I had originally planned to make the Downtown River Run my first full marathon of 2017. After training hard for 2+ months using the intense Hansons training method, I elected to drop to the half even though training was going well. My reasoning was that I wanted to take a shot at my marathon PR and felt that the altitude and hills would not provide a particularly good opportunity. This is a pretty tough course and with all my training at sea level around the Pacific Northwest, running and racing at altitude is a tough adjustment.

The race admin team quickly changed my entry - my wife dropped from the half to the 10K and they took care of both of us right away after a quick email exchange. Overall, in the weeks and days leading up the event, I thought the race director and team were very responsive and engaging through the various social media channels. This race is low key and not a big event by any means but we stuck with it because while it would not give me Nevada on our 50 State marathon challenge after electing to drop to the half, we had family driving in from Boise to meet us.

We enjoyed an easy Friday afternoon travel day from Seattle arriving in Reno to enjoy a fun happy hour at the great local Silver Peak brewery on the Riverside Trail. In fact we went back there on Saturday and again for our post-race celebration on Sunday. We stayed at the nearby Harrahs which was the host hotel for the race. Although, other than getting a room discount there was nothing to indicate that the hotel had anything to do with the race. It was located right next to the start line at the Reno Arch which made for very convenient race morning logistics.

We did not go to the expo - it was at a car dealership on the other side of the town and we had no intentions of renting a car just to pick up a race packet from a car dealership. My Dad, who was also running, picked up our packets on the way in for us. Another oddity was that the expo was only open until 1pm on the day before the race. Not very convenient for out of town participants but, to be fair, the race admin did confirm that packets not picked up would be available on race day at the start line.

Race day was cool at the beginning but bright sun with clear skies. Pretty much a perfect morning for running, though with a later start for the half at 8:15 it would warm up quickly. The full marathon started an hour or so earlier at 7:00 am. The 10K was supposed to begin at 8:45 according to the website but my wife said they started right after the half which took her by surprise as she had intended another visit to the host hotel facilities!

The course followed the scenic riverside area through Reno and several parks. Around mile 4 or so, there was a long uphill stretch on the side of a pretty big highway before we ran through some residential areas and into the park area that provided the big loop for the turnaround. There were several bridges to run over and at times we were afforded some great views of the Sierra Nevadas in the distance. I had no real complaints about the course. There were several sections through residential areas that were blah and there was no crowd support until we got within sight of the finish line - also under the arch. Aid stations were adequate though at times it seemed they were spread a little too far out. And, no gels at all. Normally, I carry my own, but somehow I managed to forget all my gels and S-Caps so this became a problem.

I mentioned that I had a bad performance overall. After 2 miles, much to my surprise, shock, and dismay, I was gassed. I pushed through the first half as my pace gradually slowed before I had to take a walk break. By mile 10 I was so beat by the altitude and the hills, I practically gave up. Not too proud of this performance to say the least but that is my own doing. My training has been solid but I was not prepared for the challenge of this course. Having no fuel or gels didn't help. The full marathon course had to be changed due to flooding and they had to run 2 loops…I was so glad that I had moved down in distance! I don't think I could have gone around that twice.

Pros:

*Course had some very scenic areas - I enjoyed criss-crossing the river over the various bridges and the park with the big loop for the turn around was nice and much better than just running alongside some cones and doing an immediate turn around.

*Leading up to the race the race team were responsive to all questions and requests.

*The shirts are very colorful and high quality but the sizing is off.

*Nice bling.

*Start and finish under the iconic Reno arch was cool.

*Not over-crowded at all.

*Discount from a local hotel.

*Free race photos - though I haven't seen a link to them yet.

Cons:

*Website is really confusing and was out of date for a long while. The Downtown River Run is part of the Reno 5000 series so information is split between the 2 sites. The main site for the race really needs some improvement but they were very helpful via email and social media.

*Small race - this would be a positive for some runners. The half was not too bad but the full would get pretty isolated.

*If there was any announcements or playing of the national anthem prior to the start, I couldn't hear anything.

*Host hotel - yuck. Sorry, but I had to walk through a smoke filled casino to even get out of the damn place. Not the fault of the race of course, but Harrahs is not a runner friendly hotel at all and it was the only hotel partner of the event with no other discounts available anywhere else. Even with the discount, this was an expensive stay on Friday/Saturday. Pretty sure this is the only race where I have smelled of smoke at a start line! There were even guests of the hotel smoking in the recovery area post-race. To me, this is horrible, sorry - gotta get that fixed.

*Expo - at a car dealership in the complete opposite direction of the downtown area and airport? Why not the host hotel?

*Shirts - sizing was way off and way too small. Both mine and my wife's are unwearable but they do look pretty :)

*Residential areas on the course were very boring and there was little to no hype in the town for this race.

*No gels at aid stations unless I missed them. No crowd support.

*Age group award was a cheap phone holder that wraps around the arm. I only know this because Dad placed in his AG!

My overall thoughts of this race:

The Downtown River Run has a ton of potential given the scenery and available facilities. Reno, while a beautiful location with some decent restaurants, was not a favorite destination for us. There really wasn't much to do in the city - our gambling/party days are far behind us and the smoky hotel was no fun. So, if you go, plan some other events…maybe we should have rented that car and gone to Tahoe for a visit. And, if you struggle at altitude on hilly courses be prepared for a tough day. This is much better suited to locals or those within driving distance - I honestly cannot recommend it as a destination race experience.

For a different perspective, check out a review of the full marathon from fellow BibRavePro, Steph who did a fabulous job as a pacer for the event.