A Change of Pace puts on some awesome races. This is another race in and around the city of Davis, CA. Because this is a smaller race with about 1,000 runners total tackling the three different length options 7k (4.34 miles), 7 miles, and a half marathon.

The race starts at Davis High School where there is plenty of parking and short lines at both the port-o-potties and race-day packet pick-up. The race starts on the local streets near the school before it heads out along the bike path. The course meanders through beautiful parks with only a few underpasses so the hills are minimal.

At about mile 2.5, you head out along local county roads that go past pastures and Highway 113. You are not on the highway, but are running along the adjacent frontage road. You dross over Highway 113 via a overpass (the largest hill of the entire run) at about mile 6. At about mile 8, you reenter the bike paths and park areas where you which you will remain on for the rest of the race (with the exception of small areas where you will go through neighborhoods).

I love this race because it is so fast, the parking is great, and you get great swag and food (the normal fruit and a cookie). I hit a PR at this race and will definitely be back.

I was told by a friend that I needed to run the Urban Cow. They said that is was a fast race that had great scenery. They were right. There are some fast people that run it too. There was a kid who I think was around 10 years old that broke the world record for his age group at this race.

The race is managed by Capital Road Race Management so it is very well organized with great aid stations, plenty of vendors, bounce houses for the kids and beer for after the race.

The race starts and ends at William Land Park which is a beautiful park in Sacramento. You run through Downtown Sac and near the Tower Bridge, through Old Town Sacramento, and then you run along the river on the bike path. They had several bands along the course, tons of spectators to cheer you on, and plenty of aid stations. 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'll be back!

I have never run a race that finishes in the dark. 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.

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.

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. I will do this race again for sure.

The American River Parkway Half Marathon was my first marathon. It travels along the bike path right next to the beautiful American River in Sacramento, CA. The parking is seperated into sections and when you sign up, they tell you where to park. I might have had to walk about a .5-1 mile to the start line from where I parked, but it was not too bad.

The race itself is great. I have been riding my bike on this bike path for over 20 years and love the scenery. The path is about 8-10 feet wide with decomposed granite along each side, which is really nice to run on (it reduces the impact on your joints). The bike path is windy at some points but is fairly flat. The largest hills are the bridges over the river, which aren't bad at all.

The beginning of the race was a bit more crowded than most races probably, but the crowds thinned out after the first mile or so. The aid stations were all fully stocked and you got a sandwich, cookie, and fruit after the race.

The medal is decent. There were only two complaints that I have. The race was measured wrong and ended up being about 13.6-14 miles overall. They did provide an estimated finish time for 13.1 miles though. The other issue I had was the design of the tech tee was kind of boring. Other than that, I really liked this race and would recommend it.

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