I needed a race in early fall and, I picked this race over the Omaha Marathon that is one week earlier. As cool as it probably is to finish at the baseball stadium, I did that once in Akron, so I was more interested in running across the Bob Kerrey Bridge. So, a few things were really good:

1. The shirt was simple, but nice.
2. The expo speakers were excellent.
3. The organizers were so great. There was flooding on the course and they made course changes the day before the race without a hiccup (that was noticeable to us runners).
4. Running Across the Bob Kerrey Bridge was cool.
5. The bicycle crew was amazing. These folks were riding along the course wrangling runners and offering encouragement.
6. Water station volunteers were also great.

The not-so-good:

1. While I generally liked the course, there were some lonely stretches that lacked scenery. Although Ikinda liked running through the corn fields.
2. Much of the course was not closed to other pedestrians and cyclists, which was mostly annoying toward the end of the race. Having to weave among site-seers on the Bob Kerrey Bridge was not so great.
3. The pace team. The 4:15 pacer ran ahead of the 2:05 half marathon pacer for the entirety of the first 8 miles. I average 9:27/mile for the first 16 miles and never caught up with the 4:15 (9:43/mile) pace group. I checked the results and he crossed the finish line at 4:29. There's no point in having a pacer if he/she runs and uneven pace and then can't even finish on time.
4. When I crossed the finish line there was plenty of food and stuff, but it was pretty deserted. I heard there were like 700 runners total but only 117 in the full marathon. So, by the time I crossed 85th of 117, there weren't many people hanging around. I've run smaller races with more going on at the finish line.
5. Other than the speakers, the expo was pretty scant. My local run club has comparable expos for much smaller races.

Overall, the race was fine. The course was easy. The speakers were good. The volunteers were great. The race logistics were great. The expo was meh. The post-race was meh.

Bottom Line: This is a race for local runner, by local runner. If I were a member of the Omaha Run Club, I would love this race. I am a member of the Dallas Running Club and our major races are also on shared trails. So, I get it. If you live near Omaha, you should run this race. If you need a Nebraska race and you want to do it for a fair price, while supporting a local running community with great organizers, you should run this race. If you want a big race with 1000+ runners, a big expo, live music, and beer sponsors....you should pick a different race.