The Pocatello Marathon is a race that I have looked forward to running for quite some time. I have heard a ton of good things about the race and the town of Pocatello and all of the good things turned out to be true. Unfortunately, the few bad things I had heard also turned out to be true.

This is a really small race, less than 200 in the full marathon. The race director and volunteers do an awesome job of putting the swag bags together, and the bag itself is really nice with a long sleeve shirt that was a good fit for me. Getting through packet pickup is a breeze and the pasta dinner was pretty good as well. They had a really interesting speaker at the pasta dinner as well which made it a fun evening the night before the race.

The race itself started with a short, early morning bus ride from the host hotel to a small red barn located at about 6200' of elevation. There were plenty of potties at the start line as well as a very interested donkey, horse, and goat who came out to see us off.

The first half of the course was fantastic and watching the sun rise at around mile 4 was amazing. There were several really severe downhills in the first half that would take a heavy toll on the quads later in the race. The first half had plenty of mountain scenery to see as we sped downhill, and there were enough twists and turns to keep things plenty interesting. At about mile 14, we turned out of the mountain scenery and onto a highway with one lane coned off for us to run on. The course continued on that highway for the next 10 miles without a single turn. We were completely exposed to the sun with 3 active lanes of fairly continuous traffic from mile 14 until mile 24. The scenery also changed from the beautiful mountain trees to blacktop highway, cars, and industrial areas. The combination of sun, vehicle exhaust, and boredom combined to make the 2nd half a long slog. This was a bad day for me, and I struggled severely through the 2nd half.

However, the race itself is extremely well run and the people who run it do an excellent job. I really enjoyed my time in Pocatello and greatly appreciated the effort that is put into this event. I wish the 2nd half had been as interesting as the first, but I should have put more effort into preparing for this course and it would have made my experience much different.