This was my first full marathon and I do recommend the course to anyone looking to run a fast time.

Personally, I do not know if it is the best course for someone doing their first marathon. I was excited for the huge elevation loss throughout the course. For your knowledge, miles 6-10 are extremely downhill. I made the rookie mistake of taking the downhills too hard (I also did not really train downhill) and my quads felt shot 6 miles in. My recommendation to any first-time marathoners running this race is control yourself on the downhills.

I later paid the price by hitting the wall at Mile 18. I was on sub-3 pace for the first 18 miles, but the last 8 miles of my race were quite pathetic. I walked/jogged 8 miles and finished in 3:22. I was just happy to finish at that rate, but I would have run much better if I ran smarter.

The only reason I put the elevation difficulty at 2 stars is because the net downhill is very deceiving; again, as an inexperienced marathon runner, I thought the downhill was exclusively a great thing. I learned I should have trained hills and run smarter.

Additionally, anyone running the race should know you are going to be on the roads by yourself for a majority of the time. There are sections of fans throughout the course, but there are not many. I kind of enjoyed being left to my thoughts for long stretches, but I know some people thrive off of crowd support. Just a fair warning.

Aid stations were offered every 2 miles, which was great. I am not a big fan of races that offer these stations at weird intervals. Knowing every 2 miles I could grab water kept my mind off worrying when the next station was.

If you run this race smart, it is definitely a course to PR on. Us running in 2017 had really nice weather - it started in the 50s and ended in the 60s. That is a little hot for me as I remember feeling very warm at the end of the race (and having sunburn), but I was grateful for no wind / rain.

Again, I enjoyed the small race atmosphere. The start line was not overly crowded and you basically got to line yourself up however fast you predicted to finish (I didn't have problems getting out the first few miles). The race ends on a high school track and it was very easy to find my family.

After the race, they had some food and drinks to refuel. Additionally, they had 3 physical therapists there giving massages after the race (which I really, really needed).

Overall, if you are looking for a solid, fast course with a small-race atmosphere, this is your race. I will probably be doing the 2019 race!