Overall- Fast course, with a few hills. Great organization, social media presence, swag is great, medal was beautiful. Aid stations were really well-done and crowd support really made the race for me. This year was run at Autzen Stadium (normally it is at Hayward Field, but it was under construction). Loved the finish line and FREE RACE PHOTOS!
Here is a link to my full review: http://www.justkeeprunning.net/race-recaps-1/2019/4/30/2019-eugene-marathon

Expo- Small, but had everything you needed if you forgot something

T-shirts/ Swag- They were OK. Not the best shirts I've ever seen, but certainly not the worst.

Course Scenery- AMAZING. Do this race JUST for the views. So beautiful - you will NOT regret it.

Elevation- Gave it two stars because it is at a higher elevation than what some may be used to. Coming from Colorado, it felt fairly "easy" to me - not many hills and pretty downhill.

Parking/ Access- I walked to the start line buses/ finish line from my hotel, so I wouldn't know. It did look a bit congested, but still small enough race where I don't think it would be too much of a pain to drive to the finish area.

Race Management- Very well done and great communication. A super laid-back event (helped calm any pre-race jitters I had). Love that they went paperless for it.

Aid Stations- I thought they were well dispersed, but I didn't end up using any aid along the course so I gave it 3 * based off how it looked!

Overall- Definitely do this race if nothing else for the scenery and opportunity to explore Moab post-race.

Find my full race recap here: http://www.justkeeprunning.net/race-recaps-1/2019/3/20/2019-canyonlands-half-marathon

Expo- Large, expect lots of walking and expensive 'souvenir' products.

Accessibility- Easy to get to via the monorail. It will get very crowded the closer to start time, so plan accordingly. We took the rail 2.5 hours before race start and ate dinner at SLS before the race start. Also an easy place to coordinate meetings post-race with others (I met my party in the SLS after I finished as their corral started later than mine and the added bonus? I stayed WARM waiting for them : ) ....)

Course Itself- Flat, fast, corrals were managed pretty well (MUCH better than half/full marathon on Sunday). Easy to find your corral before starting and large staging area for pre/post race stretching & refueling.

Swag- Still really dislike the fit of the Brooks Technical shirts that Rock n Roll race series uses. Medal was much cuter and sturdier than last year. I liked the medal from the 5k better than the half marathon!

Aid Stations- I didn't use them, but thought they looked nice!

Overall- great race and glad to get my shakeout run done in a safe and fun environment. I'm not exactly sure that the 5k would be worth the $99 race registration that they had at the Expo...Glad I got it when it was $49, but still pretty pricey for a 5k/shakeout run!

This was my 2nd time running the Rock n Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon (3rd year in a row participating in the event). I look forward to this race every year- I always love the entertainment on the course, the ‘wow’ factor of the lights on the strip at night, waiting all day to race, and the typically very organized fashion of the race.

The race expo is always huge, so we do that 2 days before the race (there’s a lot of walking involved). There’s never too many lines to pick up your bib or race shirt (which is nice), but this year I felt like the Brooks official merchandise was a little over-priced and basically all the same things that they have every year. I ended up getting the Brooks limited edition Rock n Roll Launch 5s (one of my favorite Brooks sneakers to run in) and have gotten so many compliments on them, but didn’t really see anything else that caught my eye.

The remainder of the expo is a lot of walking, sometimes free samples (yay!), and generic things that maybe you want to pick-up (I got a new Sweaty Bands headband- they’re my favorite).

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I still had my chest cold the day of the race, so I was expecting to just play the race with how I felt. I was in PR condition, however if I wasn’t feeling good then I would abandon my original goals and just have fun.

The race started in a different area this year and that definitely caused A LOT of confusion. The starting corrals were a complete mess and I walked back and forth along the start line corral TWO TIMES (with other confused runners as well), before I found an opening in a gate to get into the gated area and walk to my corral. This was so disorganized and runners were hopping over the large gated fence just to get to their starting corral minutes before the race started. Then once in the corral, runners who were assigned corral 5 were continuing to walk up to corral 2,3,4- this was really frustrating for me because if I wanted to PR, I didn’t want to be clogged with runners who were now “self placing” themselves in a faster-than-they-shold-be corral. I ended up moving up to corral 4 instead of 5 because of this and that was a really great decision. There were still walkers in my new corral, but what can you do. This part of the race really disappointed me. I hope they can fix this in the future (Disney does a GREAT job with this and hoping they can emulate that in future years).

The race iteself- I felt GREAT for the first 8 miles. I held back the first two until you come around the “welcome to las vegas'' sign and then started to kick into my goal half pace miles. The energy and spectators along the course are amazing. You also pass by the start line (on the other side of the road), which is kind of fun to see other runners just getting ready to start their journey!

After mile 8, my congestion got worse and my nose was completely plugged. This made it so difficult to drink my Tailwind and take down gels (I took one at mile 4.5 & the next one at mile 9). Around this point, I started to slow to around an 8:20 mile and just decided that it probably wasn’t my day and took in the energy along the course. Miles 8-10 you pass through fremont street and the crowds there are always so energetic (they really make you feel like you’re an elite)!

I crossed the finish line within a minute of my current half PR and while it wasn’t a PR that I was hoping, I’m still proud of my effort and happy I was able to adjust my goals during the race.

Overall, this may be our last Rock n Roll Las Vegas- the lack of variety at the expo, complete disorganization at the starting corrals, and overall communication along the course wasn’t where it should be for a $100+ half marathon entry fee. I think it’s time to try something new for next Fall, but I still think this is SUCH a fun event and everyone should experience it at least once!

Overall, this was a great race.

EXPO- had a long line when we arrived there, but it went fairly quickly and had a fun atmosphere (held outside too, which is a bonus!). They also had a Smores' roasting station, so that kinda makes it 5 stars in itself.

SHUTTLES- We camped at the Wahweap campground (within a mile of the finish line), so it would have made sense to take the shuttle from the finish to the start line that morning but I would have had to have gotten up at 4am (shuttle departed at 4:45am). Vacation races typically have really early morning shuttle times, so my fiance ended driving me to the start line (so much better since I didn't get up until 5, we left the campground at 5:30 and arrived at the start line by 5:45am). I had plenty of time to warm-up for a mile, porta-potty lines were relatively short, and bag check was a breeze.

COURSE- The course was so beautiful and is relatively downhill. Miles 3-5.75ish are on a singletrack dirt trail (this is the most beautiul part of the course, but it is also the most challenging)- there definitely were some bottlenecking issues going on, so just either be prepared for them or try to seed yourself before you get to mile 3. There's two short hills around mile 7.5ish and before mile 11 - nothing too crazy and they don't last long. I ended up using this race as a workout and ran a PR (which I wasn't even planning on doing) finishing 3rd in my Age Group.

Vacation races also does 5-deep age group awards, so there's even more incentive for you to gain more bling! The medals are always SO beautiful and courses are well-marked, well-stocked aid stations. This was a cupless event so I did carry my Nathan waterbottle with me, but probably would have carried it with me regardless (they also give you a hydrapouch at the expo if you don't want to purchase a hydration system).

You can read a more detailed race recap here: http://www.justkeeprunning.net/race-recaps-1/2018/10/23/2018-lake-powell-half-marathon