The Louisville Triple Crown of Running is a spring tradition, though it's experienced some ups and downs over the last two years as it's changed hands. While it's a three race series (5k, 10k, and the new 15k), I only participated in the 15k.

Packet pickup was located at Louisville Slugger Field, and parking in their lot was free - a nice bonus for downtown Louisville! I was picking up my packet and the packet of an out-of-town friend and had zero issues - just pulled the QR codes up on my phone for the volunteers to scan.

I had heard that the shirts in the 5k and 10k ran really small, so I asked the volunteer if I could take out my shirt and try it on. She let me know that these were running more true to size, but offered to help me. They weren't just shirts - these were really nice quarter-zip shirts of a nice, heavy material. And it indeed fit true to size!

Other than the packet pickup, there wasn't much going on at the Expo. Fleet Feet was set up with some gear, but I unfortunately didn't have time to check it out.

On race morning, I parked about a mile away and jogged to the start with a friend. There wasn't a huge crowd of participants, and we were divided into three corrals. To help with crowding, they waited a minute or two between corrals.

The course was great! It wound through downtown Louisville before heading east on River Road for an out-and-back. Some people think out-and-backs are boring, but I disagree. I love being able to see all the other participants and cheer them on! We saw the winner and several friends who were faster than us, and after we reached the turnaround, we saw several other friends. There were a handful of water stops and they also had some nutrition, but I always carry my own so I didn't stop.

After crossing the finish line, my friend and I picked up our medals. They seemed to have a lot of snacks available but I wasn't hungry so I didn't stop. We chatted with a few other friends after they finished and they had pockets full of snacks they had picked up.

One thing I really loved about this race is that the photos were FREE! And they were good! I've paid for photos in the past that weren't as good as these free ones. What a great value!

All in all, this was a great race and I'll definitely run it again next year!