Onward Shay! Boise Marathon

Race started off with a tent at start line for everybody not just the elites. Smooth surface with all hazards well marked with paint. Because of the nice surface, was able to look around at the sights along the river. Had to go around a few geese but overall not crowded or jammed up anywhere. Plenty of both kinds of hydration at every aid station with a few having Gu. All volunteers were happy to see us and super friendly. Super large finisher medal which I hadn't seen in a couple of years. Overall, well organized, friendly runners and volunteers, and beautiful course with the river sound effects. Also, great course to obtain a negative split. One of the better small races out there. Highly recommend for you 50 staters!

I ran this race yesterday and cannot recommend it, which is a shame, because I generally love small marathons on scenic greenways. However, water stations in this race were not where they were advertised, and the second was still being set up when most of us passed it. Instead of using the typical 12-ounce Gatorade cups that you get in most marathons, they used tiny bathroom cups. As these were half full anyway, each only provided about an ounce of fluid. I counted 11 functioning water stops on the course, and there were none between mile 10 and the half-marathon point, despite the pre-race info saying that there would be one at mile 11.5. So you either had to run this race on 22 ounces of fluid on a day where the temperature would hit 98 degrees, or you had to stop to drink at the water stations, which is not what you generally do when you are racing. To add insult to injury, there was no volunteer at the last turn when I went by, which added about a half-mile to my race and had me miss the Boston qualifying time by 71 seconds, instead of qualifying by 3.5 minutes.