The race started and ended in the same area and we ran along the lakefront trails. The last mile of the race was BRUTAL. You run along the water and the sun reflecting off the water makes for an extremely hot and shade-free run. It was really bad and I actually had to stop to walk because I felt my body over-heating.

There was nothing overly exciting about the race, but here are some of pros and cons (in my opinion).

Pros
Start time: With the heat and humidity, it was nice to have a somewhat early start time of 7:30am. Also the race started on time!

Medal: 5K races usually do not have a medal so it was cool to not only get a medal, but a pretty cool one :)

Cons

Corrals: They were SUPER tiny and cramped, which made for a unique start line experience.

Route: The route was a little tight in the beginning as it seemed we were running on a sidewalk. When you combine this with lots of people walking, it makes it hard to navigate the course and get into a running rhythm.

Water Stations (part 1): There was only 1 water station for the race, located at Mile 1.5. Typically this may be okay for a 5K race, but the heat and humidity was brutal. There really should have been water at each mile, or at least at miles 1 and 2.

Water Stations (part 2): Not only was there only one water station, but there were only a handful of volunteers handing out water. The volunteers were amazing and working so hard so I felt very bad that they were so overwhelmed with runners. Rock 'n' Roll should have had about double the amount of volunteers.

Medical (pat 1): I didn't see any medical staff on the course. I'm not sure if I missed them on the course but again, with the weather, this could have been a problem.

Medical (part 2): I stopped at medical after I finished in hopes of getting ice for my knee, but they had run out of ice. I'm a middle of the pack runner (for 5K races) so I knew there were still at least 1,000 runners coming in after me and the medical tent had already run out of ice? Not good

Post-race food/drinks: I think I saw bananas and granola. I'm not sure who eats granola after running in 90+ degree weather, but I need to meet that person. A bagel would have been nice, cold water would have been even better.

Overall I was not impressed with the 5K race and I heard the same from others. I don't think it was particularly organized that well.