The Last Call is the final December race in the Silver Circle winter series. It's also (for the most part) the last offered Half Marathon in the Midwest for the year; thus the name. I'll touch on the Half a little for this review (because it's relevant) but know that I ran the 5k.

I feel like I could copy paste the packet pickup info from all the Silver Circle races. Packet pickup was either at Silver Circle's HQ or at the race venue itself. Since I'm doing the entire series, I got lucky and was able to pick up my Last Call bib the same day I picked up my Turkey Trot bib.

On a morning where it was 35 and kind of rainy, I think we were all thankful that this race has a building where runners can gather. The only drawback for this building is that parking is super tight. All this means, though, is that if you don't arrive early enough you'll have to street park a block or two away. So minor.

The bathroom situation is an interesting one. There's an indoor bathroom which the lines fill up for almost immediately. But. If you've run this race before (or read this review) know that there are a few outdoor porta pods as well. These will eventually have an equally long line, but almost no one knows they exist at the start.

This year, the race course was a little different than prior years. Normally the race is an out and back along the Glacial Drumlin trail. Super flat, and super fast. But due to construction on the course (the tunnel is closed) the race had to adjust. This made for a double out and back: half on the Drumlin and half on the Fox River Trail. The Half would do that twice, the 10k would do the Fox River twice, and the 5k the Fox River once.

This also altered the start times slightly, as the Half would start 5-10 minutes after the 5k/10k to avoid congestion (and confusion) at the first turn. Here is where I should point out that I hear a lot of chatter from runners that they thought the race started at 9:30 (it started at 9). I don't know where that came from since everything on the website and emails all stated 9. Whatever.

Personally, I was excited to run the alternate course. Mainly because I've run the Drumlin for both this race and the First Call. Changing scenery is always nice. And it might be because of that, but I REALLY liked the alternate course! There are lots of pine trees (so we actually had some green!) along the river, and you get to, know you, run along the river. My only disappointment was that we didn't get to run over the boardwalk, but I get it.

Alright, time to talk swag. The shirts are ok-good. I loved the color (I like green shirts), the design, and the witty slogan on the back. This was also the first shirt in the series to be a tech shirt. But they did run kind of big. I'll also admit my swag assessment is a little bias since I took home the W in the 5k, I got the overall trophy and flowers. So the swag for me was excellent!

Overall, if you're looking for a flat and fast race to wrap up your year, this is the one to do.