My Dad had signed up to run the Cellcom Full as his second marathon. Naturally, I wanted to be there, and the Half was a perfect way to attend the event. Initially, I had hoped it would be a PR attempt, but 5 weeks of pneumonia scratched that, so I took this one super conservative. Ok, now let's get onto the actual review.

Packet-pickup - We went to packet pickup right when it opened on Friday afternoon. Since my Dad and I were staying at our cabin, it made more sense to grab our bibs on Friday on the way instead of driving to and from Green Bay (about an hour) on both Saturday and Sunday. For us, it was super quick. Runners take the escalator up to the second level of the stadium and you just hop in line according to your bib number. It wasn't crowded when we arrived, but the bibs are in a smaller room, and I could be that being a little cramped if the expo got bigger.

The expo itself is located in the Lambeau Field Atrium. It was nothing special, but not a bad expo at all. The race had their merchandise (obviously) and there were a few local running shops, as well as nutrition tables, set up. I'd also note, that if you needed to stock up on running socks, this year's expo was the day to do it. Super cheap running socks!!

Swag - I'm not a fan of the race shirt at all. It's a Saucony shirt, which is nice, but I think the design is ugly. This year's color scheme for the race was Purple and Red, which doesn't look great on a gray shirt. The shirt itself is gray, with red (men) or purple (women) side panels and shoulder panels. I did like that the Marathon and Half Marathon shirts designate the distance though, instead of lumping them all into a "Marathon" shirt like so many events do.

Some of the additional merchandise for the race was pretty nice, though. And a few of the shirts were super cheap at the expo. I also LOVED that the race sold Finisher shirts at the Merchandise Tent at the finish, but not at the expo. I'm fairly superstitious when it comes to wearing the race shirt before the race (a big no-no!) and buying gear (ESPECIALLY Finisher shirts) before you even toe the start line. So only having the Finisher shirts at the finish was nice.

Course - It's not something you see every day, but the Half and Full run completely different courses. There might be a mile or two overlap at the start and finish, but that's all. The Half runs almost exclusively through residential neighborhoods. Great for crowd support, which there was a lot of, but not great for scenery since you only look at houses.

Aid Stations were about 1.5 miles apart, although I'll be honest I didn't pay too much attention to that. One thing I noticed almost immediately, though, is that the water cups weren't those cheap paper thin cups you basically crush by touching. These were sturdy, you could easily run with them for a good way if you needed to. Gatorade was in their standard green cups, so it was easy to tell the difference. All AS also had volunteers on both sides of the road, which really cut down on congestion.

If you've heard people talk about the Cellcom, you'll commonly hear two great things: it's super flat and you run around Lambeau Field. Let's talk about those things.

The Half course is mostly flat, but if you've expecting all flat roads, you'll be in for a rude awakening. Runners charge up a somewhat significant hill around Mile 8, and another not as big hill around Mile 11. In fact, the Half had almost the same elevation gain as the Full. The 26.2 course is super duper flat since it's mostly along the river. The Half will challenge you a bit more with the hills.

Running into Lambeau is a neat experience, especially if you're a football fan. I'm not a huge fan of the Packers, but it's a cool place to be. The course takes you through the concourse and tunnels that the team uses, around the field, and back out of the stadium to the finish.

Except this year there was no field. The grass isn't in at Lambeau right now (for this year's race at least) so we effectively ran around a huge sand pit. I'm not even kidding, go run on a paved path by a beach and you'll be running next to the same sand we did. For me, that was kind of a bummer in the stadium especially since the field itself, as football fans know, is fairly famous.

Post Race - I'll admit, I thought the Finisher Chute would be a lot better than it was. Water, cups of Gatorade, and chocolate milk were the only nutrition available. I certainly could have missed it, but I didn't see any food. And I think that's because runners get 2 free beers (yay!) and 1 brat with their entry. So the race tries to funnel you there instead of providing more at the finish. But I tell ya, sometimes you just want a banana right after a run, and there was none of that at the finish.

The finish area was very nice though. Organized areas and tents, plenty of seating, and live music playing. It isn't the biggest Post Race party you'll find, but it was a very good one!

Medal - I need to have a separate area for the medal. For a Half or Full, I really just want my medal to look cool. The medal, nor the ribbon, looked cool. Our medal was a cut out of a football with the race's name on the top. When you've got a historic stadium, the Packers, and a great city, I think you can do better than a wirey cut out football. And the ribbon? Skinny and blue with "Half Marathon" in white. For the Full, the medal was slightly larger, and the ribbon was blue and red. Other than that, the same. Let's just say, this could've been better.

All in all, despite my gripes, the Cellcom is an excellent and well organized event. If you're in the Midwest and are looking for a good race in the Spring, this is it. I would go back.