It's hard for young races to develop atmosphere so quickly, but in its second year, it's hard to duplicate the achievement the BTN 10K organizers have accomplished. It all starts with the shirts, which boasted 13 different varieties (12 teams, one generic). Organizers reached out to alumni groups to have presence at the race and to recruit runners. This move I think got the alumni running in the race even more jacked up than they may've been otherwise. In addition, universities sent cheer squads and mascots to the race to mingle with fans and give people additional photo opportunities during the course of the day. Finally, the post-race tailgate was amazing. Throw in the cooler temps, it felt like a Saturday tailgate. People didn't want to go home because they were to involved with the DJ playing tunes, the rows of bags boards and other games, sausages on the grill and cold Goose Island flowing.

WHAT WASN'T SO AWESOME ABOUT THIS RACE?
I can't really decide if this race was oversold or not. At 13,000 participants at a very expensive $50 a head, obviously they either could have gone more expensive or had even more people there. The parking lot where the post race festivities took place was crowded, but wasn't shoulder to shoulder like the Chicago Marathon can be. The lines for the Alumni tents were as crowded as schools wanted them to be. Northwestern has a natural low turnout and only gave out mints, so not a big deal. Wisconsin was giving out BTN Hockey sticks and had Blake Geoffrion signing items as a former Badger and Hobey Baker winner, so that was a long line. The beer and sausage lines had no excuse to be as long as they were. The sausage line was a little more understandable because there were two kinds of sausages that were weird flavors and was served buffet style. The beer line, especially since 312 is served in cans, is inexcusable. I won't blame the volunteers for pouring slow because we all love volunteers on this blog, but either more volunteers were needed or cans should have been served. In addition the race photo company stunk (no pictures found. I wasn't going to buy any but I would have liked to see pictures at least) and the BTN coverage of the race was underwhelming though I did make the broadcast.

For more, check out my blog entry: http://tkmarathonman.blogspot.com/2013/08/race-report-big-10k.html

Link to this review