Flower City Challenge

I have run this race last year so that review has more details. This is the Spring Half Marathon produced by Yellow Jacket Racing. It is my favorite of the half marathons they produce and has the best tour of Rochester (though the Fall Rochester Half is also very scenic and pretty). The race is Sunday and they had a shake-out run Saturday at 9am before the expo which I went to. It was a nice way to get a warm-up run and hang out with some runners and had free bagels and coffee so try to do it. Expo is small but fine for local race. Not the biggest fan of the shirt this year. It is neon yellow but it is a good color for evening runs so I will wear next winter when I need to run in the dark. There also wasn’t all the other swag there was last year. Race day is Sunday and everything went seamlessly. There are $5 lots right by the arena it starts at or if you are willing to look around and walk a little more you can find free street parking. Race was essentially the same as last year but there was a slight detour due to construction. The new courses were certified. The race really goes through all the best sights of Rochester including downtown, past historic mansions and I think the best part is through Mount Hope Cemetery. The first 6 miles are pretty flat with just minor hills then there is a huge hill at mile 6. Then it’s pretty hilly for a few miles through the cemetery with the last couple miles being flat on the canal path. Course well-marked with closed or partially closed lanes and accurate mile markers. Only production complaint is again there were only 5 aid stations and the last 2 are kind of far apart and the aid stations only had water. It was a beautiful day but got a little hot by the end and I could have used an extra aid station near the end. Otherwise production was perfect. At the finish you get your medal. It is an okay medal. My finishing time was what I expected for course difficulty. There is post race festivities inside the arena with a band, massages and snacks. Overall this is a great tour of Rochester and very well produced. The hills in the middle make it a bit difficult but worth it for the cool sights. I was a little disappointed in the swag this year but it wasn’t bad enough to not make me recommend this race. As I’m moving out of Rochester, this may be my last year doing it but I would definitely consider coming back to visit for this race. If you like urban races with lots of historical sights and would prefer a race in a cheaper and smaller city than NYC, this is a good half for 50 staters.

This is my second time doing the race but last year I did a modified course due to covid that was just on the canal trail and moved to June so this is my first time doing the real course on it’s usual date in April. This is produced by Yellow Jacket Racing. For packet pick-up there is an expo at the local Fleet Feet on Friday and Saturday but there is also the option for race day packet pick-up. The expo is small but decent sized for a race with about 1000 runners. There were several vendors and Saturday morning they had samples of coffee from a local coffee shop including oat milk lattes my favorite. Along with bib half marathon participants also got a nice short sleeved tech shirt, race buff, race sticker and a packet of powerade gummies. The shirt is fine. It has the race design. This year it is a charcoal grey. I preferred last year’s color but it is a nice quality shirt so I will wear it. The race starts a the hockey arena in downtown Rochester. While you could probably find free parking if you really wanted to there was an easy $5 parking lot right by the finish line. Starting at the arena meant indoor bathrooms and a place to hang indoors if there was bad weather but luckily today’s weather was perfect. Race starts at 7:30. The early start was good for me since I was on-call this weekend so it gave me to time to round in the morning after the race. The start and finish line are separate and about a block from each other. It is chipped time. There were 800ish runners for the half. It was just one big corral. I stayed near the back since I wasn’t planning to push myself too hard this race since I was on call and I have some much flatter and faster halfs coming up and used this more as a training run. Start went smooth. It starts on a wide street so easy to spread out. The entire course is on closed or half closed roads and easy to follow and safe with lots of road marshals. It is a really nice and interesting course. Much more interesting than the course last year behind my house. It starts in downtown Rochester and the first 6 miles are through Downtown Rochester, some of the more hip neighborhoods and some of the nicer neighborhoods. Lots to look at including going past Susan B. Anthony’s house. There was a decent amount of spectators. The first 6 miles were not too hilly. Just some gentle hills and inclines. Nothing that required walking but I did walk a bit since as I said I was taking this race more easy. Then at about the halfway mark there is a giant hill which is probably about 3/4 miles and quite steep. If you want to run this hill you will need to do hill training which I have not been doing so I walked. There were actually a bunch of spectators on the hill and it leads up the Highland Park which is lovely so it was a pleasant walk. Then it is about a mile through Highland Park which is quite pretty. Around mile 8 you get the Mount Hope Cemetery. This is a famous cemetery in Rochester where many influential people are buried. I was really cool but really hilly. Definitely recommend taking your time on the uphill and soaking in the history of the place. There are some downhill sections as well. At mile 10 you leave the cemetery and run by University of Rochester. Then the final 2.5 miles are on the canal path. The canal path is a bit more boring than the rest of the course but it is a flat and fast finish to make up some time lost on the hills. There were 5 water stops. One minor complaint is they just had water no gatorade or gels. This was communicated though so can’t complain too much and I brought a gel and the gummies we got in our race packet for nutrition. I also thought the last 2 aid stations were spaced a little far away with one aid station just past 7.5 miles and there wasn’t another one until nearly mile 11.5. It would have nice to have an extra one mile 10 a the end of the cemetery. As I said course was easy to follow but there were a few sections with uneven roads due to construction. This was obviously out of the race’s control and they warned us. The finish area was nice with an arch and the RD cheering the runners on. I finished just under 3 hours which was what I was aiming for. The medal is okay. It has a design of the city of Rochester but is a little small and not distance specific. Not a terrible medal but I wouldn’t run this race just for the medal. You were also given a bag of snacks from Wegman’s which I was happy were all vegan. There was also fruit along with post race massages and a band. I didn’t stay long because I had to go to the hospital to round. Overall this was a challenging but doable race with really cool scenery. As long as you aren’t too intimidated by hills I would recommend this race and plan to run it every year I don’t have travel plan. While I personally wouldn’t recommend this over the NYC half for 50 staters, if you are someone who would prefer a smaller city race with easier logistics than NYC this is a great option for New York.