The Austin Half Marathon was my first half marathon. At the time, I lived on campus so I didn’t have to deal with parking (so I don’t have an opinion on that). I LOVED this race.

RACE COURSE/SIZE:
First, Austin is an amazing city, so getting to run by the capital and by the river was really incredible and made the race views more interesting. The race is also massive, so you don’t have to worry about being out on the course by yourself, which was incredibly motivating for me! For some, size may also be a downside, as the start is crowded and there’s a lot of pushing and shoving at first (if you’re in the first corral).
The course itself, while scenic, was pretty challenging. Austin has a TON of hills and this course has a massive hill at mile 11 on Enfield. It almost killed me when I got there and I nearly blacked out at the top. It has a massively steep grade. I even trained on it weekly during race training, and it still kicked my butt on race day! You also run with the marathoners up until mile 11, so you have to be careful/mindful of the split. I remember worrying about accidentally missing the split for the half marathoners repeatedly during the race and frantically checking bibs. There could definitely be improved signage for the split.

AID STATIONS:
I thought there were a relatively good number of aid stations with both Gatorade and water. I wasn’t super observant, so I’m not sure if there were any stations with Gus/energy packets but I don’t recall seeing any. But there was no shortage of water/Gatorade at any station as there were tons of tables and volunteers churning out the cups.

RACE SEASON:
The time of year for the race is great. The race is in February so it’s chilly, but definitely manageable and actually pretty phenomenal racing weather if you wear layers.

RACE EXPO:
The expo was massive and had a ton of vendors. There wasn’t a ton of free swag or food/drink samples but then again, I’m always pretty underwhelmed by expos.

RACE SWAG:
The race gear was awesome. The medal was really uniquely Austin and the shirts were nice and fit well (although I don’t like tech tees, so I would have preferred cotton tee).

CHARITY:
Another great thing about the Austin half marathon is that it donates a portion of race proceeds to charity. I believe the year I ran it, the charity was linked to cancer research. I believe it is now a different charity program, but nonetheless a charity.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Overall, I had such a blast running it that I signed up the next year to run it again! And it motivates me to keep running half marathons. So I highly recommend giving it a try!