We had great weather for the second straight year for F3. Expo was well organized at RoadRunner Sports and multiple packet pickup spots around Chicagoland was nice! Parking is close but tends to backup a bit, especially if you're in the north garage. There's plenty of room to warmup and the United Club pre/post race area is great. There's lots of portopotties outside which I may use instead of waiting for one of the 2 (?) bathroom areas inside. Race is organized by pace time without corrals - buts it's small enough to self-manage. People seemed pretty honest about pace, too.
The race:
With a spring marathon on the horizon, I was using F3 for a marathon-paced training run. We got a good warmup in before the start and headed to the corral. This course winds around Soldier Field to the north before becoming an out-and-back on the southern part of the LST. Aid stations were approx every mile to two miles. They were not set up identically and volunteers were not super consistent with verbalizing what they had. The south end turnaround probably gets very congested for pace group between 8-11min/mi. The path is narrow and there's little shoulder available in the winter with the snow and ice. There's lots of good stuff after the finish, but a bag would be nice to carry the swag. Again, the United Center is such a warm (literally) welcome after this winter half. If you drive, don't leave the garage to the north. You get stuck looping out towards the planetarium and are forced to head back south of the field. Just go south.
Overall a good race, but a little disappointed with the finisher hats (quality - it's already pilling without wear and the stitching is coming out) and the lack of shirts due to shipping issues. Will probably be back next year - very few half opps during the winter.