Jennifer Ross's Staging Area

I loved this course. There’s a good number of turns and small rolling hills, which for me keeps it interesting, and overall it is slightly downhill. The scenery is trees and fields and wineries. The road was wide enough the whole time so that I was never trapped in a crowd of runners, and I started a little later than I should have. I think they timed it well with the half marathon too. The only noticeable uphills for me were a couple in the beginning.

I had read a lot about the road camber in the first half of the race and I was worried about it. If I hadn’t read about it, I’m not sure I would have paid much attention to it. It seemed to be the steepest where the tighter turns were, so the worst of it was always short term, ending when the turn ended. I don’t think I noticed at after the first 1/4 of the race or so.

At the end someone personally greets you and gives you water, which is nice. I didn’t eat the soup because I could barely eat anything, but I like the idea.

The backpack we got at the expo came in handy. I prefer short sleeved shirts but the shirt is nice too. It was supposed to rain up until the morning of, and then it did drizzle throughout some of the race, so it’s good to be prepared for that. The aid stations offered Nuun, which isn’t my favorite, but at least they chose a flavor that had sugar.

I usually don’t like running the same race twice, but I’d definitely run it again.