I received a free entry to this race as part of the BibRavePro program. This was my first year participating in a Hot Chocolate series race and I really enjoyed it. In terms of expo quality and packet pickup, I was unable to make it out before the day of the race, which means I wasn't able to attend the expo or pickup my packet. I went to the information booth on race morning to get my bib and the women at the booth said they would ship me my race tee which was really nice of them. This is a HUGE race so there were dozens of corrals that all started 2 minutes apart. Once the race actually "started" it still took 6 minutes for me to start, and I was corral D! As I was finishing, I saw the last corral starting. This definitely helped to spread things out on the course but I'm not sure how I felt about all the waiting. In terms of the course, it was basically what you would expect in downtown St. Louis. I feel like it could have been more scenic but I still really enjoyed it. I only saw 1 aid station on the 5k route but they were stalked with sports drinks and water, plus chocolate! They had a ton of great volunteers with made the aid stations move smoothly, in my opinion. Race parking the morning of was pretty straightforward. You had to pay to park in a lot but there was plenty of space. I wish the website would have said more about parking access. Otherwise, I thought the race management was great and it was a super fun race. I really enjoyed the hot chocolate "mug" at the end of the race which included hot chocolate, hot fudge, and lots of fun things to dip like bananas, rice Krispies, etc! Race photos were free which is always a perk. I look forward to getting my shirt but it looked like they were nice zip-up hoodies! 5K finishers did not get medals, but 15K finishers did. This seemed a little odd to me, but overall I thought it was a great "novelty" race as I like to call them.