It makes me really sad to write this negative review even though I loved the race course, support and just the energy of it. The commemorative item that you add to your registration is the medal which is not very clear in the registration and I’m not the only one who was confused by this. I immediately emailed the ATC and was told that we could buy the medals at the expo so I didn’t push back. I get to the expo and they don’t have any medals and I emailed them asking how to get one now and they said the medals are all sold out. I would have been fine if they had not misinformed me about the medals being at the expo but now I am highly disappointed with the communication and false promises. Sad because it was the 50th anniversary and unfortunately this is the only thing I will remember from this race.

The half marathon was a very underwhelming experience. I needed to check off California as a state to run in and the NVM Half worked out with my schedule but I would certainly not fly out for it or even drive out a few hours for it again! The only pros in my opinion were the 55 degree running weather and that it was a mostly flat course. Apart from that there was close to zero crowd support, aid stations were far apart compared to other half’s I’ve done and the medal looked like they totally cheaped out. I liked the tote bag they gave for gear check but I would have preferred that they spent the money on a better medal. The shuttle got us to the start line an hour before the race and the start line hadn’t even been set up! No announcers, it was dark and raining and there were no tarps or tents to take shelter in from the rain. Overall, this race was poorly organized, swag was disappointing and it was a very boring run with no energy/support from the local community. The race emails also claimed that finishers would receive discounts from their partner wineries and we went to one of them and the manager said she had not approved that messaging and had no idea that the race was even taking place so that was sketchy and disappointing and I’m not sure if any of the other 6-7 wineries on that list were even informed that they had been listed as providing discounts.