shoes (Adrenaline). After you leave the R&R area you get to the vendor portion of the expo which was quite extensive, lots of people were trying things out and it seemed well attended.

Parking/Access: The race started and finished right next to the state capitol building. I would think that traffic could have gotten congested later but it seemed like everybody was on time. I was there so early that getting dropped off at the designated area was a non issue. When my friend came to pick me up at the end of the race he was still able to find pay parking 2 blocks from the start so I would think that nobody had an issue in that regard.

T-Shirts/SWAG: The shirt was a black long sleeve shirt(see picture), it was really nice soft running material and had the race logo on it. I did kind of like how the back of the shirt was blank instead of covered with the logos of tons of sponsors. The race medal like all R&R medals are really high quality and featured local Colorado things like the evil blue horse near the airport and the state flower. A nice improvement from the last 2 R&R's that I did in 2017 was that the medal ribbons were really high quality and had things like the state flag 'c' and the city skyline rather than being an ad.

Aid Stations: The aid stations were well stocked and spaced every 1.5 to 2 miles they all had water and most also had sports drinks. There were even several aid stations from local community groups along the course. The aid station around 7 miles also had gel packets that were given out. I didn't hear anything about things running out at any time during the race. My nitpicky complaints would be that one aid station just had cups on a table rather than people holding them up for runners and one of my cups had a leaf in it due to the high winds which I choked on. The race can't really control these factors and being critical of volunteers is pretty hard to do without being a jerk so all in all they were just fine.

Course Scenery/Elevation Difficulty: The Course Scenery was quite varied and nice for a city race. We ran near or around the football and baseball stadiums during a very turn heavy first 5 miles. The last 8 miles were mostly an out and back to a large city park that we ran through for about 2 miles before heading back to the finish. I also liked running directly in from of the capitol building steps at the 13 mile mark. This is 20 feet from the medallion on the capitol steps that marks 1 mile above sea level which you should definitely take a picture at. I wavered between a 2 and a 3 in terms of difficulty and went with a 3 in the end for two reasons. First there were several bridges/overpasses which make things a little hard for brief moments but by itself i would only call that a 2 out of 5. The other part of the difficulty would be the elevation above sea level. I never really struggle with elevation during climb to the top of a mountain type hikes so it didn't really affect me but I am sure that it affected several out of town people. I was 2 minutes slower than normal but I attribute that to the last 3 miles being straight into 20mph winds but the elevation could have affected me some.

Weather: The 40 degree temperature at the start nearing 45 when I finished with a beautiful sunny day would have made for some pretty decent to ideal running conditions. The wind however really made things much harder. Sustained 20mph with gusts of up to 28. During the first several miles you were protected by buildings but running into an intersection at times felt like somebody was pushing you hard from the side. The wind was at your back from mile 5-7 which helps times some but never as much as it hurts you when you run the final 3 miles straight into it. The locals told me the wind is never like this so it was probably just an unfortunate fluke.

Race Management: As always with R&R races this was very well run. Great EXPO, SWAG and organization. I really like the corral control that they exhibit keeping people with people who run the same pace. They had extremely friendly and helpful pacers running as fast as 1:30. Plentiful bathrooms as long as you didn't just stop at the first one you came to and easy gear check in and pick up. I really enjoy the bands throughout the course which helps break up the race and keep your mind off of any discomfort. Special kudos to the bands playing in those cold windy temperatures, I'm sure that wasn't easy. The finish corral really loaded you up with goodies. Water, Gatorade, Chocolate milk, pringles chips, granola bars, crackers, and fruit. They also give you a foil blanket to help you stay warm. I was loaded up with so much stuff that my shorts were starting to fall down from the weight of it in my pockets and the rest in my full hands.

Overall I really enjoyed the race and would recommend it to people.

I had a really good time at this race, it is still a pretty new race but they are doing a lot of things right so far and with a few tweaks they could make it great. This race seems to be getting more popular. For the half in the 4 years they have gone from 350->700->750->1000. There were also nearly 1000 people for each of the 5k and the 10k.

I flew in for this race from Seattle a few days early so that we could visit my wifes family near Madison. Driving to the race the morning of was seemless and easy, we tried to arrive at the start area an hour before the race.

