This was my third Hot Chocolate Chicago event, and my second time doing the 15k option. Overall, the experience was better than last year, and I would recommend the race generally, but there are definitely some issues to be aware of.

Pre-race: All communications are super professional, and Hot Chocolate always has a great website, so from registration to all pre-race communications, this race has you 100% covered.

Expo: First, the expo moved this year from McCormick Place to the Hyatt right downtown, which is a MASSIVE improvement. Someone else talked about the accessibility of the Hyatt because there was some minor sidewalk construction, but it is a crime against humanity to make people go all the way to McCormick Place. This was much better.

The expo itself is cool. Packet picket is amazingly simple for a race of this size, and I got everything quickly and in good order. Free chocolate and hot chocolate are tasty. Cool booths. Hot Chocolate merch available. Not too insanely crowded.

Race morning: This is a huge race, I think this year was 40k people, so the corral area is huge. If you're in the second wave, like I was, you needed to arrive well over an hour before you would actually start racing just to get into Grant Park before the first racers started. For a chilly morning, it can be a long time to wait around. I wore extra throwaway layers that I could take off and leave for race organizers to collect after the start. Gear check was fast and I had no issues getting into my corral, and everyone seemed to be in the right corral (or further back).

The start was well organized, considering the size of the field, and everything went pretty much as planned, timewise. But it's still a looooong start, so be prepared if you are at the back of the pack.

Course: The course goes through downtown Chicago, which is the main reason I run this race every year. Love getting to run around downtown with the streets shut down!

First thing, though, is to go underground. For those familiar with Lower Wacker and the other "lower" streets, that's where the race course heads just after Grant Park. Personally, I find it a strange choice to have runners packed into what is essentially an underground street/parking garage type space, full of fumes and bad smells--but at least it warms you up a bit. You need to be pretty alert here as the crowd is still tight and there a number of curbs and things like that to watch out for.

Potholes, manhole covers, grates, and curbs continue to be an issue, especially downtown, but there's nothing terrible--just keep your eyes peeled. The run down Clark is nice, then the race swings back to Michigan just before the end of the 5k course. The 5k runners split off and 15k runners continue down Michigan to 31st St. Things get a bit quieter here, with less to see and fewer crowds, but there are still plenty of runners and good aid station support.

Around the 7-mile marker, heading back toward Grant Park, the course goes inside the McCormick Place parking garage/service road. This is a terrible choice, and was the same last year. BE EXTRA ALERT HERE because not only are there potholes and crappy paving throughout, it also gets VERY dark inside. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, but it's still dark enough that all the runners around you will start shining in whatever bits of reflective gear they happen to have on, and it will get hard to see the road. I wish they would move this portion to go around the building.

Finally, you'll get back to Grant Park and the finish line, after a few more miles. It's a long walk from the finish to the post-race party, and for the second year in a row I actually skipped the party entirely. I wanted the chocolate, believe me (it's really good!), but the crowd is insane. I wish they had people closer to the finish line handing out little chocolates, or cups of hot chocolate, even if you couldn't get the whole chocolate fondue shebang that way. I would have LOVED to get a cup of hot chocolate without walking several blocks and waiting in enormous lines. I run this race alone, so it's not that fun for me to go to a party like that. For runners who have a group to hang out with, I imagine it would be perfectly cool.

Swag: This year's goodie bag was a full-zip tech jacket, lined in fleece. It looks pretty nice, and I got an early-bird deal where it includes embroidery of the Chicago skyline and "Chicago 2015 finisher," which is a nice little extra along with the HC logo. The jacket itself, though, does not seem as "nice" and is definitely not as warm as the tech hoodie half-zip or not-so-tech hoodie full-zip I got the previous two years. That said, I am wearing it right now! The medal, which is for 15k finishers only, is pretty awesome. Like last year, it's in the shape of a partially unwrapped, partially eaten chocolate bar, and the design of the "wrapper" was updated and is even better looking this year.

Overall: Good expo, great race with VERY professional production all around, but may be more fun for a group than a single runner--unless you are happy to leave without your chocolate.