Race Review: Mesa Half Marathon 2024

The Mesa Half Marathon takes place in early February each year, attracting around 3,500 runners (and around 4,000 more across the other distances). I ran in 2024, and here’s my review of the experience so you know what to expect!

Registration

The Mesa Half Marathon pricing started at $109 and went up to $149, depending on when you signed up.

One of the cool things about this race is its generous deferral, cancellation, and transfer policy. Up until about a month before the race, you can withdraw and get most of your money back. Up until about a week before, you can defer and receive a credit of most of your signup fee. That credit is valid for 2 years at 8 different races.

I had some credit from the previous year, as I had to defer due to a bone stress injury. The credit was super easy to use and I had no problems.

At registration, you can also pay extra for same-day packet pickup, and that fee can be refunded if you don’t end up using it; you just email the team and they’ll send you the $20 back.

Expo

The expo was at Wrigleyville West Conference Center near Sloan Park in Mesa, right at the finish line area. I went on a Friday afternoon, and I was able to get my bib and shirt in under 10 minutes. There was a bit of a line near the entrance of the center to double-check your bib number and name, but you didn’t have to wait there if you didn’t need to check anything, which wasn’t super clear.

You were also able to switch out your shirt for another size, and I did that since the shirts ran small in the sleeves.

There were some photo ops, the usual wall of participant names, and a handful of vendors. There was an additional set of vendors outside, which had more fuel samples. It was a smaller expo but still well done.

One cool stand actually had free pace bands that took into account the course. Make sure to stop by that stand if you’re going for a specific time.

Start Line

You have to start your day at an ungodly hour, as you need to arrive for the buses to the start line by 4:30am at the latest. I woke up at 3:45am and was grateful for the 2-hour time difference coming from Eastern time, as my body thought it was 5:45am. I’d been sticking to Eastern time sleep hours the days before the race, even though I’d been in Arizona.

I arrived at the bus loading area in the Sloan Park parking lot at around 4:15, and got loaded on within a few minutes. It took a bit of time to get to the start area due to street closures, and I arrived a little after 5am, giving me over an hour to kill before the race start at 6:30am.

It was chilly (probably in the mid-40s) that morning and rainy, which was unseasonal. Usually it’s sunny and in the 70s. There were heat lamps in the start area as well as the corrals; definitely go to the corrals as those heat lamps were less crowded. You also got gloves at packet pickup to wear.

There was a water/Gatorade station too, and plenty of port-a-potties.

Unfortunately, because there were some bus issues, the race start had to be delayed 20 minutes after we were already warmed up and in the corals. I’d already done bag drop and was chilly and starting to get hungry. The same thing happened for the full marathon (at a different start location), so be sure to bring some throwaway sweats just in case.

I’d bought a sweatshirt at a thrift store to wear and toss (since everything discarded gets donated). But since the ground was wet, I highly doubted anything would actually get donated and decided to put my sweatshirt in my bag drop bag.

Gear

I wore an old tech shirt, bike shorts, Ronhill socks, and my regular running shoes (Brooks Launch 10). I didn’t bring my carbon plate shoes since I knew I wasn’t in PR shape anyways, and I needed to save space for my hiking and trail shoes for my travels after the race.

I carried 3 gels with me, two SiS and one Huma. I didn’t carry a bottle or Camelbak since the aid stations were frequent.

Course

The race started on a random street and passed through Mesa residential areas. To be honest, the course was not that interesting. The full marathon course started at the top of a mountain and got to go through some desert, but the half marathon was really only in residential streets. There wasn’t a ton of crowd support, but there were definitely pockets of spectators.

The course itself was fast and flat, with a net downhill of around 200ft. This was perfect since it was enough to help with speed, but not so much that it would hurt your quads.

There were aid stations about every 2 miles with water and Gatorade. It was easy to grab fuel and keep running.

Finish Line

The finish line area was full of things to do, from free massages to free food to photo ops. I got tons of snacks and sports drinks in the finish area.

You could also get a free race results card printed, and there wasn’t much of a line.

There were free burgers, including veggie options, but the line was so long that it didn’t seem worth it to me.

If you were spectating people in other races (full marathon and 10k), there was a lot of space along the finish chute and street before the final turn. I waited by the finish for my friend Octa, who was doing the full marathon. Race tracking was super accurate, so I knew almost exactly when he would run by.

Because of the bad weather, we didn’t stick around too long in the finish area, but it would’ve been a fun place to hang out if it had been warmer. We did make sure to take some photos by the water though.

Swag

One of my favorite parts of this race were the free photos! They even had photographer “warning signs” so you knew when to smile and try to not look dead haha.

Besides that, you got a medal and shirt with registration. Both were quite nice and I had no complaints. The shirt was actually made from 100% recycled yarns, which I always appreciate.

My Experience/Performance

I went into this race knowing that I wasn’t in PR shape, but I wasn’t sure what exactly my level of fitness was. I guessed that I could maybe run 1:55, but I was hoping for a 1:50.

This was my first race after having a coach for a few months, and she told me to pace myself based on effort. The plan was to take miles 1-3 easy, then miles 3-8 moderate, and miles 8-13 hard.

I went out easy, especially since I had to re-warmup after the race was delayed. I was able to start speeding up after the first few miles, and was surprised at my pace, which started to be in mid- to low- 8 minutes per mile.

Around the halfway mark, I was on track to finish in 1:53. Towards the last few miles, I started even hoping I could go sub-8 and possibly break 1:50.

My breath ended up getting pretty labored though, and I basically started wheezing (I felt so bad for the people around me). It was a struggle to keep up the 8:15s, and I was just grateful I wasn’t slowing down.

I crossed the finish line in 1:50:58, which was a 2-minute negative split, and 4 minutes faster than I thought I could run.

It’s still a long ways off my PR of 1:44 from 2015 (!), but I was proud of myself for running a strong race.

Overall, I’d recommend the Mesa Half Marathon, especially if you’re going for a PR. The event is really well-organized and has flexible policies, and the course is fast and flat. I’d definitely consider coming back for the full marathon or even redoing the half!

If you ran it, let us know in the comments what you thought! Feel free to ask questions as well.