Wow! That’s the first reaction as I can honestly say this is the most well organized half marathon I have ever competed in. What discourages runners from this amazing race is the weather. You are running a half marathon in the middle of November in Syracuse, NY...which if you didn’t know, gets the most annual snow fall out of any city in America!!! Fact:-0

But if you can look past the often bitter cold, you will take part in a course that’s runs through downtown Syracuse, has rolling hills, tons of athletes, a fantastic post race expo, the best medals out of any half you will ever run, and staff at every turn it seems like!

Injured, in the snow, on a not so easy course...I ended up running a half marathon PR!

And as mentioned, the post race expo is the best! Live band, large screens that display your time, a finish line replica indoors to take your picture under, tons of free food like pizza, fruits, pancakes, sausage, cookies, chocolate milk, sodas, water, and of course free beer!

I also like that they have an elite runner status that you can qualify for. The top 100 expected runners get a special bib, hotel discounts, and some royalty treatment. I was only 45 spots away from this so I have a goal to work for for next year:-)

My only advice is to make the post race expo last longer. While it’s great for us more competitive runners that get to go in and enjoy it much earlier...by the time some of the first timers, or casual runners finished they were already closing up the expo. They ran out of food, the band was leaving, the vendors were closing up...I saw many sad runners including one of my friends that was highly dissapointed she didn’t get to participate in the post race expo like everyone else, despite spending the most time on the course!

All in all though, fantastic event!