Salt Lake City Marathon

I ran this event to get Utah completed in my 50 state quest. The course was beautiful with the Rockies in the background and majestic homes through many areas of the route. It was hard for me in the beginning as it starts up a hill and the high altitude had me gasping for air! Also, after mile 2 or 3, it is about 4 miles all downhill which did a number on my quads! It should be noted that the road surface is very cracked and pot holed in areas. There were plenty of rest stops with water, Gatorade poured from bottles, so it was the correct mixture. Plenty of Gu shots as well. The expo was a bit smaller than I expected and is only for one day, so expect crowds. They had the usual stuff, although the IV drip booth was giving free B-12 injections! The logistics for doing this race were awesome. Easy to take the Trax train from the airport to downtown for only $2.50. The downtown is very walkable, clean and friendly. The Trax is also free in most of the downtown area. The medal and shirt were very nice and I would recommend this race if you need Utah.

Finally got to run this race after it being canceled twice for COVID! This was my 25th marathon. I've run all over the country, from sea to shining sea. I think this is the hardest marathon I've ever run. Some of it is baked into the cake (altitude, hills), and some factors couldn't be helped (snow). The good: * Beautiful course. Even though it was a cloudy day, you still had some terrific views of the mountains. I can't imagine how stunning the scenery would look on a clear day. * The city's light rail system very efficiently gets all the runners to the start line for this point-to-point race. (In general, SLC is an awesome city. So clean and friendly.) * Good expo and swag. I really like my medal. * Lots of water stations. Volunteers were great. What made this race hard: *Hills! The race starts at nearly 5,000 feet and loses a net of 700 feet throughout. But there are some challenging hills all the way, a couple of the hardest coming in the first few miles. So when you're trying to getting an early rhythm going, you get hit with tough hills that were mentally and physically taxing. ***This is a good destination to plan for if you're trying to do all 50 states. SLC is an awesome city (and I typically hate big cities in general and big city marathons in particular). This didn't feel like the big city experience at all. It was easy to get into the airport and easy to get out, and there was plenty to do when not running to make it a fun weekend.