After each half-marathon I complete, I am going to write a quick review of what I thought of expo (if I was able to attend), the footwear worn, and the course itself.
Expo: The expo was a lot of fun. The energy was incredible. It was an Under Armour event, so there was a lot of Under Armour merchandise. I happened to pick up my running fanny pack from there to hold my phone and keys for the race, since I was going solo. A unique thing about the expo was they had a trophy there that listed all of the winners of the half-marathon and full marathon for both men and women.
Sneaker Review: I wore the Nike Zoom Fly, but I happened to wear one of the NikeLab Zoom Fly Edition. It’s a great shoe, a shoe I train in frequently as I continue to prepare for the upcoming races. I rotate through about 5 of them, so I’m wearing a different one each day almost. I did get a blister on my left pinkie toe, that may have been the shoe but also could have been due to the mechanics of my running. Otherwise, I didn’t have many issues with the shoe. It has the weight of a minimalist sneaker, the stability of a motion control shoe, and the design of a more traditional Hoka runner. It’s also very responsive.
The Course Review: Who doesn’t like rolling hills….while the elevation map doesn’t do the course justice, Mile 12’s hill was NOT COOL, and it wasn’t even the greatest elevation change! I was internally annoyed but I can’t complain because there were full marathoners right beside me running and I realized they had already run 24 miles, me complaining about a hill after running only 12 miles is dumb. So I had to stop. Overall, I thought the course was nice. It would have been cool to see if there was a way to run through Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium. The race finished right by the Inner Harbor and that’s an awesome sight.
A unique part of the event was the Runner Recovery station they did. I didn’t take pictures for some reason. But, they were allowing runners to sample:
Normtec Recovery
Marc Pro Electrical Stimulation
Hyperice Vibration Rollers
In Closing: I think next year I will probably either do the 5K + Half or just do the Full Marathon all together. We’ll see! But I highly recommend all runners who participate to do so! Follow my 50 State Journey!