RnR Liverpool was my first race outside of North America, and trust me, it's hard to pack when you're going to be gone for a week, especially the 4-5 days leading up to the race! I had no idea what would/wouldn't be at the expo and a lot of the other specifics were a bit of an unknown

Getting there: if you're coming from overseas or outside of Britain, fly into Manchester and take the national rail to Liverpool Lime Street or fly into the John Lennon Airport. I didn't stay at one of the race hotels, but I stayed at the Hilton City Centre which was close to the expo/start/finish, etc., so it worked out.

The Expo: Compared to other RnR expos, I thought it was on the small side. It was easy to get in, get your bib and shirts and fix any issues you had. I ended up moving to faster corrals (pens as they're called in the UK), and had stickers placed on my 5K and Half Marathon bibs with the faster corral. It would have been nice to have an idea of what corrals held what times ahead of time, but I couldn't find that on the website. There were some local running stores and other local vendors there, but definitely not as big as some of the RnR expos I've been to in the US.

Start Time: 9 am for the half, 10 AM for the full. It seemed very odd to me that the half would start before the full. I would have expected the full to start first and the half to start later.

The race: takes you through downtown Liverpool, the docks, Hope Street, Penny Lane, Princes Park, past the Anglican Cathedral, through Cavern street and along the waterfront. I think one of the few times where you feel like you saw a good chunk of the city during a race for a Rock N Roll Event. The course itself was fairly flat, with really only one hill around mile 4, but even that wasn't terrible. It was mainly a road/paved course, but towards the end, you were running on uneven pavement, bricks or cobble stones which got a little iffy.

Water/Aid Stations: they use actual plastic water bottles that are disposable in the UK. I like the idea since they had the sport caps on top of them and it made it easy to drink out of, but I nearly stepped on one at an aid station, which would have been ugly. They had some sort of sport drink which I didn't even try because I wasn't going to try anything new (and according to a friend, are very sweet compared to the US version of gatorade/powerade). They seemed more spread out though, no fewer than 2-2.5 miles in between

Mile Markers: seemed short in some spots, longer in others. Don't know what to make of that one.

The Finish: right along the water front. The chutes took you past water and bananas and ultimately into echo arena where there was more food and bag check. You then took the escalators or elevators (lifts) up and exited to the post race party

Post Race Party: plenty of music and some things to do. Merchandise was for sale and if you've done multiple RnR events, you picked up your world rocker medal there. If you did multiple events race weekend (the 5K on Saturday and any of the races Sunday), you picked up your remix medal (you also had to be sure you got a wrist band while picking up your bibs to identify yourself or no extra bling).

Overall a good race. I PR'ed by 1:09, which was a bit surprising since I didn't sleep well the night before and didn't feel like I ate enough breakfast. I think the water situation needs to be looked at for sure, a few people wiped out on rolling bottles! If you're looking for a fun overseas race, take a look.

Destination Races SB has been going on since 2007, but I didn't hear about it until last year. I figured being on the west coast, it was worth a shot at running it

Getting there: I flew into LAX and drove about 100 miles to Santa Barbara. I stayed at the Fess (a Double Tree and race hotel partner). The race itself starts in Santa Ynez and ends in Solvang, so I took a shuttle from the hotel to the race start and was picked up at the race finish to get back to Santa Barbara. It took an hour to get to the start and 40 minutes to get back to the hotel in SB from the finish. Some people parked at the finish and took shuttles to the start. There were also shuttles from other areas in SB to the start had to and from the finish. The only downside is if you stayed at the hotels in SB that were partners with the race, you pay $30 and there was only 1 (5:20 AM) shuttle to the start and 2 from the finish (11:15 and 11:45). Some better communication needs to happen with the hotels because the evening shift at the Fess had no idea where the shuttle was picking up and the only reason I figured it out was by walking around the hotel lobby.

The Expo: In Solvang, essentially at the finish. Relatively small with some local races there to register for as well as some smaller vendors. Not too much there. Pick up was pretty easy. I had registered for VIP and the volunteer nearly missed it until I brought it up (even though it was on my Bib as well). I got my VIP pass for race day and an extra bag of stuff. The T Shirts run small. I got a medium which seemed like a tight fit. I feel like some of the shirt manufacturers forget women have chests. There was an early pick up day in Santa Barbara if you lived in SB and didn't want to make the drive to Solvang.

Race Day: 7 AM start in Santa Ynez. Got there around 6:20 AM on the shuttle and went over to the VIP area for some light breakfast, bathrooms and to get ready. Race started just after 7 AM and took us through a very scenic route, which was a nice change from the city races I normally do. The first half of the course is all up hill. Around mile 6-6.5, there's Corkscrew Hill which has runners winding up a hill that was about 0.5 miles at least uphill. It was a bit brutal and a whole lot of swearing going on. The back half of the course was downhill and just as scenic as the front half. Some minor hills around mile 12, but nothing compared to the front half. The finish was at Solvang, where we had picked up packets.

Pacers: Available for every 15-30 minutes. I was running about 2:10, and what was annoying was the 2:15 pacer kept passing me and was at least for awhile ahead of schedule, which if you're running/training at 2:15, could be an issue.

Post Race: you had a tab attached to your bib to pick up your wine glass at the finish. I initially thought that the VIP area had wine glasses set aside, but we still had to wait in the same wine glass line as everyone else. There was a VIP tent that I had access too with plenty of food and wine selections to avoid the congested areas of the post race wine areas. The general wine area had 13 set ups for wine tastings, but was pretty congested as soon as it opened up at 930 AM. It was tough to get around and figure out where lines were.

Swag: Wine glass, shirt and medal that served to hold your wine glass

Overall a good race. If I were local I might go back and do it, but coming from out of state, it's not easy to get to. You either have to fly into LAX or Santa Barbara and need to rent a car in order to get around (no real public transportation). Also, better communication with the hotels as to where shuttles pick up if you're going from Santa Clara to the Start of the race in Santa Ynez for sure! Be ready for some hills! It's definitely worth going to though if you have the chance