I ran this race as part of the Harvest Half Series. It is the first race in the series. There is no expo for this race as it is a small race (about 1200 runners). Packet pick-up was easy, with plenty of chances to pick-up your packet at the local running store. I live in Kansas City, about 45 minutes from the race location, so I appreciated that one of the packet pick-up days was done at the running store location in Kansas City so that I didn't have to drive up to Lawrence to get my packet. They also had race day packet-pickup. The race bag was a nice Adidas cinch bag, and the shirt is a tech-shirt, which I also enjoy. The race bag had coupons to local restaurants, always a plus!

On race day, there was no trouble finding parking. There was a lot of it available near the starting line and it was free. At about an hour before the race, there was no line at all for that bathroom (this changed later). The race did start several minutes late.

The race takes you briefly through downtown Lawrence, then onto country roads, a trail, and then residential neighborhoods. At one point, you run into a little tunnel by what I think was a school, which was a little odd. In my opinion, the aid stations were not well organized. There was both water and sports drink available, but I didn't like whatever sports drink was provided (it wasn't Gatorade), and I had to ask for it at more than one stop because the volunteers weren't letting us know which had water and which had sports drink. I also would have like to see one or two more aid stations, but since I carry my own water, it wasn't too big of a deal. The trail portion was an out and back, on a fairly narrow path, which made it difficult to navigate if you wanted to pass or if you wanted to slow down as there wasn't much room with runners going both directions.

There was a good amount of food post race - water, chocolate milk, and even whole bottles of Gatorade (finally, some Gatorade!), as well as some bagels and different snack bars. The medal was a cute sunflower designer, although it is a little on the smaller side compared to the medals of other local races.

Overall, this was a small town race with good scenery, but was disorganized. I would still likely do this race in the future, because it is a part of the Harvest series.