Start/Expo
We arrived a hour before the start of the race and walked down from our rental place. It was a perfect day to run a marathon, just cool enough and not hot at all. The start area wasn't at all crowded it was a small local feeling race, there was no stress of being in a large crowd. I did day of package pickup which was just my bib, no paper extras or junk it was perfect. They offered a bag drop as well, my husband and I took advantage of this and dropped out bags just shortly before the start of the race. There was about 100 runners in the marathon it was a nice small sized race. The race started at the Telus Spark Center in Bottom lands Park following the river paths to Silver Springs Area.

Course:
The aid stations offered nuun and water until the turn around point, where they began to offer cliff bars and bananas as fuel for the rest of the race every 2nd station. The pumpkin cliff bars were a nice touch, I hadn't tried them before. There was a couple water stations that barely had a mouthful of water in the cups, when I suggested to the volunteer that perhaps it might be a good idea to fill them slightly more I was met with a lot of negativity. The course goes through downtown Calgary and runs along the river most of the race, the scenery was awesome. Overall the course is flat with the turn around area being a exception, the hill through that area could be quite steep and challenging.

Finish/Final Thoughts
My biggest gripe with this race is that there was no medal, it is a marathon after all. I didn't want anything fancy just a simple medal for completing. I would reconsider doing the race again for just that reason. The food at the finish line was lacking it was just green bananas, no cliff bars or anything else to be had. Overall for the price of $25 the race was well organized and chip timed. There was some small improvements that could have been made, but overall a good experience.

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