Third time doing Rock n Roll Chicago, though first time since 2012 and quite frankly, I don’t think it’s changed much since then. One thing to know up front is this race takes place in Mid July in Chicago. You’re either getting hot and humid or pouring rain, that’s just how Chicago is. Every time I’ve run this, you think of issues that will come up weather related and always end up questioning why isn’t the race moved to earlier or later in the year.

I flew in. Thursday and ended up going to the expo on Friday afternoon. The plan was to run the 5K on Saturday and the Half Marathon on Sunday (I had signed up last year during national running day because it was the cheapest it was going to be). Registration was taken for all races through out the expo, easy enough to pick up bibs, shirts, etc. Plenty of vendors, but nothing fancy. Expo ended at 7 pm on Friday and 7:05 pm rolls around and we get notified that the 5K is cancelled the next morning due to heat concerns. Mind you, the heat advisories had been in place the past few days prior to Friday and they had let people register for the 5K up until the expo closed (a little sketchy, not going to lie). 5K runners could switch to the 10K Sunday, defer to next year or get a refund (still waiting for that email). For the record, could have totally still done the 5K yesterday without issue.

Race Day: the half and 10k both started at 6:30 Sunday morning. Cloudy and humid, though temps in the 70s.

Corrals: overcrowded and not enough room by any means for all the runners involved. There needed to be more space in each corrals to allow more runners in, I was trying to not impale myself on the fences/barricades

The course: the first 5-6 miles are downtown, Streeterville and the Theater district. This year because of heat, you could run a modified course and run 7.3 miles (diverted off right after 6.5 miles). The next 2 miles and change involved going south Michigan Ave, on MLK Drive for a mile and then going down Lake Shore Drive. Be careful as you do have a portion of the course on the highway portion of Lake Shore Drive (and I saw someone needing medical at that point), somewhere around 11/12. Also be ready to run under McCormick Place. Honestly, this needs to be taken off course. I nearly slipped on the surface/ground, it’s always dark and you can never see where you’re going. Finish line is in Grant Park, not far from where you started.

Finish Area: boxed water, warm gatorade, medals, food. I finished just over 2 hours and there was no chocolate milk to be found. None, zilch, zero nada and the tents had already been packed up. I’ve heard they were out before the 2 hour mark of the half marathon

Aid Stations: It’s always hot during this race. Always (every year I’ve done this). Realistically, there needs to be aid stations every mile. There were some aid stations that were struggling just to keep up. There was also at least 1 aid station where gatorade was on one side and water on the other, so you had to choose which one you wanted more....

Overall, Not sure that I’d come back for this one. I feel like things have gone downhill a bit since the last time I ran it. Too much to work on in my opinion