Mountain to Fountain 15K & 5K
Fort McDowell, AZ
- 15K, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
The Mountain to Fountain 15K & 5K is a premier road race in Fountain Hills, AZ with a scenic course, fast field, and “win your weight in beer” team competition. The 15K is a point to point route where all participants will start at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, run across … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Mar 22):
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |
| H (°F) | 99 | 82 | 81 | 62 | 80 |
| L (°F) | 70 | 54 | 55 | 50 | 56 |
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Cool & Unique Course; Poorly Organized
This is a very fun and challenging course with quite a bit of elevation change. It starts with a pretty aggressive downhill segment that lasts for quite a while before … MORE
This is a very fun and challenging course with quite a bit of elevation change. It starts with a pretty aggressive downhill segment that lasts for quite a while before leveling out to a more rolling hill style. There are some pretty tough uphill segments in this (one hill I nicknamed the killer as it drove me to walk for a reprieve).
It starts in the national park, then you run down quiet roads early morning with nothing but your fellow runners and some stunning scenery.
It ends up in the town where you can see the iconic fountain firing its spout at least 100ft into the air near the finish line.
The good:
– Very interesting course that was a great challenge.
– 5k option for runners such as my son who didn’t want the whole 15.
– Four Silos brewery was the free beer for this one. No beer garden, but they make excellent beer, so a can to take away was a nice bonus.
– Good volunteers.
The bad:
– The cancelled the race the 1st year I tried to run it… like the night before. They said it was due to a lack of police volunteers to deal with traffic.
– They rescheduled it for almost a year. When we went to pick up our bibs again, the person was surprised (and rude) about the fact that I hadn’t held onto my bib.
– The instructions for how, when, where on the website were awful. My son and I had to work with a screenshot of a google map from the website that was very low resolution (so low we could barely read it). Forget about signage altogether: no parking lot markings, almost no signs anywhere to tell you where to go and how to get there.
– They were just starting to set up the 5KM start/finish line like 45 minutes before the race. Clearly not well-organized.
– They had me in the wrong age group. I normally wouldn’t mention this, but after all of the other disorganization points, it seems relevant.
– Like a week after the race, I get an email telling me they need enough sign ups or they will cancel this years race: apparently they planned to go ahead and run the race again at the usual time, even though they had just put it on. Of course they didn’t get enough runners, and now there is no information on their site about the 2024 run.
– Their website still doesn’t show the results from this year… we ran this race months ago.
Would I run it again? Probably: myself and my son really had a good morning despite everything else. However, I really hope the people that organize the race take a page out of the many other race organizers books, and follow what is a pretty consistent formula for success.
Running for Brews
Tough course in the desert. First few miles mostly downhill, then hilly to the end. They ran out of water at aid stations between 2 and 8 miles. Not a … MORE
Tough course in the desert. First few miles mostly downhill, then hilly to the end. They ran out of water at aid stations between 2 and 8 miles. Not a good thing for a race in Arizona. Fun finish line festivities with a beer sponsor.