This was my first half marathon. Lowell has a place in my heart because I've done so many crew races in the area. It's both a half and a marathon and they share portions of the same loops. The marathon is 2 long loops and the half half of those 2 loops, twice. Not sure if I'm making sense here.

Lowell is a sleepy Massachusetts town, 40 minutes north of Boston. It's accessible by commuter rail. I'd recommend getting Zipcar or a friend to drive you around. Even though I got a taxi from the commuter rail to the expo, it's probably difficult to do at 5am. The expo is in a high school which seemed weird at first but in the morning of the race, it was perfect. A bunch of people were inside keeping warm since it was in the chilly low 40s that morning.

It's a majority flat course with slight uphills on the bridges. The marathon is called one of the fastest and best for a BQ time. Water stations were okay - I wish they were more than every 2 miles but the high school kids who were all dressed up (some in Halloween costumes) were hilarious. It's a great fall, hometown race to run with alright scenery (my favorite parts were near the boat house and the river, not so favorite were the roads with no end in sight).