Brew City Half Marathon & 10K

Brew City Half Marathon & 10K

Brew City Half Marathon & 10K

( 6 reviews )
100% of reviewers recommend this race
  • Milwaukee,
    Wisconsin,
    United States
  • April
  • 6 miles/10K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

Lisa Dretske

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
50 34
2016
"Can't fight the weather"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Lisa Dretske's thoughts:

I was asked to pace the 2:05 group for the Brew City Half Marathon. This was the first year for this event in Milwaukee, so I wasn't expecting perfection. To start, I arrived early and since it's April in Wisconsin, any type of weather is possible. The day of the race had 20-30 mph winds and snow/sleet. Not ideal, but not completely out of the ordinary. Luckily parking was very easy, and I only had to walk about 5 minutes to get to the start area.

Everyone lined up about 10 minutes before the start of the race and they had suggested pace starting areas to better organize the start shoot. Originally the course was going to be 2 loops and the 10k racers would only do 1 loop. A week before the event, the race director changed this to more of a down-and-back style race. The race map looked like a cursive Y shape and had several turn around points, which wasn't easy in the ice and snow.
Most of the race was along the Oak Leaf Trail, which helped stop the wind quite a bit, since it's all tree lined. However, because it's April and this month tends to be very wet, the Oak Leaf Trail was flooded over in a few sections. This caused a huge bottle neck issue because the 10k racers were coming back from their down-and-back and were hitting the same area as the half marathoners. Some people found a small, dryer path around the water, which added time onto the run, while some racers just ran right through and got their feet soaked.

The aid stations were great! Serving Gatorade and water every few miles. And the course was mainly flat minus a few rolling hills around the 8-9 mile mark.
The finish was great, and I was surprised to see so many people cheering in the ugly weather. Right when you finish they hand you a really wicked looking medal that can also work as a bottle opener! They also hand you a beer ticket for 1 free beer at the end. The race results were posted extremely quickly. Before I even wondered about checking the time, they were posted.

Here are the quick rundown:
Pros: location, free beer, great swag (nice medal and very nice long sleeve tech top), easy parking, good aid stations, very organized
cons: course could be more thought out, water hazards

This was a good first year of the race, but there's definitely some room for improvement for the course.

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