Drove over from Houston to pick up a half marathon finish in my 39th state. Because of some prior commitments, I was not able to arrive early enough to make it to the Expo on Friday or Saturday. I was able to easily find the primary parking area from the race's maps and picked up my bib and timing chip fairly easily even in less than ideal weather conditions. (Even though I have a ton of shirts, race materials said: "Participants will receive a dry-fit performance short sleeve race shirt." What they didn't expound upon were the procedures if you didn't make it to the Expo (which, of course, any event producer wants 100% of the people to come there). The volunteer stated that you could get them after the race, but there was no announcement and I was too tired after finishing to think about it until I was in my vehicle and leaving. Race shirt is a race's second biggest marketing vehicle behind word-of-mouth, but a small minority may be left out in helping that effort out. Course was pretty good with the exception of a mile long industrial section past mile 10 of the half marathon. Events have to balance community impacts to put together a course that satisfies the majority of people. "Aid stations are approximately every 2 miles" is what is indicated in race materials, but beware that the first one didn't occur until mile 2.5. You couldn't put it in the first mile (which is on Bayport Highway, which you want to re-open as quick as possible), but there were locations to move it to by mile 2. Otherwise, they were spaced out fairly well after that. Excellent course control. Nearly every major intersection was manned with law enforcement or volunteers (on less heavily traveled crossings). Not a PR course with the large hill in mile 9. A couple of other areas before that also had some decent inclines. Race started on-time in inclement weather and the finish line experience was solid. Very good race announcer, just give him the city locations on the reader mat (and dump the "Welcome to your finish line" tagline). It got old after hearing it the fifth time. One speaker was out at the start and more than half of the field of runners didn't know that the National Anthem was going on, especially on the weekend going into Veterans Day.

Richmond wasn't even on my radar until my daughter, a junior at Liberty University in nearby Lynchburg, talked about driving over to cheer on a friend who was running the 8K in preparation for a half marathon. Once I figured that I could make it (and that my announcing schedule was clear), I signed her up for the 8K and myself for the half marathon.

The Expo location has to be in one of the most traffic-challenged intersections that I've seen in a long time. Once parked and inside, it was an appropriate size for a small major marathon. The laptops to look up your number once you walked inside were perfect and volunteers were friendly, but disliked being forced to walk through the area where you *can* buy race merchandise.

Was pleasantly surprised at - knowing the number of runners participating - the lack of barricades for the start line corrals. Maybe it is just that most Virginia runners know how to line up appropriately - or the nearly two-mile straightaway from the start really makes it a moot point (as it'll get sorted out before you make the turn off that street).

The half marathon course is basically flat, except for the couple of mile loop in the park midway into the race. Fluid station support was excellent. Volunteers, of course, were friendly, supportive and helpful. Lots of straightaways on the course and the best part is the sweeping downhill to the finish. Has to be one of the best finishes in racing of an event that size.

I'm not the biggest swag person, but the medal, hat and blanket were excellent.

And, on this day, the weather was absolutely perfect for racing.

I'm involved in a lot of event production, primarily as a race announcer. Therefore, I like to think that I have a pretty good handle in understanding the in's and the out's of races. The Flying Horse Half Marathon is a race that I saw on the RunningintheUSA.com race calendar as it filled a hole in my calendar for the fall and early winter. Once I put all of the travel pieces together to come to the greater El Paso area from Houston, I registered at a very fair price of $65 (even more so in seeing what the traffic control costs might have been for this event.) I thought I saw that the race had race day packet pickup, but when I received the first of at least two race week e-mails I realized that I made an error. Graciously, the race director made a variance for me as I was coming in from out of town. (Thank you and I thanked her in person right before the race.) The race got started on time despite very high winds this morning in northern El Paso area. The temperature was in the low 60's, but the brisk winds kept it cool. The course is a mix of Anthony, Texas and Anthony, New Mexico city streets on the southwest portion of the two-loop course. The far west side, going south to north, puts you on an paved asphalt one-mile trail where you head east, staying on the shoulder of a west-to-east two-lane highway before turning south just after a mile on to a two-lane frontage road to I-10. This continues all the way until you return to Anthony city streets for about a mile or so. Two things really stand out: the volunteers were really incredible, positive and encouraging. They worked hard. I hope the organization(s) got a very fair charitable donation for their effort. They earned it. The other thing was the friendliness and corporation of local law enforcement. I understand that they take a big brunt of grief from residents and the like who are inconvenienced on a race morning, but everything single one that I was able to engage with was positive, supportive and encouraging and acknowledged the "thank you's" in their direction. I'm not a big fan of medals and I don't know what the view of them here in the greater El Paso area is, but an upgrade may be in order. The event production company encouraged companies to bring groups of people out in an effort to engage in the health and wellness arena. You can never go wrong here. Great job. I give this event a solid A.