It only took 7-8 years of racing to get Arizona off the 50 state half marathon list. If you're looking for a bit of a challenge, this is your race. This isn't a race to come in looking to PR at in my opinion, it's got some major HILLS!!!

Expo/Packet Pick Up: The race is associated with Road Runner Sports, so packet pick up was at the Road Runner Sports Tempe and Scottsdale locations (Tempe Friday, Scottsdale Saturday). It was fairly easy to do and you could do some shopping afterwards. Only downside was there was no race day pick up and it was a fairly small race (400 people for the half), where I think it could have been doable.

Race Day Specifics: RRS was good about sending out emails the week of with where to park, suggestions, etc. Be sure to read it, as it has some good details.

Race Day: start time was 630 AM. I stayed in Scottsdale and it took me 15-20 min to get there. I was about 40 min early just to be sure I could park, which wasn't a problem, but my lot filled up quick. There didn't seem to be a back up of people though. There were plenty of porta potties pre race (NO LINES!!!). It was already in the 60s by the time people were lining up for the start, so I was happy with shorts and a T shirt.

The Race: Miles 1-3 were easy to deal with and initially I thought I could hit sub 2 hrs. Miles 4-6 killed me. ALL THE HILLS!! The largest hill was somewhere between miles 4.5-5.5/6 and it really took a lot out of me. I thought it'd be over after that, but there were more rolling hills afterwards. Towards the last few miles of the course, I feel like the hills wore off, but they definitely took energy out of you. Be sure to train for hills for the race for sure. Race was well marked, but having timers/clocks on course would be a plus

Aid stations: every mile or so, they had water and nuun. I'm not a Nuun fan at all, I'd prefer gatorade/powerade. I really didn't feel like the nuun gave enough electrolytes at all (and some people swear by it, but if it works for them, go for it).

Post race: after crossing the finish you're handed your medal and there were some vendors set up. Food wise, the only thing registration got you was oranges or bananas and a water. There were some food trucks, but no carbs what so ever. A bagel or something would have been nice. I get it's sponsored by Craft and you get beer afterwards, but something like chocolate milk would have also been a good thing to have around, I could feel my sugar dropping on me and ended up going to Walgreens afterwards to get something else to drink.

Swag: Good medal and shirt

Overall, a good and challenging race if you're looking for a good hill work out. If they could add some more food and some chocolate milk/powerade options, that would be an improvement