My first year doing this race. I had volunteered to do packet pick up for the Turkey Trot and had gotten a free race entry and chose the Chili Bowl (which also meant I saved the $25 registration fee!).

Packet pick up is at the Fleet Feet in Westlake, OH. Which is convenient only to the people on the west side (I'm really not going to drive 45 minutes to pick up my bib and stuff). Race is in downtown Cleveland and race day pick up is at the Galleria at Erie. Pretty easy pick up. Parking garages are all over downtown Cleveland, be sure to bring cash, as most are $10. I parked across the street, which was easy enough.

The course itself is essentially the same course Hermes uses for their downtown Cleveland races (which gets old, to be honest). It goes out the football stadium, around and back. 1 hill on the way back, but no water stations this time around.

Weather was nice, but on the cold side- typical Cleveland, especially with the lake being the eastern border. After you finish, you get to try some chili at the PD/FD chili cook off. It took me 30 min to run the course, but some of the stations were nearly out by the time I got back into the galleria, which was sad. I really only got to try 2 or 3 and there were 9 total there. There is an option to just try the chili, which is good (but leave some for the runners?). Vote for your favorite chili and the winner gets to donate the funds to their charity of choice