Reno Marathon de Mayo Half Marathon Walk and Run

The Marathon de Mayo Half Marathon was be held yearly around the time of the Cinco de Mayo (May 5) in Reno, Nevada. The half marathon course was open and supported for 4 hours and was advertised as walker-friendly. The marathon course was open 6 hours and does not advertise for walkers.
Marathon de Mayo Official Site
Photos and Review of 2007 Marathon de Mayo Half Marathon

This event was discontinued after 2007.

This event was discontinued after 2007. The event was held Cinco de Mayo weekend (around May 5). The start/finish was in downtown Reno, Nevada on Virginia Street under the famous Reno Arch. Packet Pick-up and late registration was at the Sands Regency hotel. The half-marathon start was at 6:40 am. There is a 4 hour time limit for the half marathon.

Register online or by mail. Cost was $65 for early registration in 2007. Packet pickup at the Health and Fitness Expo at the Sands Regency on the Saturday before the event.
Marathon de Mayo

The course is an out-and-back. It begins under the Reno Arch in downtown Reno, heads out through neighborhoods and past Virginia Lake and up Windy Hill. After a loop through horse country, it returns the same route. Windy Hill is a significant hill, coming half-way through the half marathon. ]
Photos and Review of 2007 Marathon de Mayo Half Marathon

Each finisher gets a pewter medal. Each registrant gets a short-sleeved technical shirt at packet pick-up. Shirts and medal were the same for marathon and half-marathon except for the medal ribbon and engraving on the reverse of the medal. Entry also included a finish party.

There were 3 beverage stations on the half marathon course with Gatorade and water and one Energy Gel Stop. You visit these twice - going out and coming back. Despite advertising and verbal assurance that there were "lots of porta-johns" on the course, there was only one at Mile 4 and two at Mile 6 which you could also visit on the return. Gas station attendants didn't like walkers having to use their restrooms. There were bands in two places on the half marathon course. The course is divided from traffic with cones. You receive a map and great race booklet in your race packet. The event is chip timed.

The event advertises as walker-friendly. Since the finish is open for the marathoners, there were plenty of friendly volunteers, water, gatorade and snacks at the finish throughout the 4 hour finish window. One concern is that the shirt has the motto of "Live 2 Run," which isn't very inclusive for walkers. I would have preferred more porta-johns on the course.

The organizers of the Marathon de Mayo are very enthusiastic and really sold it to me at the Las Vegas Marathon Expo. My walking buddy Rachel and I decided to make a fun trip out of it, so we attended the May 6, 2007 event.

Packet Pick-up: We went to packet pick-up at the Sands Regency when it opened at 9 am on Saturday. They were a little disorganized at first and asked us to browse the Expo while they got things in place. The Expo had a fun variety of vendors and we enjoyed browsing it. They need a better system for organizing the pre-reistration packets, as they were organized by bib number but nobody had been sent their bib number, so everyone had to look it up.

We stayed at the El Dorado, right on the starting line next to the Reno Arch on Virginia Street. But any downtown Reno hotel would be in easy walking distance.

The start was delayed for over an hour due to a logistical problem. But the El Dorado benefitted as runners and walkers lounged around inside and played slots (at least those who had brought along money). This delay was probably the cause of later course issues I had.

The route proceeds under the Reno arch and through downtown, south. The in-town route is not very scenic, but was separated from traffic with cones, and traffic was light for Sunday morning. There was a band and water stop at Mile 2, but no portajohn. Then next waterstop at Mile 4 had a single portajohn a couple of blocks from the waterstop. The route went past Virginia Lake with lovely views. Then it climbed Windy Hill - a significant uphill, especially since Reno is at 4500 ft. altitude. But the uphill was less than a kilometer, to a waterstop with two portajohns. The views from the top were worth the climb - a great panorma of the Reno area. Then the route does a loop through horse country. This part of the route was really lovely. We returned back uphill to the waterstop.

At this time, I was near the tail end and the police were removing the traffic cones to the side of the route. I believe this was because of the late start, but it meant having to stick to the sidewalks or side of the road for the final 5 miles rather than in a coned off route of our own. The waterstops remained in place for our use.

At the finish line, there were plenty of volunteers to cheer us in, remove the timing chip, give the medal, water and snacks. It was a very good finish area.

Overall, I think the problems they had can be corrected, and I enjoyed the event.