As I wrote in my blog post, this is a gorgeous little race! I'm surprised it isn't bigger, but since no one has heard of it--seriously, when I checked into my hotel and asked for a late checkout because of the race the hotel staff said, "oh, there's a race this weekend? What race?"--I thought the race was relatively new, like just a few years old. (I hadn't heard of it before, and I live within driving distance.) I found out after the race that this year was actually the 21st anniversary of City to the Sea! The race benefits the local junior college track and field, which I thought was pretty cool. This year there were fewer than 2000 runners in the half marathon, according to the race results.

There is also a 5k race (it starts at a different location) if you'd like to have a race-cation and run a little less. I didn't look to see how many runners it had, but I'm betting it was reasonably small. Maybe a good course to try to win if you're a fast person?

Overall: 4 stars
The course was great, the shirt was cute (if tiny), the volunteers were the best! (I give the aid stations and the volunteers a 5+!) There were plenty of pre-race emails with information about what to see and do in the area, and leading up to race day there were emails with race-specific instructions about packet-pickup, etc. Transportation back to the start was smooth. The race had a few bumps that i would expect of a newer race, which is the only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars.

Packet pickup/Expo
The actual packet pickup was definitely a 5+. Race volunteers helped me out quickly and were very friendly. Since I had some traffic issues on the way down from Oakland I missed most of the expo, so I don't think it's fair for me to rate it. Running Warehouse had plenty of staff on hand to help with last-minute purchased, and there were specials on running shoes (many brands/sizes!). Everyone was really helpful.

T-shirts/swag: 4 stars
The medal is big and on a nice ribbon, though the design is a little boring (it is the race logo). I don't know whether using the logo is a tradition though, in which case I'd probably find it really cool. The shirts are cute, but many of the female runners won't get to wear them (see recommendations). There were stickers and pint-cups for all runners at the end, which was cool. You could use the cup for beer (I didn't, but others did!). I particularly liked that I didn't get a bag or a bunch of paper--I've got lots of bags, and since I'm not local, all of those race flyers would have been wasted on me (not to mention recycled).

Aid stations: 5+++
The volunteers at every part of the course were awesome. Anywhere there was any chance you might go the wrong way, there were at least two people to tell you not to go that way. If you got lost, it's because you worked hard to get lost! Aid stations were well-stocked, even for us back-to-end-of-the-parade people; water and electrolytes (the brand is Fluid--I thought it just meant "fluid stop" but it turns out that's the brand name), plenty of cups, and I forget which nutrition product was out there but there was plenty left for me when I got there.

Course scenery: 5
Apparently fall/winter is the time of year to visit San Luis Obispo. (We got gorgeous running weather, which I know isn't part of the scenery or under the race director's control, but it is worth mentioning.) I'd never been there, so running through part of town was cool. Sure, part of the race was alongside the highway, but I barely noticed, and any possible negative points for that (seriously, didn't notice, and there was lots of green and hills to look at) were more than balanced out by the miles through the park, and the last few miles where you could see the ocean. GORGEOUS. I don't get to do many point-to-point courses, so I enjoyed that as well. Once I hit the last miles through the town area, I switched to the sidewalk. There was some road resurfacing (I think) and the road was a little more uneven than my wimpy ankle could handle. The sidewalks were plenty wide and very even, so that was a plus. I also liked running through the neighborhoods, many of which had Halloween decorations up.

The race finishes in a park. It's ocean-side, but the ocean is many, many feet straight down (so don't get any post-race beach swimming ideas). The finish area had some vendors, but not a ton. I did get to check out LuLaRoe and Fluid (they make a recovery drink that I tried that was delicious!). Other booths included massage, the Cuesta College track and field, and probably a half dozen others. There was a sports recovery and massage place that also had a giant kiddie pool (the deep kind) filled with ice water! I wasn't brave enough for that, but I did take the opportunity to rest in a lounge chair. The beer garden had an 80's cover band that was really quite good. There was a Cuban food truck and a coffee truck. The park itself has a built-in playground-type area with dinosaur themed equipment, and nearby there was a kids' race area for the kids to compete against each other--pretend fire to jump over, hoops to jump through, etc.--the kids seemed to be eating it up!

Elevation: 3ish
In terms of elevation, do look at the elevation posted on the race website. It's not difficult, but I marked it a 3 because there are definitely hills--and they aren't little tiny ones. There is a nice long stretch of downhill, but if you don't run downhill that can be challenging too. Basically, I live on a flat piece of the world, so anything hilly gets a bump up in the "challenging" rating. For reference, this course was nowhere near as hilly as Tiburon Half Marathon, or Rock 'n' Roll San Francisco.

Parking/Access: 4 stars
Since it is a point-to-point course, you park at the start and take a shuttle to the finish. I can't give it a 5 because the directions in the email and on the race website both said to exit Marsh Street to get to the parking garage, but that exit was closed to traffic. In the end it wasn't that big a deal as I found on-street parking (free until 1 p.m. and right near the race start) but I had a moment of panic on my way in!

Recommendations for future races:

Advertise! Get on social media! This race should easily have 6000 or more runners, every year, with plenty of return participants. The course lends itself well to Snap and Instagram, but even jumping into a few twitter chats here and there, or posting invites in runners groups on facebook would help get the word out. I "liked" the event page but never saw any of the content come up in my facebook feed, which is just a testament to how much facebook loves to mess with the algorithm.

For email, I would differentiate pre-race communications for those who are registered and those who are not. I mistakenly thought I had registered in advance (oops!) and a friend of mine thought she was also registered due to the emails about what to expect on race day. (She couldn't run, so she wasn't disappointed when she found out she wasn't registered.) The race definitely needs an A/B list for email to encourage past runners to return while also getting race-day details to current runners.

Third, have a woman order the shirts for the women. There wasn't any indication in the pre-race materials or on the website that the shirts would run small. The instant I saw the brand on the tag, I knew it was going to be small. Even the XL is tight on me (I wear a 12, I'm not extra-large). There were no XXL or XXXL shirts. I suspect a lot of women just didn't take a shirt, as there were a ton of XS and S sizes left.

Finally, the post-race food needs serious improvement. I didn't get a burrito, and I probably could have dealt with that and gotten over it, but when I got on the bus to head back to the start I found out that literally half of the people on my bus did not get a burrito. Not cool. I thought I had missed the burritos because I have a bum ankle and took more than 3 hours to finish, but the majority of the people on my bus who didn't get a burrito finished well within the 3 hour time limit. Ordinarily I would not make such a big deal about a burrito, but there was literally no other post-race food (no bagels, no bananas, etc.) Runners were left with two options: buy food from the Cuban food truck (which I am sure was lovely, but there wasn't anything vegetarian on the menu) or wait until returning to the start.