I ran in the Xenia Marathon in April of 2016. This was my second attempt at completing this marathon. I first completed an entire marathon training cycle in 2015 only to hurt myself on the 20 miles training run, which knocked me out of the 2015 race. The second time around in 2016 I was able to complete all my training runs and made it to the actual race.
The race takes place in Xenia, Ohio and is in a rural area. It starts and finishes at their local YMCA, which I though was a pretty nice facility. The race landscape was farm land once you got out into the country and very pretty. For the most part the race is flat and it is a nice out and back course. Our route started there in the town, we ended up on some biking trails, and then went through some country roads and came back in.
Our starting temperatures were pretty chilly that morning, I think upper 20's a best. As soon as we got to the race we went into the gym are and picked up our race packets. It was simple and quick (no complaints). There were plenty of racers because there is also a half that runs with this race and the race has a long standing history. It is Ohio’s oldest marathon, it is put on each year by the Ohio River Runners Club, and one of the cheapest marathons that you can find. The early bird special was $25 in 2015 and 2016 when we registered so neither time (thankfully) did we feel like we wasted too much money. I think this year for 2017 it has increased to $35, but for a marathon that price is fabulous. Not to mention they have great shirts (brooks tech shirts), finisher medals, awesome volunteers, we were able to take showers at the YMCA, and the food was delicious. This race is also a BQ and for the price you can't beat that!

Even though this is great race my actual performance was horrible. I ended up having to run/walk midway through which is something that I never do. However, this is definitely a race that I have my sites set on running again and if your looking for a low key run (but a really nice one) you can't beat this race!