EXPO/Packet Pick Up: I can't comment on the expo because I was staying so far away so I elected to pick up my packet the morning of the race at the start line. For this race there was no bag given away with goodies and advertisements. You just walked up to the gazebo with your bib number (which they provided on both a big pin up board and via email), and they gave you your bib with safety pins and your shirt. I was there an hour before the start and this process took me less than 1 minute. They made a point of saying picking up the day of is not reccomended but with the size of the race still being ~1000 people it really wasn't an issue. Maybe it would be harder if I was trying to pick up my packet 10 minutes before the start but personallly I'd recommend picking your bib up at the course.

Parking/Access: Getting to the start line couldn't have been easier, it was less than a mile from the interstate and parking was directly next to the start area. Again I was there early so parking was still available but the closest lot was probably full 45 minutes before the race, they had maps posted on their website with other free lots which were all pretty close and they supposedly provided shuttles.

T-Shirts/SWAG: I really liked the shirts and Medals for this race. The shirt was a half zip pullover which is really soft and would likely be great for colder training runs and races. It is very simple with just a small race logo in the top corner so it is easily something that you could wear around outside of a running event and not feel out of place. Looking at some of the past medals for this race I was not really a fan but I really liked the medal this year. It was in the shape of Wisconsin (as someone trying to run in as many states as possible I really appreciate this) and had the roof of the very unique Milwaukee Art Museum on it. There is also a picture of a beer and a bratwurst which were things they were giving away at the finish line. I was fortunate enough to place third in my age group which also earned me a much smaller version of the finishers medal with a description of what it was for on the back. The only minor critique I would make on the medal is that they all say 5k/10k/Half, the smaller the distance the smaller the medal they gave out and the medals for the half had some color on them that the 5k medal did not. I would prefer that my medal just said half marathon so it was easier to distinguish what it was for, but that is really nitpicking.

Aid Stations: The Aid stations were spaced at 1.5 miles and then about every 2 miles the rest of the way. I had no issues with the stations but I was up front with few people around. The volunteers all did a great job calling out who had gatorade and who had water. The aid stations were a bit small though in terms of number of volunteers so (just assuming no first hand knowledge) things would have gotten a bit crowded and the volunteers would have troulbe keeping up when the big part of the pack of runners was showing up. My other critique of the aid stations was that they need to put a big garbage can with a volunteer ~100 feet past the water stations so people would toss their cups there. With no obvious place to throw things cups were getting tossed everywhere which would be a pain for the volunteers to clean up and it just felt weird littering like that in a park.

Course Scenery/Elevation Difficulty: At this time of year the course is not especially pretty because there are no leaves on the trees. You start in a park on Lake Michigan then quickly run up an overpass and are then on a greenbelt along a river for ~12 of the 13 miles. The bike path is nice and so is the river but until the trees start to come alive this place isn't anywhere near as pretty as it will be during the summer. The course itself is extremely flat which makes it pretty fast. It is an out and back with most of it along the exact same path which I assume led to some traffic issues near the turn around point which the larger pack of runners were going through. It is a slight uphill on the way out which pays you back with a downhill on the return, very gentle so nothing that really hurts your stride or pace too much.

Weather: The temperature and the wind did add a degree of difficulty. 15-20 mph gusts, probably expected so close to the lake. The temperature at the start was also a brisk 35. I had a running hat and running gloves which after getting warmed up a few miles in I tossed the hat to my family at mile 4 then tossed the gloves to them on the way back at mile 9. Very few spectators were on the course so that option wouldn't be available to most people which probably made running in that temperature pretty tough due to either carrying gear back or being cold to start. I'm not from the area so I'm not sure if those temperatures are the norm for mid April, but the past 4 years the weather has been. 70 and sunny, 30 and snowing, 40 and raining, 35 and sunny so be prepared for anything.

