This was my first full marathon, so I don't have a lot to compare it to. The course is a net downhill course that starts in Folsom, CA and ends a the State Capitol.

The first quarter of the race is fast with a few undulating hills after the first mile or so. The second quarter of the race is the hilly section. Mainly rolling hills, but if you try and run through them too fast, it will cost you in the end.

The third quarter of the race is fairly flat and is along some main roads and winding through some tree covered areas.

The last quarter of the race is where you enter the mid-town and downtown areas. The finish line is great, they separate the men and the women. You are quickly met with mylar blankets and can grab a kind bar, water and fruit. They also had hot soup. The long sleeve tech-tees and medals are awesome.

I love this race and already signed up for it again. Hopefully hit my goal this year.

I have run this race twice and I am running it again in 2016. The support is great and you get to run through parks, residential neighborhoods, Old Sacramento, along the Sacramento River, and back to Land Park. There are some hills here and there, but nothing larger than going over or under a freeway overpass.

You get a sandwich, cookie, water, and fruit. You get a great medal and awesome tech-tee. I really don't have a bad thing to say about the race. It is a nice, fairly fast race. that is all paved.

I liked the Davis Moonlight so much last year that I had to do it again. The race starts at the DMG Mori Campus in Davis off of Mace Blvd. It is easy to get there and there is plenty of parking. They have a large open field where you can park and several office buildings where you can park in the parking lots. Parking was a breeze to get in and out of and was close to the start line. (tip: park in the office building parking lots if you can get there early enough, they are closer to the start line).

There were plenty of port-o-potties and vendors. The line to pick up my race packet on race day only had a few people in line and the bag check was perfect as usual.

You start the race along city streets and through neighborhoods for the first mile or so until you cross over the largest hill of the course (an overpass). Then you start running through parks on a nice paved bike trail before crossing back over the overpass. The rest of the race is along the parks/bike path and through neighborhoods. I fell in love with this race because the neighborhoods were full of spectators. The kids would be out there handing out water and food in addition to giving high-fives. It definitely gave me an energy boost.

There were 6 aid stations in addition to the kids giving out water. You finish the race under the spotlights and in the dark. At about the 10k mark, there were race organizers handing out glow necklaces that made the race all that much more fun.

The race shirt and medal were cool and from what I was told, the beer was good too. This has become one of my must do races every year.

The Shamrockin' Half Marathon is one of the best races I have ever done. Not because I did great, in fact, It was a struggle because I ran a PR the weekend before. I love the Shamrockin' Half because you start out at Raley Field (home of the Sacramento Rivercats) along the street and end on the field itself. More on that in a bit.

The race starts in waves. It made for a really easy start that wasn't too incredibly crowded. Over the course you run over the Tower Bridge, in downtown Sacramento, along the American River bike trail, and you finish the race by entering the baseball field (in the outfield) and run along the dirt warning track until the finish line along the third base line. It is so awesome to enter the field, completely exhausted and have fans cheering you on.

There is also a section where you run in front of the Blue Diamond Headquarters where they have a cheering squad. It is a great energy boost when where are tons of people giving you high-fives and cheering you on.

The bathrooms in the field are open to the racers before and after the race. They also have tons of port-o-potties (which were almost all vacant with no lines). They had tons of snacks for after the race and had about 50 massage therapists for free post race massages. The shirt and medal were awesome too.

I can't say enough good things about this race. The biggest negative is that trying to get out of the parking lot was a bit of a mess, but hopefully they fixed that for future races.