The cold and wind on the day made this race a lot more challenging than it is. The hills are mostly rolling ones. There is one tough stretch from about miles 7.2-76(my best guess) that starts off with a downhill and then you have to go right back up a hill. It is a tough place to have a hill because that can be the toughest part of a half. After that stretch there is a portion of the course that is on the lake. On this windy day, it kicked my butt and felt like I had been running in place for a while. Other than that, it is a really nice course that runs through the neighborhoods of Highland Park and I felt the aid stations were pretty well placed. The one tough thing is that there is not much crowd support. Again, that is something that could be different on a much nicer day. It is a race for serious or casual runners. I did not have any issues of weaving around people at the start of the race.

I also found gear check to be extremely easy with it being a smaller half. There were no hard closures of corrals, so I stayed warm as long as possible and then hopped in my corral. They had hot chocolate, a food bag and a chance to get stretched out after the race. This race is difficult to get to without a car or a ride.