Race Management: Lots of good things to like about this race, a few things to improve.
Things I liked: T-Shirts/Swag, Lots of Port-o-potties, they had everyone lined up by goal pace then called everyone who was <8 min mile pace (indicated by the color of the numbers on your bib) inside the start corral to start before everyone else I really appreciated the attempt to allow the faster people start more easily, Beer, Brats, and Cheese Curds at the finish, very tasty and very Wisconsin, top 3 by age group medals for all events
Things to improve: The trail was not closed for public use, this wasn't an issue during this race because it was so cold but people riding their bikes into a 1000 runners in the opposite direction can be dangerous, the finish line was a bit of a mess after you got your medal-they tried to combine all 3 races towards the same finishers area to get food and freebies but it was very hard to figure out what was where. All of the races started at the same gate, the half marathon people returned to the same gate while the 5 and 10k people used a different nearby gate to finish, all of this is fine but at least according to my wife who missed me finishing it was not made clear who finished where (in all fairness she could have not been listening but either way it could have been clearer for spectators. They also need to add some garbage cans near the water stations which I mentioned earlier.

This was overall a very fun race that I would recommend, I feel like they are doing very well for a race that is only 4 years and with a few changes could be great.

I really really enjoyed this race, it had a lot of unique things that I had not experienced in a race before and of course setting a new half marathon PR after more than 4 years since I had set my previous PR leaves you with really good feelings in regards to a race.

I flew in to Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon, got picked up by my cousin at the airport and drove straight to Provo so I could pick up my packet at the EXPO. Plan on at least 45 minutes to an hour to Provo from the airport.

EXPO: The expo was quite small and so was the parking lot associated with it, although parking was free. Packet pick up was quick and easy and had several freebies in the bag. Overall nothing special about the expo other than a few booths but it is a small race so it is about what you would expect.

T-Shirts/SWAG: The T shirt for this race is a little unique, it had bright red sleeves and a black shirt. The utah valley logo on the front and giant "Pain You Enjoy" letters on the back. I actually like the shirt in the sense that it stands out from the rest of my race shirts but i definitely heard some complaints that people didn't care for it. The race medal was really nice, it is a large spinner medal so the outside of the medal is a solid ring with a disc in the middle that can spin. Another unique addition to my collection, the only negative would be that it doesn't have anywhere to have my name and PR time engraved but I still really like it. Another thing they do that I liked is that the race bib isn't simiply a rectangle. The top of the bib is jagged and has a mountainous design, I have done a few other races that did something unique like this but little touches like this are things that I love about a race.

PARKING/ACCESS: This is a point to point course so you park near the finish and take a bus up to the start in the mountains. Parking was at a shopping mall and more than abundant. The buses were easy to find and had plenty of room although I got there pretty early so there wasn't much of a line yet. Once on the bus you drive up a highway into the mountains where they drop you off at the start area. There were plenty of outhouses at the start, especially if you kept walking towards the start line from the drop off area and didn't just stop at the first one you found. One thing to know though is that even during the summer it gets very cold up there at 4:30 am, waiting for the 6am start time. They do however have camp fire barrels set up along the start area to keep warm which I really welcomed. They had a big truck right by the start line to check your bag which really just meant have your bag labeled and throw it in the back of a UPS truck but that did allow you to keep your warm up clothes on until only 10-15 minutes before the race. As for getting back to your car after the race the finish and the parking lot are over a mile apart and while you could walk it they do have buses to get you there which were easy to use.

Course/Aid Stations/Elevation: Aid stations were spaced every 2 miles or so throughout the course and were well stocked with water and electrolytes. Because you are running through a canyon there isn't much crowd support during the majority of the course until you get near Provo/the finish but you don't really mind it. The canyon portion of the course is very pretty, there are waterfalls and nice views and while you are running the sun is rising so it only adds to the beauty. As for the elevation I found this to be the easiest elevation race I have ever run. It was almost entirely a very very gentle downhill with only 2 minor uphills. The great part about the downhills was that the gradient was so slight that it helped you keep running fast while never feeling like you were pounding your knees trying to slow yourself down as you would if you were running down a steeper hill. The only reason I didn't rate this as a 1 star elevation difficulty is that all downhill running can be very hard on your quads. I'm sure the people in the full marathon felt it, I didn't have any issues during my race but during the next 1-3 days I thought it was weird that my quads were really sore until I realized that the elevation is what did it. I'm sure some people started to feel it during the race which could at least add a little difficulty. This race is made for you to PR and I managed to finish in 1:29:56 for a PR, finally breaking 1:30.

