The Foot Levelers Blue Ridge Half Marathon bills itself as America's Toughest Road Half Marathon, with 3,960 feet in elevation change. And it certainly lives up to its billing!

The only harder race that I've ever done underneath the marathon distance is the Heavy Half Marathon in Leadville, Colorado, which is considered a trail event and is 15.4 miles - 7.7 miles each way from downtown Leadville (10,200 feet) to Mosquito Pass (13,000 feet and change).

You get about a mile or so reprieve to get warmed up and then the first climb of many to reach the top of Mill Mountain begins. The next three miles takes you all of the way up to the famous star in Roanoke and then it is quad-busting downhill, which puts you on a short stretch of the city's trail system at around mile 6.

The breathers come in distances no longer than a mile because by the time you see mile 7, you're getting another incline (at this point any incline takes a piece out of you). Then what almost might be more challenging is the climb known as Peakwood. It seems a bit more steep and while the descent is much more gentle, you tend to want to try to run it faster which puts more pounding on the quads.

By the time you pass mile 10, which is on the lowest part of the descent, you're spent.

Then even the overpass that you crossed at the end of the first mile on your return to the finish seems monumental.

Your reward is a nice two-to-three block downhill finish.

This is a race that you should try one time just to say that you did it.

Roanoke is a beautiful part of the country and of the commonwealth of Virginia.

The race has a nice pre-race Expo setup in downtown that was efficient to get what you needed, yet put you in front of vendors without shoving them in your face. A nice balance.

Aid stations were plentiful. Volunteers were top-notch. Course support was solid. Traffic control was superb.

There's not a whole lot - from an event production standpoint - that one could complain about.

A half marathoner, who finished right in front of me, sped up to break the tape of the overall winner of the marathon. Race management, which has lead vehicles with the men's and women's marathon leaders as part of local television coverage, can cone that last stretch once the first marathoner comes in - combined with a couple of strong, empowered volunteers or race staff - to keep that from happening again and give marathoners an opportunity to sprint the downhill to the finish.

I'm not a medal person at all, but this race deserves better than a medal that doubles as a bottle opener.

For the difficulty of the race, it deserves a medal on the scale of the Little Rock Marathon or the Texas Marathon on New Year's Day in Kingwood.