The Saratoga Palio: Memorial Race - 09/17/2011

The Saratoga Palio: Melanie Merola O'Donnell Memorial Race

The race takes runners on a tour of downtown Saratoga Springs as well as the campus of the city's Skidmore College and the tree-lined park roads of Saratoga Spa State Park, a National Historic Landmark park that marks its centennial anniversary in 2010 and features resorts, tennis facilities, a golf course, and ample meeting spaces and facilities. Runners start the 13.1-mile half marathon race in downtown Saratoga Springs along Broadway Avenue near the city's Congress Park, and from there they head south down along Broadway toward Saratoga Spa park, where they spend roughly the next five miles of the race running through the park's roads and trails. Most of the terrain through this section is very flat and fast, with only a few rolling hills between miles two and four along the park's loop roads. The course exits the park as runners head along Gideon Putnam Road and cross Broadway Avenue and head onto Crescent Avenue, which they follow for another mile or so before turning left onto Nelson Avenue. After the turn, the race route heads north along Nelson all the way back into downtown, and next brings runners north up into the campus of Skidmore College, a liberal arts college of roughly 2,400 students here in Saratoga Springs. After making their way through the Skidmore campus, runners then head back onto Broadway for the race finish, right where they started back near Congress Park.