This year's event happened to fall on a day of wildly unseasonably warm weather for Chicago and so the lakefront path, on which 90% of the course runs, was well populated. The course marshals were well placed and alert, which is always great. I didn't use the aid stations but they seemed pretty standard, and there were plenty of them.

5k finishers received Mardi Gras beads, and 10k finishers received some really nice themed medals (see photo).

The only downside to the actual run, as happens with so many multi-distance events, is that the 10k and 5k follow the exact same course but with different turn-around points. The 10k started 15 mins before the 5k, so this meant that the first half of the 10k field caught up to the middle packs of the 5k for the last 1.5 miles of the race. The lakefront path isn't wide enough to really safely accommodate this and so the faster 10k runners really have to put on the breaks and do some weaving to pass runners and avoid those who are oncoming.

The lakefront path remains opens during events and so there were cyclists to avoid as well....I did fine, but nearly got smacked into many times. Such is life on the Lakefront path!

Post party at the Fat Cat, which is a great bar! (I didn't go, however)