Race Management: I really enjoyed the execution of this race. Bussing to the start was smooth, fires and plenty of bathrooms at the start was great. They have a beautiful downtown finish location by the courthouse after you pass by BYU (the edge of campus so unless you know its there you wouldn't assume it was a university you were passing). They have several other nice touches like a PR gong which you can ring, you tube videos of the finish so that you can see how you finished, and FREE pictures. They had finish time printouts which you could get to show your results.They also had lots of free food at the finish including popsicles and cinnabon. The bag pickup area is a little concerning because they just lay everyones bags out and you just grab yours with no real security but it didn't seem to be an issue.

I do want so give one final shoutout to the race management for going above and beyond for me. For the first time in my life I placed in my age group at a race but I didn't realize that they gave awards out all the way to 5th in your age group instead of 3rd so after my wife finished we went home. I later realized that if I had waited around for 15 more minutes I would have recieved by agre group award but by that time I had already flow home to Washington state, after several emails I was able to get a hold of the race director who I offered to send money to in order to ship me my plaque. They said they would figure something out and then shipped it to me for free. I know it only cost them a few dollars but it did take their time and it was just a really nice gesture on their part which I appreciate. I have my eye on this race for future years when I might try to get my full marathon BQ here.

This race is actually a medium to small size race which is actually pretty suprising for a state with a population the size of Montana. The only way to get so many people to come from so far away is to flat out do a fantastic job in terms of race experience. This race delivers on that, it felt like the entire community came out to support this race. This was my 14th half marathon and my 8th different state that I have raced in.

EXPO: The expo was easy to get to and had plenty of parking and was held at the university of Montana. There were lots of freebies in the expo bag with your shirt and there were a decent number of booths.

T-Shirts/SWAG: I loved both my medal and the shirt for this race. My light blue shirt has a hard to describe plaid/checker pattern although the shirt is still all the same color. It is a unique look but nothing crazy so I enjoy wearing the shirt around. I also really enjoy the race logo itself. The race medal is traditionaly rust colored and it was again this year. Some years they have had horse shoe shaped or more bizarre shapes, this year was a pretty standard circle but still had a cool design on it that I really enjoyed. Run for the bling people will be happy.

Parking/Access: We stayed less than a mile from the University of Montana parking lot where you need to catch a bus to the start line. This should have taken us mere minutes but instead took closer to 30-40 minutes because so many cars were crowding onto the bridge to access the parking lot, while I was never really in jeopordy of missing the start I like to be at the start line early which kind of got cramped by this traffic and people who were getting there after me probably felt much more pressed for time. The lines for the buses were long but moved fairly quickly and once you were on them getting to the start was pretty easy.

Aid Stations/Elevation/Course Scenery:
Aid stations throughout the course had water and electrolytes and had the normal spacing on the course, no issues there. The course has some hills and is not flat but none of the hills were particularly steep. I'd call it 50% flat at least with gradual to moderate hills on the rest. The scenery on the course is the kind of thing you hope to see when you are in the big sky state. You start but running through some winding wooded roads that are very pretty before you start to run by peoples houses on large acre properties around mile 3. During these first few miles the crowd support was very unique, I saw both a man playing the bagpipes while wearing a kilt and something I never expected to see ever while running a race, certainly not a rural race, a man had rolled his grand piano out into his yard on a tarp and was wearing a full tux while playing classical music, it was awesome.

The course continues over some old railroad looking bridges and passes things like a giant cow (like 20 ft tall). You slowly start to run through neighborhoods with good crowd support before finishing at a bridge in downtown. There is a hill at like 12.8 miles that leads you to a good quarter mile downhill to the finish that is lined with people. Overall crowd support on the course was great.

Race Managemnt: These guys really shined, other than the difficultly with traffic getting to the start these guys have the organization of a major race. They had tons of different pace groups, even really fast past groups, I was running with the 1:30 pacers who were two former cross country runners from the University of Montana, they did a great job and were really funny guys. The finish area was well stocked with recovery food and drinks and lots more booths. When you wind all the way to the finish you can get free finishers photos printed on the spot and they even have a free pasta and other things lunch to eat. When you are all done with the finish party area you can walk a few blocks to a bus pick up location to get you back to your car. Other perks include that all race photos are also free. I am a person who is slowly trying to run a race in as many states as possible and in my opinion this marathon is the only choice to make when picking a race in Montana.