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Montreal,
Canada - September
- 3 miles/5K, 6 miles/10K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon
- Road Race
- Event Website
William Brent
EMMAUS, Pennsylvania, United StatesOverall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
The good: Scenery
I was really surprised with how many churches Montreal had. The crowds were pretty great too; especially going through the barracks!
The bad: the half marathon course hits all the highlights of the city. The marathon is a little boring.
Registration: is through active.com so its pretty straight forward.
It was super easy to register and add things like extra races or heavy metal bling.
Communication: RnR does a good job of communicating in general; BUT I wish they would have told us SOMEWHERE they were providing a bus pass for runners. This was super cool of them; but it would have made my travel arrangements so much easier! I was elated and thankful to hear we were getting transit passes but at the same time; we found out the week before the race.
The expo: weak.
'Nuff said. I compare RnR expos to one another and of all the RnR races I've done DC takes the cake; with Virginia Beach being a close second.
The title sponsor had a booth (of course) and there were two hair straighteners. 1 gear booth and three tens machine booths.
Maybe 2 others. No music or hype.
The miles:
I am spoiled because other RnR races have music every mile. It's not always a live band, but its something. I think it was every 5 or so in Montreal. Some of them were giving it their all; some I think were there because they had to be... at least that was the feel. The girl at 8 / 12 was great.
I loved rolling through the streets and seeing the churches. The city is so clean and the people are super supportive.
Going through the Olympic Stadium was cool!
It's massive; and I think that's inspiring.
I think if we could have gone through the park (garden) after the stadium that would have made the marathon course better. As it stands; the half marathon got all the sights and the marathon got lots of... well road.
Additionally; it was really difficult to find a support tent or first aid.
I did see a few but they were not easy to find.
The swag: the shirt was okay; I mean I remember when RnR have out jackets... but it's a different time now. The medal; however, was pretty neat. I am happy to add this to my collection!
Post race party.
I think there were more vendors or tents at the post race party than there were at the expo.
The post race party was really something; they had a giant slide for the kids!
I only within could have stayed to enjoy it. Sadly the race started an hour later than planned. In addition to that messing up my fueling strategy I had to run to check out of the hotel.
All in all; RnR puts on a good race. This one, IMO; is a great half; but i doubt I'll do the full again.