4/5 Stars

I finished without pain. I am going through chemo to fight breast cancer. I refuse to give up my running lifestyle, but I have been plaques by horrible chemo sores that develop during the race due to increased skin sensitivity. My last few races have unbearably painful. I taped both feet toda. That seemed to help.

No, not in my present condition.

Much more hilly than I thought, but beautiful.

This was my 91st half. I have run 117 marathons and all 50 states. Finished my 50th after my diagnosis and first chemo. The sores were dreadful. I try to train at least four days a week but have had to cut drastically from my 40 miles a week.

Bring cold weather gear for the start.

I live in Ontario, less than an hour from the race.

4/5 Stars

Bit cool at start. Thermal blanket was heaven sent. Great support, other participants were great.

No. Recovering from Achilles injury.

I like point to point courses. Scenery was wonderful and weather was ideal.

Enough to finish but not enough to push hard.

3/5 Stars

No.

Not easy course at all.

My training was great!

Second half is always tough, prepare long climbing hills!

Downhills

5/5 Stars

Well organized, beautiful and fast course, friendly volunteers, plenty of parking, nice medals

Yes by 22 minutes

Fast, steep with some gnarly hills on the backside

I. Would train on both uphill and steep terrain

Spend time on uphill training as well

My son and daughter ran with me. It was a fun family get together. I traveled from San Diego, my daughter from Palo Alto and my son from West LA

5/5 Stars

The scenery, the volunteers, and the numerous, clean porta poddys!

Was 3minutes shy of PRbeautiful

Beautiful but the hills are tough

Trained with IERC running club

Train for Hills and wear warm clothes for canyon cold weather

I'm local so I just hang out at the after race festivities and then go home

4/5 Stars

Basically a good and beautiful run

No

Challenging

I ran this with almost no training

Hydrate and hill train

Friends and friends

4/5 Stars

This is a pretty unique race. The setting is gorgeous and the organization is fantastic. It is NOT an easy race. My favorite part was the first several miles when my legs were fresh, and I felt like just floating down the mountain.

I did PR by a couple of minutes but had secretly hoped for a even a better PR. I had already qualified for Boston, but my today's time would have been an easy qualifier.

The course is memorable but not easy. The first several miles, where the descent is quite steep, did a number on my heels. The second half of the race is unexpectedly hilly (ascending) and quite demanding. Overall, my Garmin says 2,005 feet of elevation GAIN.

I did some steep road downhill runs, but only up to 3.5 miles in distance, and that was not enough. With a hindsight, I should have done more. My future strategy will be doing a long downhill run and when reaching the bottom of the hill, turning around and run it back uphill. That, I believe, would be the right type of preparation for this race.

My running sneakers have a very thin sole and not much of cushioning. I love that closeness of my feet to the road surface for more conventional marathon running. For this race, next time, I will train with and arrive with running shoes with plenty of heel cushioning.

1/5 Stars

The 3:35 pacer didn't show, cramps in both calves took over and the Hot Shot cramp prevention drink did nothing. My favorite memory is gagging while in the porta-a-potty at mile 13.

take a guess

I could tell from so many ambulences.

I did three runs in the canyon to prepare, but mostly I do distance elsewhere.
I would tell other runners that Mr Charleston is easier, but the scenery stinks.

try a flat 26.2

finding my car afterwards

5/5 Stars

I really liked the race, very organize, love the fact that we didn't have to pay money for parking like I did for LA Rock and roll half, loved the shirts,medals and course I'll do it again..

No, but I am very Happy w my time.

Good rolling hills.

I train mainly distance and tempo runs

5/5 Stars

Amazing race. Even though it was downhill, still it was challenging, especially when you hit the few uphills.

Yes, I did PR by 3 minutes. I also BQ for 2018.

Fun, challenging. The scenery was spectacular. World class. Happy to live in California.

Last year, I started too fast and I hit the wall in mile 16. This year, I was more conservative and did not hit the wall. I stayed on pace.

Be patient and trust your training.

n/a