Silverado Half Marathon

If you like scenic, really small events and you’re fast, don’t listen to me. Otherwise, this may be helpful…
It’s hard not to enjoy running through the wine country but… After apx. 2 hours, traffic is allowed back on this curvy highway. (The event advertises a 3 ½ hour time window). I had cars and trucks speeding past me around blind curves. Although I regularly run streets in L.A. and am no «woose», this was downright dangerous. Crazy dangerous!
Personally, I prefer a little larger event. In fact the master of ceremonies had no P.A. system and despite yelling on the top of his lungs, 75% or the runners couldn’t hear him! Plus the T-​Shirts were the same as the prior year. This is a small gripe, but worth mentioning given the hefty registration fee.
My 1 star rating really is based on the incredible danger that runners are put in if they don’t make it within 2 hours (apx 10 min miles).

I did this half-​marathon this year and now reading the past reviews after the fact they seem spot-​on. Of note, it is a gorgeous course, but the execution of the race had some flaws this year (some of which seem to have been problems before) that made it not worth the $ 80-​$ 90 entry fee to me.
Here were the cons:
— They ran out of medals. I have done all kinds of races, the majority without medals even offered, and the medal was not really a factor in my registering for this race. But if you are going to offer medals, please have enough for everyone. They apologized and will mail it, but it really left a bad feeling at the end of the event.
— On a similar note, there was almost nothing to eat at the finish line when I finished. There were no volunteers manning the «snack» table, which consisted only of a half empty bowl of trail mix, and some lukewarm plastic gallon jugs of water.
— They ran out of smaller sized t-​shirts even though it appeared we ordered specific sizes on the registration form.
— The course was poorly marked with some random mile markers here and there. Not every mile was marked.
— The 5K turnaround point was not staffed and several runners in that race were asking other runner on the course where they were supposed to go.
— As another reviewer noted, there is no chip start time for the race so the official result did not match the real start time for the majority of the entrants.
The pros:
— The course was really beautiful and the weather was perfect. It was nice to be on the Silverado Trail with no traffic.
— The Girls on the Run group staffing one of the water stations was fantastic — lots of energy and cheering on both the way out and back.
In the end, the experience at the end of the race really ruined it for me. I did not go in expecting a corporate-​type race with lots of bells and whistles, but I did expect the basics of what the registration fee covered to be there and they were not.

Changing to 1 star.
The cotton shirt has 2012 on it. Leftover from last year or misprint? Either way, very amateur.

My response to the previous two reviews is «wah, wah, wah.» If you wanted rock bands, fancy medals, technical tees, and a pancake-​flat course, then you should have entered a different race. Those details were clearly laid out on the website, so none of these things should have been surprises. (Seriously — «There seemed to be more rolling hills than expected from the elevation map»?? These sorts of things are not subjective; learn to read an elevation map, please.)
I do agree that $ 80 is a bit steep, but that has nothing to do with rock bands or tech tees (which is all tourist bullshit as far as I’m concerned anyway). I just think that ~$ 60 is about all I’m willing to pay for a half marathon under normal circumstances. (I paid the $ 80 for this one because I wanted to run a half on this particular weekend and I didn’t have a lot of options.)
If you need bells and whistles, this might not be your ideal race, but if you just want to race a slightly challenging but fun course, you could do worse. Well-​organized & well-​run by great people. I would totally do it again if it were just a touch cheaper.
You can read my full race report here:

This was my third half marathon, and I probably wouldn’t do this particular course again. There’s many races in NorCal, and this isn’t a must-​run.
It’s a pretty intimate run (900-​ish runners), and it starts and finishes at Calistoga High School, which gives it a nice, local touch.
I definitely echo what Tyler E. wrote in his review; his review is spot-​on. His point about value (the race is $ 80) is exactly right. Here’s also my personal take on what could be improved:
— There were no technical tees. Just a simple white cotton t-​shirt, with some design screen-​printed onto it. For $ 80 entrant fee, I was highly disappointed to see that it was just a cotton tee.
— No mile markers. It’s not difficult to put some on the course, and I would suggest adding some.
— There were enough water/​Gatorade stations (I think there were 8?), which was great. However, I felt that at each station, the Gatorade was way too watered-​down.
— There seemed to be more rolling hills than expected from the elevation map.
— Snacks at the finish line were alright, but again, for $ 80, a more generous, hearty spread (perhaps some bagels?) would’ve been nice. Instead, there was trail mix, chex mix, combos (those pretzels stuffed with peanut butter), and some granola.
— The course was kind of… boring. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful course, along the Silverado Trail, and you have lots of beautiful vineyards along the route. But then… it never changes. 13 miles of vineyards while running on the highway. Every time I drive through Napa Valley, I enjoy looking out the window and taking in the scene, and I think if you want your fill of Northern California wine country, driving through Napa is enough. Running for 13 miles with no change in scenery bored me after the first couple miles of this out-​and-​back course. There was also no music or other entertainment along the route.
— It would’ve been nice to start the race at 7am instead of 8am. It starts to get hot in April, and there were times during the run when the sun was blazing down, and I kept thinking to myself that perhaps it would’ve been a little better if the race started earlier when it’s cooler.
— Timing. I just checked the race results page, and noticed that they gave everyone the same starting time of 8:05, rather than the chip time. This is problematic! Almost everyone, except the first however many folks, crossed the start line later! I hope y’all fix that! I timed my run on my phone, and the race results page is over a minute off! Isn’t this why we have timing chips? So that you get timed at exactly the point when you cross the start line and when you cross the finish line?
UPDATE: I emailed them to ask about the chip start times, and they emailed me back saying that they did not do chip start times for this race. Everyone’s time starts when the gun goes off. (My 2 cents: that really needs to be fixed because it results in wrong finish times for practically EVERY single person!)
So, in conclusion, you can probably skip this race. Not my favorite. In the future, I’d probably go for another big corporate race, which usually has an expo the day before with lots of freebies and samples, as well as other perks such as better food at the end, a tech t-​shirt, and more. IMO, this race just wasn’t worth it.