Overall: This has the feel of a big city race with some smaller race perks - attainable age group awards, easy access, great communication, variety of distances, excellent course support.

T-Shirts /SWAg: high quality technical shirts. I ran both the Saturday morning Mile and the Half Marathon and the shirts were slightly different - nice. Good variety of food in the finish area - free & food trucks, and beer with ID. (NOTE: ID needed for beer, we bought 2 for $3/each instead of the 3-step process needed with no ID)

Aid stations: Great energy, plenty of water / Gatorade. No gel on 13.1 course, opportunity for more support in miles 11-13 when going gets tough!

Course scenery: AMAZING! Love, love, LOVED the city streets / neighborhoods.

Expo: Nice size, plenty of vendors, large area for PNC (title sponsor). Line for packet pick up was prett long, moved relatively quickly.

Elevation: A few long inclines. Tough, but doable.

Parking: plenty of options, we parked at O'Donnell and walked over. My husband wasn't able to get back into the parking structure mid-race, and found a spot on the street later. The post race walk was a challenge.

Race Management: Great! There's been a lot of chatter about the course being long. It was. I've also run races where the course is short. I'm a mid-pack runner, won't BQ, aim to enjoy the race so this wasn't huge for me. The RD addressed this as best he could.

All in all, this is a great race. I would definitely come back: great experience, amazing course, good support and swag. Yes, there are some ways to improve, but it is already the real deal. I read that there were 800 volunteers for 4000 entrants - nicely done Milwaukee Running Festival, runners and fans!