This was my first year running a Revel race and they did not disappoint. My husband & I decided to run this race #1 because it is in driving distance from our home and we didn't really have anything else on our race schedule and knew a ton of people running this race.

We signed up under the MRTT group so we were able to save $5.00 through their group code and then you could get another $5 off if you announced that you were running the race on FaceBook.

Communication from race management was great and their website was very detailed. They even had tips on how to train for a downhill race.

The Expo: Friday from 10 - 8pm. We didn't get there until 7:20pm and the expo was pretty much over by that point. 80% of the booths were empty but we were able to get our bibs quickly and then they had a ton of shirts, they are one of the few races that said you could switch out your shirt if you got the wrong size. They, like the Phoenix Marathon, use Albion for their shirts.

T-shirts: For women they were pretty good sizing wise, I got a small and it fit me perfectly with no tight neck. For the men though, the shirts ran really big - the hubs got a small and it was huge on him.

Swag: Not much, but they did put in gloves and a space blanket to keep us all warm at the start lines.

Bibs: They were personalized and we even registered relatively late, maybe 6 weeks prior to the race. Blue for the half and Orange for the full

Race Day Packet Pick-Up: There was an option for packet pick-up on race day for an extra $20 - because there is so much traffic going into the LA area from San Diego, the hubs & I discussed we will probably take advantage of this next year so we don't have to rush to the expo after work.

Parking: Finally a race that gives you a pamphlet with parking information vs making you go to the website to see where to go. We had to be bused to the start so to eliminate issues with people going to the wrong start line, there were 2 different areas for parking. Unlike at the Phoenix Marathon, the marathoners got to park right next to the finish line while the half marathoners were a few blocks away. Since my husband ran the marathon, we got to park in the marathon parking.

Busing: There were a ton of buses, a mix of tour buses and school buses. For the marathon they ran from 4am - 5am, would take approx. 60 mins and for the half from 4:30a - 5:30am, which would take about 30 mins. Our bus driver didn't get lost like I heard a few of them did, but she did overshoot the starting line because someone stole the popups for the half marathon start line during the night.

Starting line: Lots of port-a-potties and they had water and Powerade at for us to keep hydrated. It would have been nice to have some bagels or something though since we had about 2 hours until race time.

Bag drop: There was one truck to drop bags, this was a small race. It was right before the start line.

Start: Since there were no pop-ups, it was very anti-climactic and in reality, I didn't even realize we had started until we saw people start running. There was no National Anthem or countdown or anything that I could hear to signify that the race had started.

Aid Stations: All the aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were awesome. They had water & powerade at all the stations, Gu at some of them and then I think at mile 4 there was so fruit. My only complaint, the oranges were cut in the wrong direction so they were hard to eat quickly, but that's so minimal lol.

Course: This is a beautiful course in the mountains, it went by really quickly. The first half of the course is a very steep downhill, while the 2nd half is a bit of rolling hills so it's decievingly difficult.

Finish line: They did a great job at the finish line. They had a lot of food & beverages for recovery. Water bottles, horchata, chips, granola bars, bananas & pie! When we went through they had apple, lemon and pumpkin.

They had a photo area where you could take your own photos and then at the results section, they gave us a card with our results on it. Showing our place, time and pace so that was really cool.

Photos: They offer free photos and they had signs on the course showing that there was a photographer coming up so we could get ready.

Medal: The medal was the same for both the half and marathon with the only differences being the ribbon color and that the medal said half marathon vs just marathon. It is huge and super nice. I was really impressed.

Other things: A nice thing about this race is that they offer you the ability to transfer your registration so if you are injured or just can't run, you can transfer your bib to someone else. I believe there was a $20 fee to transfer, but considering so many races won't let you transfer your bib, that's a really cool option.

All in all this was an awesome race and I know we are looking forward to going back next year!