In November, my husband and I ran the Thunder Road 5K, which is a part of the Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon and Half Marathon. It was an excellent race and we enjoyed it. The 5K race is run through downtown Charlotte, with lots of great scenery and not much elevation difficulty (compared to other parts of Charlotte). Even though it's a 5K, you still have a great starting line and finish party, and the organizers try to give you the same energy as the half marathoners and marathoners.

The expo was pretty good, but we got there a little late and missed out on some vendors. There were nice custom items for the race for sale, such as shirts, stickers, Christmas ornaments, etc. Great selection of items and great race t-shirt (one of the really soft cotton ones). Your race entry also got you free entry into the NASCAR museum downtown with a special wristband, but we didn't take advantage of this.

The day of the race, we parked in a garage downtown, just a few blocks from the start. It was a nice warmup walk and I did a short warmup run. The course was well marked with a water station and plenty of volunteers and cheerleaders, and the finish had a great party- tons of free stuff like yogurt, free food from local businesses, and free beer. The half and full finishers got medals, and the 5K did not (I was totally fine with this), but the age group awards for the 5K were really cool checkered flags, which fits well with a NASCAR themed race.

I would highly recommend this 5K if you have a friend or family member doing the marathon or half marathon and would like to run a race while in Charlotte.