I ran this race as a part of my build up to a spring marathon. In previous years, the course is known to be a little shy of 13.1, but this year the course was the correct distance! On race day there were LOTS of port-a-potties which was nice. The race village area was on one side of a hill and the start on the other. At the start, there were ample pacers, and some St Patrick's Day festiveness in the crowd. I chose to bring my own water and nutrition since I was incorporating this race into a training run. The aid stations had plastic cups instead of paper/wax ones and the electrolyte drink was very dark red (I didn't have any). The course runs south on the lake front, and *did not* go over the one hill on the path which makes this an extra flat course. Overall, I would rate this race as average for a Chicago lakefront half marathon with an out and back marathon. The swag was a heavy long sleeve quarter zip and a buff, which are both items that are appreciated!

I found two things a little odd- the packet pick up location and the volunteers.

1. Packet Pick Up- Maybe I've been spoiled by Ram Racing/Fleet Feet with in store pick up that I find convenient because I'm there 3 days a week? Packet Pick Up was at the race day finish area, which was nice to know so I knew where to go the next morning. However, it is not super easy to get to since you have to walk around museum campus in order to access the southern side of Soldier Field via public transit (Red Line) and late spring weather can be chilly. Packet pick up was super fast once I was actually there.

2. Volunteers- I am grateful for all of the course support and volunteers that make my racing possible, but maybe they needed more direction/captaining at each station. Honestly I feel weird even mentioning these. I had two odd experiences with the volunteers. On the course I had two volunteers casually chatting, walk out in front of me with their backs to the oncoming runners while going through an aid station and seemed surprised when I said something. At the finish, I had to walk up to a volunteer to ask for my medal and picked my second piece of swag (the buff) from a box. It was cold and windy, so maybe the volunteers weren't super enthusiastic because of the temps and were confused because multiple distances were coming in at the same time? Not sure.