About 25 people traveled together from Atlanta for this epic race weekend. Our group participated in a broad combination of the available races (1 mile, 5k,10k, half, full) with about a dozen completing the marathon (and 2 first timers!). I knew this was going to be an amazing race weeks before we even arrived. The communication was excellent, the people are gracious, and the events are class act.

Expo: Perfect size and not too crowded. Some cool vendors I haven't seen at other expos and the race swag is awesome. Since I have a ton or race shirts, I bought a flying pig bike jersey. Cool to have something different. The organization of packet pickup was done really well. The only weird/funny part is that the t-shirt pickup is on the opposite side of the expo, effectively making you walk through the "gift shop" to get there.
Swag: really nice race shirts (including women's specific sizes), medals for all the races and extra bling if you complete one of the challenges, poster, nice embroidered duffle bag, flying pig head wrap
Communication: website, app, and twitter accounts kept up to date and responsive, especially since there was risk of bad weather
Start line: corrals A-H each with their own porto-potties (nice!), school buses for bag drop (you drop your bag at the bus window corresponding to your bib number, live music. Crowds were kinda thick for the first few miles but you could still run without running too many people over
Course: BEAUTIFUL. The first few miles you go over 3 bridges and the views of downtown Cincy during the sunrise were epic. We were treated to several rainbows along the way. They tell you that the only real hill is the monster up Eden Park between miles 6-9. This is a significant climb that takes place in 3 sections with short flats in between. However, while the course is a net downhill from there, it does so over rolling terrain. The course is hilly but the neighborhoods are beautiful. Don't expect it to go easy after the climb ends at mile 9 basically.
Aid stations: Holy aid stations, batman! Water/Gatorade at least every mile (I'm pretty sure some were closer than that), with random food stations in between. There's a ton of interesting food on the course including: oranges, fig newtons, twizzlers, bacon, graham crackers, jelly beans, cheezits, etc. That's just what I can remember. It was a blazing hot and humid day but we never ran out of water or sports drink. In the later miles they handed out ice, wet towels, tissues

It was a pretty rough day considering the heat and humidity, but the race itself was magnificent. My favorite race of all time (even compared to NYC). Several of us plan to make this a regular trip.