This is my first race in MA! I can't believe it. Despite living on the Cape for 4 years, I have managed to not race in the state until now. I was super excited to run this race with one of my best friends.

Registration: My registration was a little different than everyone else, I suppose. I registered for the 2016 race, but injured myself and was allowed to defer my entry. So I mailed in my registration along with the email from the race director stating I would be able to defer to 2017 as soon as registration opened. I hadn't heard anything regarding my registration in awhile so I emailed to confirm and got a rather nasty response stating I had to "wait until the mail registration opened". I didn't know online vs. mail had different times? In the end I was registered and all was good, but I was a little taken aback by the whole response.

Expo/Packet Pickup: This was easy and took place over a 4 day span. Unfortunately, it was literally only just a bib and t-shirt pickup. There was no expo to speak of. This is a small town race though, I don't expect an expo the size of a Rock n Roll or Disney race, but it would have been nice if there was at least something.

Swag: A nice technical shirt and a medal for all finishers. The medal has the race logo on it and is surprisingly heavy! It was nice to get at the end of a race.

Start Line: This was a small race so it was pretty easy to line up. There were some pace signs scattered about (up to 9:00 min/mile), but no pacers (I thought there were going to be pacers). We hung out near the back of the starting field and got across the line within 30 seconds of the start of the race.

Course: This was a GORGEOUS course overall. A lot of it was spent by the water with beautiful ocean views and sea breezes. My kind of running. However, after discussing it with my friend we decided that the beginning of the course was far better than the end and it would have kept us a bit happier if the course had just been flipped. The end of the course was through a lot of residential neighborhoods and was a little boring, so it would have been nice to end with all of the sea views. Another minor problem we both had was the lack of road closures. I know it's impossible to close roads on Cape Cod in the summer, but there were times when cars got a little too close for comfort. There was a strong police presence on the course directing both runners and cars, but I would have felt a little safer if there was a least a little part of the road that was coned off.

Aid Station: I am still perplexed by the aid stations. There were 6 (I think) in total, but they were terribly spaced. There was one at mile 1 and then another at mile 2 and then we didn't see one again until maybe mile 4.5 or 5. Very confusing. The volunteers were delightful and full of smiles though, which was much appreciated!

Other: Access to parking was super easy, there are many public lots and free street parking all around the Hyannis Main Street area. I think for a small local race it was quite nice and I would love to run it again.