Course - This is a primarily flat course, so of course you have to love that. In addition, since this was my first time in Chicago, I really enjoyed running through the streets of downtown during the first half of the race. Although the pavement was a little uneven in some areas, as long as you were looking at where you were going, it was fine. Also the tall building provided much needed shade for a majority of the race.

Crowd Support - Because the first half was through downtown, crowd support was AWESOME for the first half of the race (it did die down during the second half). I also want to give a shoutout to the Kingdom

Runners. Their volunteers were so encouraging and uplifting. They were some of the loudest cheerleaders on the course!

Sponges - I can remember the exact mile (it was somewhere between 11-13) but there was a bucket with cold water and sponges. This was a very welcomed thing because of the heat!

Volunteers - As always, the volunteers worked extremely hard, especially in the hot weather. I would like to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of the volunteers because they were energetic, friendly and helpful. I can't imagine it was easy for them to stand out in the heat for hours on end - you are all rockstars!

Port-a-Potties - Tons of available port-a-potties. I did not really see any lines so I believe they had more than enough available.

Post-race food - They had bagels! I repeat, they had bagels! This warmed my carb-loving heart. I was also able to get water and ice from a Dunkin Donuts station. I also saw granola and bananas available as well.

Medals - I did the remix challenge so I got 3 medals and all of them were awesome. I will say that I like my Rock 'n' Roll DC medal better, but these were pretty nice!

Cons

Water Stations - Coming off of the 5K, I was hoping that there would be enough water stations. Before the race I heard from a few people that there were supposed to be water stops at every mile - this didn't happen. I don't even know where the water stations were - I'm assuming every 2 miles? My GPS watch was off so I couldn't really couldn't figure out how often the water stops were on the course but they didn't seem to be spaced out well. It was weird.

Medical - I saw medical staff running with us during the race, which was great but I heard from others that runners needed assistance and medical was no where in sight. They may have needed more medical personal.

Course support - As I mentioned, the volunteers were absolutely amazing, but there were not enough volunteers. At several water stops I saw lines of runners waiting for water or they were pouring their own water. Not only is this not fair to the runners, but its also not fair to the volunteers. They were working their butts off, pouring as often as they could, but couldn't keep up with demand.

Bands - I only counted two bands on the course but there was a live DJ somewhere between miles 8-10. There were also huge speakers along the course for the last 3 miles so we could hear the music from the DJ. Since the first half of the race was downtown, I could see why there may be a lack of bands but there should have been more in the second half of the race.

Overall, I just think that the hot weather made the race not so enjoyable for me. If I forget about the weather and just focus on the course itself, it's actually a fun course and not too difficult, considering its mainly flat. I'm still on the fence about signing up the race in 2016 because I do feel like the water stations and medical support are two things that definitely need to change for next year. Is it a coincidence that Rock 'n' Roll sent me an email while I was typing this review asking for feedback?! LoL

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