Let begin by saying I love to race local and this race confirms exactly why smaller town races are just as much fun as the big ones. This race was my 2nd half marathon with my 1st being the Rock N Roll Dallas, therefore this was a completely different race even though it was the same distance. There was not a big race expo but a small in and our packet pickup at local running stores in the area. It allowed to me to get my bib and shirt, and pick up all of the last minute essentials I needed.

Finally race morning was here, I ignored all of the emails telling me to arrive at least a hour before start time because in my mind "surely it can't be that big...it's just Plano and I live 15 min away, I'll leave my house one hour before the start". That backfired. While traffic wasn't horrible it was just enough congestion to give me the extra anxiety that I didn't need. Part of the registration allowed for free VIP parking (AKA extra close parking) to the festival for the runners at the beautiful Collin College Campus. After parking getting my fifteen pounds of gear on and meeting up with friends, and tweeps it was pretty much time to start to running... on time. I love races that start on time.

There was very minimal congestion at the start and after mile one the hills came, and they were most definitely Texas sized ones. I'm not a fan of hills at all, but it became very easy to forget about the hills once you saw the hot air balloons floating your directions. Shortly after the start of the half the hot air balloons launch. As you're running you see all of the different balloons floating around you over the beautiful Texas landscape and you forget about the hills, the heat, and how there's still 11 miles to go. But that's okay because you will still see the balloons throughout the entire course.

There were plenty of water stations with cold water and powered properly placed throughout the course which was great because the Texas heat and humidity was very high on this particular day. The course allowed you to go through different neighborhoods in Plano which is one of my favorite areas to run through (extra motivation) and it had volunteers everywhere. I loved seeing youth volunteers out there on the course, I've never seen so many young volunteers before and their energy was exactly what runners needed.

After running through the neighborhood the course ended up on local paved trails to complete the final five miles which was really nice. I'm not really one to enjoy nature, but the trails are beautiful when it's lit up with brightly colored tech shirts and shoes. Before you know it you're back on the course where the first mile was for the final mile, and volunteers rocked it in giving us slower runners the extra boost we needed to finish. I finally finished in a less than favorable time, but whatever, I finished.

I got my sweet super awesome hot air balloon medal and time to find my free breakfast, but first I had to sit down. It was very very hot and I needed to cool of quickly, and luckily they had ice cold water waiting at the finish line. I quickly found the breakfast line which was provided by Central Market which was actually good (eggs, bacon, hash browns, coffee/water) and I was pretty happy.

One of the exciting things about this race in general is that it is part of a festival. So once you're done it's not so much that you have to pack up leave. There are vendors selling locally made jewelry, food, kids area with various activities, more food, hot air balloons music and just a great time. I would highly recommend that runners try this race out at least once because of the experience. I cannot say it enough how awesome it was to run under the hot air balloons. Nothing beats wanting to give up on a hill and looking over beautiful landscape to see a giant piggy poking out from over the trees!