EXPO and PRE RACE: It was very easy to park at Bally's and navigate through the casino to find where the expo was taking place. I had my two small children (ages 4 and 6) with me so some of the sights as we walked from the parking garage to the expo room were not so great.. people smoking in the hallway, drinking, and just general casino folk so that was a little disappointing but it didn't last long so it wasn't that big of a deal. The expo was small but I figured it would be as it's a smaller race. It did still have things like energy gels, chews and other race items that you could get at last minute. I thought they might have had a spot for compression boots but no such luck (bummer). A negative: there were no pins for our bibs which as small as that sounds was pretty disappointing. I mean, if I pay over $100 dollars for a race I expect there to be pins for my bib. Don't make me go to the store to buy my own, especially when I'm from out of town. I know, silly but it was definitely like a wow moment in my opinion. So anyway, we walked thru and were in and out rather quickly and the booths that were there were nice. Some of the race pacers were there, some general AC marathon merchandise, other running merchandise, a beer and vodka spritzer table (those were the ones that stuck out to me). We then left and headed to Buca Di Beppo for dinner which was literally right outside of the expo room-super easy! Another nice thing was that they gave us parking passes so that parking was only $5 to park that day, and for race day!

RACE DAY:
It was easy for my husband to drop me off and for me to walk up and get in line to go. In bigger races this takes way longer and it not as easy, and often frustrating to say the least. The crowd was ready to go and everyone seemed in great spirits! I think we were all happy that it had not started to rain yet. The course was flat and fast for the most part. Because it's a small race, and the weather had turned from clear to down pouring about 2 hours in the race there was very little crowd support. That can get really lonely for some that may only have 1 person behind them and 1 in front at certain times. There were plenty of water/fuel stations and the volunteers were awesome! I loved running on the boardwalk which you do after around mile 8, and then again from mile 23 to the finish. And even despite the horrible weather there was still a crowd at the finish line, which is always uplifting to the person who just ran over 26 miles and is ready to lay down LOL! I had been looking forward to hanging out after ever since I signed up and getting my free beer but because I was soaked to the bone and we couldn't hang outside we decided to just call it a day and go home. Other bonuses about the race: FREE RACE PHOTOS.. amazing! and the medal was awesome too. Overall, having run 18 marathons, I would definitely do this race again and but would hope the weather would be different :)

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