Rock n Roll Arizona Race REVIEW

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon and Half Marathon is held in downtown Phoenix during the middle of January.  There were 32,000 participants this year with nearly 5800 running the full.  Next year’s race will be held on January 16, 2011.

Early entry for the marathon is $105 and the half is $90.  After September 15, the prices go up to $130 and $115.

THE EXPO

This expo was good, probably the best race expo I’ve been to.  It was downtown at the Convention Center, and we found metered parking right across the street.   Easy to get in and out, always a plus.

The convention center is very nice and large, just like Oprah.  I didn’t have to wait in any lines to get my race packet.  There were 9 marathon corrals and 29 half corrals, so I’m sure some were busier than others, but I grabbed my packet right away.

Although there were a ton of people, it was well organized and efficient.

I forced My mom acted like my personal assistant, carrying my bag, picking up my shirt, grabbing samples like we were stealing, it was great.

Like all RnR expos, there was a butt ton of RnR merchandise.  You could seriously outfit yourself in 5 different layers of clothing for 10 different climates all pimped out with the RnR logo.

Nissan was a big sponsor; I think they were raffling off a car maybe.  I wasn’t interested since Nissan doesn’t make bombtastic smartcars.

P.F. Chang’s was the main sponsor; they had a raffle where if you guessed the correct number of fortune cookies in the car, I think you won it.  Or maybe you won a new PR, I don’t know.  We were only interested in grabbing as many cookies as possible.  PF Chang’s is a great sponsor; they send a 15% off card to every participant that is good for 3 months at any location.

American half marathon record holder Ryan Hall was giving a Q&A session.  Being more of a celebrity stalker than a runner, I didn’t stick around to hear what he had to say; I just wanted to take pics.

The reason the expo was so great was because we got so many free samples:

granola bars, olive oil and balsamic vinagrette, larabar, Zicam medicine, yogurt…  As well as take home stuff, there were smoothies to try, protein bar samples, energy drink samples, etc.

I also got one of the reusable, grocery store-like shopping bags.  I like these things because you can use them for all sorts of crazy things, like snacks on a road trip and then if you lose it or throw it away, no big deal.

These were the samples and goodies in the race packet.  Along with race fliers for every single race in the continental US:

The race t shirt was a technical tee; I think RnR gives out the same tee with a different logo for every race.

PARKING/TRANSPORTATION

This is a big race so parking can be an issue because the start and finish line are about 10 miles apart.  There’s parking at the finish line, and shuttles for participants to take them to the start.  But that’s only for participants, and the shuttles were supposed to take 40 mins each besides the time spent waiting for one.

There was also parking at the start.  That’s where we parked, and we didn’t have any problems finding a spot close to the start camp.  But then if you do that, you have to take the Metro light rail back after the race.  Phoenix has a really nice, new, clean metro system, but our car was 20 blocks from the closest stop so even with taking it, we still had quite a hike to get to our car.

Parking is free and plenty of it, which is nice.

THE START

This race had a fabulous start village.  It was well lit and by a park so you had grass if you wanted to take a nap. or whatever people do on grass.  There was also a band playing.  And there were medic tents, information tents and food tents.

Wow, that is a crappy picture.  But it’s staying now that I’ve already downloaded it.

There was water, coffee, bananas, Cytomax energy drink, and bagels for everyone, not just the runners.

There were tons of porta potties in different areas so I never had to wait more than a minute or two.  That right there gets a 4 star rating in my book.

THE RACE

The start was pretty cool because you could watch all the elite runners warm up right in front of you.  Plus, John McCain shot of the starting gun.  And we saw Dean Karnazes as well.

The corrals were easy to get into and well marked.  Corral #1 and #2 were actually kinda empty, not stuffed full like normal so I started the race very quickly, about 25 seconds after the gun went off.

The race started on time, which is a big pet peeve of mine when they don’t.  The full started at 7:40am and the half at 8:30.  I believe the start lines were the same, but the courses were different and the finish lines were also different but close to each other.

The course was kinda sorta most  definitely mind-numbingly boring.  It’s all on flat, paved roads through Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe.  (It’s definitely a PR or BQ course because it’s flat and fast.)  This is my one negative for the race=boring course.

Around mile 15 we ran through a little park which was fun and we ran through downtown Scottsdale around mile 20, but mostly it was all just roads.  The finish line was in between ASU’s Sun Devil and Sun Angel Stadiums.

COURSE SUPPORT

There were 5,000 volunteers, including cheerleaders, dancers, musicians, and bands.  There were water and Cytomax aid stations about every 1.6-2 miles.  Gu’s were handed out at mile 19 for the marathoners, and I think they were handed out around mile 9 or so for the halfers.

I also saw passed at least 4 groups of people in front of their homes giving out oranges and pretzels.  I also saw a table full of champagne and mimosas… darn, I didn’t bring my travel cup.

THE FINISH LINE

The finish area was pretty nice.  The medic tent/volunteers immediately helped me out as I walked by.  They gave me ice, pain medicine, and wrapped my knees up.  Walking through the secure zone I picked up an apple, banana, fruit cup, bottled water, Cytomax, and 2 energy bars. They also handed out heat blankets.

They also had big bags of ice in the shade where people could go and sit on them, rest a leg on them, etc, which I thought was a great idea.  Too bad other butts had already taken them all up by the time I walked by.

EXTRAS

• Walking through the secure zone, they had picture areas set up with a RnR Arizona backdrop where you could walk through and get your individual picture taken if you wanted.

• On the website, you can watch a photo finish video of yourself, which was pretty nifty.  THIS IS THE SITE to do that.

• You could also sign up for text messaging alerts for when a specific runner crossed the 5k, 10k, half, 20k, and finish.  It cost $2, and my mom signed up but never got a single alert!  I thought it was dumb that it cost money because you can follow a runner for free on the computer.  If it had worked, it would have been a nice feature because you can kinda gauge when someone’s close to finishing the race.

Summary

This is a great race.  It’s pricey, but I think they do a great job with everything.  I’d rate it a 9.02 out of 10. Yeah, that’s a high score, I know.  It’s well organized, it’s fun, there’s a lot going on: it feels like a party atmosphere.  Out of all the races I’ve ran, this is probably one of the very top races I’ve done.  It’s perfect weather, not too cold at the start, about 45 degrees, and it never got really hot either, probably in the 60′s.

TIPS

• If you can, get a hotel as close to the start line as you can the night before the race.  If we didn’t stay with my parents, this is what I would have done.  It’s a big race and there’s a lot of people, shuttles, cars, etc.  So it would be a lot easier to walk to the start and take the Metro back.
• Sign up early.  You can save a lot of money by doing this.  Google around for a promo code to save a little more.

**I read some other runners’ reviews and some people said that they ran out of GU’s and Cytomax later in the half marathon race.  Also, pretty much everyone said the course was uber boring.

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