I'll speak for lots of New Yorkers and say that not a lot of people come up to the heights. I've been only once to visit a friend but it's just so far up north of Manhattan on the A and 1 trains. I've heard so many great things about the race and finally signed up when registration opened months ago.

The race is exactly how it sounds the full race name is the Washington Heights Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks - you have jazz bands, salsa, green bagels! Everything you want in one whole race. It's a great family race - lots of kids. Even though this race was freezing, the armory right next to the start was open for bib pick up the morning of. I stayed in there until it was start time. It was so nice in warm in there. I was even able to use the bathrooms on the 2nd floor!

As I was warned, the race was hilly and painful. It was an out and back course but it was gorgeous. Great views of the Hudson River during the middle part of the race. Despite the extreme hilliness, I ran my fastest 5k...since college...on this course.

The crowd support is amazing. Even though the race takes place early March at 9am on a Sunday morning, there are a ton of people outside cheering you on.

Cons: the race is expensive, one of the more expensive races. Longer distances are actually cheaper than this. Do sign up early!

Pros: crowd support, views, GREEN BAGELS!

It's a really great course with so much course support (crowds, entertainment, water AND gatorade at every mile but mile 13 plus gels at mile 7).

So many gels, I ended up taking a handful and stuffing them into my pockets because who can refuse gels. Those things are $2 each! I got these right after mile 7.

I preferred last year's course to this year's. Last year, the course was one loop of Central Park which is about 6 miles then down 7th ave to Times Square, turn west on 42nd street and run down the West Side Highway into the Financial District and through a tunnel which was by far the craziest part of the race, so many people yelling just to hear their echo.

I loved that there were soooo many people doing this race. NYC brings a really great energy in terms of crowd support but there is such great camaraderie among the runners. Also you're never alone running. My last half marathon there was stretches in time that I was just alone and it was boring but this course keeps your eyes and mind preoccupied.

3 ways to get in: guaranteed entry with NYRR membership and doing 4/6 "borough" races = Manhattan half marathon in Jan., Brooklyn Half in May, Queens 10k in June, Bronx 10miler in early September, and the Staten Island Half in October, or run the NYC Half OR you can enter the lottery every November, OR run for charity.

Easy bib pick up in the Chelsea area and a good expo (not as crazy or as large as last year). There were so many vendors. Also great tech shirt and medal. I'm a little sad that the "recovery bag" was not usable this year. It came with pretzels, water, gatorade, apples, etc but it was not the reusable drawstring bag. Sadly, there are no bagels!! YOU CAN'T HAVE A RACE IN NYC AND NOT HAVE BAGELS?!

Other than not having bagels, seriously awesome race. Great job NYRR!

Just as you don't go to gyms, restaurants, etc. right when they open. The same goes for races....

Straight up - hated this race.

Let me begin:
I was super excited to have gotten into this Half Marathon in December. Even though it was a steep price tag ($166). However, it was definitely not worth the excitement and the price tag.
I got down to DC Saturday afternoon and went straight to bib pick up. I asked the woman by the bib pick up if this was the line and she pointed me to the back of the line. Me: "wait, that's the line?" Her: "yes, its only 30 minutes"

UM ONLY 30 MINUTES?!?! Right...

I've done numerous other races and never had to wait...EVER. Not for NYRR races, not for other half marathons, never ever had to wait. Although it amused me that as I was waiting in line, other ladies were equally, if not more pissed about waiting in the hot sun for their bibs.
After picking up my bib, I was so pissed that I just did not even want to go to the Expo. We decided to drive to the expo which was a mistake because it was so busy but it was also in a random area of DC that was not close to the metro.

The next day was the race and since my hotel was right by the start I got there around 6:40. However the corral was packed! There were so many runners poured out on the side especially for the 10-11:59 minute corral. When the race started, runners tried to get into their respective corrals but the 13,14,15 minute runners just did not let that happen. Once I got into the corral, I stopped to take off my long sleeved shirt was watched in horror as 2 ladies who were 9 minute milers get SCREAMED at by a race official for trying to get into the race.....um are you kidding me?!?! REALLY NIKE? Talk about professional.

For the next 4-5 miles I was dodging so many runners, I've never ran a race where it was so packed. Or where there were more people walking than running. To a certain group of runners (okay walkers) that were wearing purple...coughcoughcoughTNTcough...you guys need to be taught race etiquette. I'm glad you raised money for a great cause. However, bringing the cash doesn't mean you get to act like an epic a-hole to other runners during the race. Stopping and taking pics in the middle of the road during the race is not acceptable. Walking 8 people across is not acceptable.

Despite the terrible course (most of it was in a random park in DC), the lack of bathrooms (I saw one woman who crapped her running shorts in the last mile - nice job Nike), and the lack or race course water support, the only good things were the race swag and vendors. The shirts were awesome as were the tshirts. I finished well before 9:30am so we went to brunch and came back around noon where there was no one left and got some free dry shampoo from Paul Mitchell, makeovers and free lipgloss from bare essentials and got to take pics in front of the Nike slogans. I got so much free swag. Immediately after the race ended, as I was grabbing food like bananas and such. There were also Luna bars, where each runner was only supposed to take one. Well okay Nike, you can't put food out and expected runners to only take one. You should probably do what NYRR does and give out bags with the food already in them. Either way, I probably grabbed about 20 Luna bars. Sorry I'm not sorry. I need to get my $166 worth of stuff (it's now over $170 to get in).

Either way, I can safely say that I never want to run a race with Nike ever again.

This was my first half marathon. Lowell has a place in my heart because I've done so many crew races in the area. It's both a half and a marathon and they share portions of the same loops. The marathon is 2 long loops and the half half of those 2 loops, twice. Not sure if I'm making sense here.

Lowell is a sleepy Massachusetts town, 40 minutes north of Boston. It's accessible by commuter rail. I'd recommend getting Zipcar or a friend to drive you around. Even though I got a taxi from the commuter rail to the expo, it's probably difficult to do at 5am. The expo is in a high school which seemed weird at first but in the morning of the race, it was perfect. A bunch of people were inside keeping warm since it was in the chilly low 40s that morning.

It's a majority flat course with slight uphills on the bridges. The marathon is called one of the fastest and best for a BQ time. Water stations were okay - I wish they were more than every 2 miles but the high school kids who were all dressed up (some in Halloween costumes) were hilarious. It's a great fall, hometown race to run with alright scenery (my favorite parts were near the boat house and the river, not so favorite were the roads with no end in sight).