The 3M Half Marathon is always one of the best races in town, due in large part to its friendly downhill course. Ricky Doyle is joined by Paul Carrozza and Matt Fagan from 3M to talk about what to expect from this year's race.

RICKY DOYLE: Welcome in, once again, to Carrozza’s Corner. We’re back from a little bit of a holiday vacation and a perfect time to be back, Paul, because we’ve got one of the best races of the year. We’re joined by Paul, of course, as always, and then Matt Fagan from the 3M Half Marathon Relay, which as I just said, I mean, this is one of the best races. It’s a great event, but tell people…15th annual this year…

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	Carrozza's Corner Get ready for the 3M Half Marathon, one of the fastest races in town.

MATT FAGAN: Fifteenth annual this year, Austin Runner, which this month just came out and said that we were one of the best races in Austin. We’ve done this since, I guess, 1995 was our first year.

DOYLE: When we say one of the best races, I think what people instantly think of with this one, Paul, is that it’s a friendly course for a half marathon. You’re going to get a little bit of a downhill most of the way.

PAUL CARROZZA: Yeah, in Austin, you know, if you have a point to point, it’s going to be a fast course unless, of course, we start downtown and go north, but no one wants to do that. This is the good old days. This originally started back running from Runtex to Runtex. It’s just super fast, but it’s not such a downhill that it pounds your legs. It’s just a great course and 3M does an unbelievable job. This whole strategy in Austin was to get these world class companies focusing on putting on an event and you get a world class event. These guys have continued to step up and this race is put on by 3M. It’s just an amazing company.

DOYLE: We talked about the course. It starts up in kind of Northwest Austin, up there the 183/Mopac area and then comes down…

FAGAN: Starts in the Arboretum area and goes through Westover Hills and Northwest Mesa Oaks and then past Crestview and Brentwood and North Loop and then down Hyde Park, through the University and finishes in Waterloo Park.

DOYLE: You see lots of cool areas.

FAGAN: You run through great areas. It’s very, very Austin.

DOYLE: What about, just kind of some of the extras that come along with this race. I remember last year after finishing, there was great food.

FAGAN: Yeah, we have sponsors who turn out like Rudy’s will be giving out breakfast tacos and there will be smoothies. So, we’ve got quite a bit of food.

CARROZZA: But, you know what this race is famous for. Go ahead and tell them.

FAGAN: This race is famous for the schwag bag which is good and was featured in Runners World not too long ago.

DOYLE: I think I’m still using the little note pads and stuff from last year.

FAGAN: Well, go through those fast.

DOYLE: Yeah, I know, because I’m going to get a fresh new set of them. Paul, also, the point to point is logistically a little different. I mean, people, maybe you want to stash a car maybe at the finish or there is a bus. How do you coordinate all of that.

CARROZZA: Figure out where you want…do you want someone to drop you off at the start, which is great, and then they can pick you up at the finish. There is a transportation that is very well run that can get you back to your car if you park at the start.

DOYLE: Alright. Sounds good. You can check out runtex.com. That will send you in the direction of the 3M race or if you want to start thinking about the Marathon which is getting closer, as well. You can go to the website and then for us, don’t forget, Carrozza’s Corner. Emails are easy. You can just send them to us at run@news8austin.com.