Just be prepared: This course is very, very hilly. I'm not talking Blue Ridge Half Marathon in Roanoke-type of hilly, but just a constant wear on your body the whole race. Once you think you're done with a hill, here comes another. And you get a steady 100+ foot climb in the first 2.5 half miles when you're trying to find a steady pace.

Rip It Events is the event producer and they put together a professionally managed race. Traffic control in a high-density suburban area was flawless with friendly, supportive law enforcement personnel managing the busiest intersections and the number of volunteers that were engaged was incredible. Kudos to Rip It for that.

However, from just before mile 3 (a turn on to Hickory Ridge) until between mile markers 6 and 7 (turning on to Cedar Lane), the course, which was completely open to traffic (although it would have been busier on a Saturday), was at times unsafe as the producer only marked a cone from the curb wide enough for only two people to run abreast - and didn't have an entire lane blocked off like they did on the other miles. A couple of times I took to the sidewalk.

The race's number of finishers in the half marathon has increased from its debut last year of 431 to 478 this year.

The number of finishers in the companion 5K nearly doubled.

If you don't like or don't train on hills, you might want to pick another race, but it is not for the fact that the event producer does a shabby job.

Otherwise, the race started on-time and the event producer has paired up with an organization that gives the opportunity to physically challenged athletes - with their guides - to participate and they showcased them well with a 2-minute head start on the rest of the field.

Even though I came in from Texas to check off another state in half marathons (#40), I get the feel that this event production company does things right. May want to check out some of their other events too!