I've signed up for this race ever year, and every year I didn't get to run. This year, I did! Unfortunately I'm having some issues with my left hip, so "run" is a bit of a strong word. But more about that later.

Pre-race communications were great. There were enough emails to keep me informed of the important things and invite me to pre-race runs (I didn't get to attend those), but not a bunch of spammy random ad stuff. The "final race instructions" including bib pickup reminders were sent twice during the last week, once early in the week and once on Thursday, which I appreciated.

Bib pickup. This happened on Friday, 1-7 pm, at the Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. I had pre-printed my waiver and written my bib number on it to ensure things went quickly. For those who didn't read the pre-race email, the bib numbers were posted and they had extra waivers on hand. I went around 2 pm (I work downtown) and the mandatory items (get bib and shirt) were painless and line-free.

Expo. This was held in conjunction with bib pickup, outside at the plaza. In addition to tents to buy The Town's Half Marathon merch and sign up for next year's races or the upcoming Golden Gate Half--reading this in 2016? Use code BIBRAVEGG to sign up for the 2016 Golden Gate Half and run with me!--there were also a number of sponsor and vendor booths. A number of them didn't apply to me directly (e.g. there was a window company, but I'm a renter) so I don't recall all of the businesses there. It was great to see booths from local businesses Hot Spot Yoga and P2P (a fitness/training gym). Whole Foods, one of the race sponsors, handed out goody bags, and Vega had a tasting tent. OrangeTheory Fitness had a "compete with us" promo where you could win prizes for doing burpees and such, and the Modesto Marathon had information on the 2017 races and were handing out arm warmers and shirts from the 2016 race. Overall, the expo was fun, had some swag for runners, and was a good size for the race and space.

Race Day, pre-race. The start/finish was also at Frank Ogawa Plaza, which meant there was plenty of parking. (I parked at my office, but friends told me they parked in the City Hall garage for free.) There were a bank of porta potties AND the portable hand-wash stations (more races need these!), and when I went past the runners had formed a single line--very efficient. The bag drop line was ridiculous when I got there, but to be fair I got in line with fewer than 10 minutes left to the start. The hold-up was that people had not connected their bag drop tags (tear tags from the bib) to their bags. (I used a spare small zip tie to do this at home.) Shortly after I got in line, volunteers started bringing pins to people so they could attach their tags. Just after the announcer called four minutes to start, another volunteer came down the line accepting any bag that had a tag and taking it back to the check area, which allowed me to jump over to the corrals.

Start. This race is what I'd call medium-sized. There were no corrals, it was a group start, and runners self-seeded. There were pacers with signs to help self-seed. The start featured a recorded national anthem (there were some sound issues with that, but that's probably my biggest complaint about the whole race), an inflatable, and cheering volunteers.

Course. The course map was published pre-race for those who cared to look. The first part of the race went through various parts of downtown Oakland, largely avoiding the areas one might call "seedy" and featuring areas with the magnificent architecture in the heart of the city. We then ran down Piedmont, through the Piedmont area, up to the hilly part of Oakland (for the 2-3 serious hills) and back around towards the city center, looped around Lake Merritt, and back to Frank Ogawa Plaza for the finish. Course support was an aid station every 2 miles, with water and electrolytes. Around mile 8 there were also a variety of Honey Stinger gel products.

Running with a Police Escort. As I'm injured, I eventually fell to the very back of the pack. Just prior to the loop around Lake Merritt, and for a small portion coming off of that loop, we were diverted to the sidewalk--same course, same distance, just on the sidewalk instead of in the road. Around Lake Merritt we literally had our own police escort, a very nice officer on a motorcycle who checked on us multiple times and made sure we knew where the race course was going. He was encouraging, telling us to keep it up and we were doing great. Since the other caboose-runners and I were well behind the official course cut-off time (three hours), we thought we might get swept, but we didn't. I'm really happy about that, since there were just a few of us stragglers in back, and give the race mad props for letting us finish.

Finish line. We were announced crossing the finish line, and the announcer let everyone know the last runners were home. There were volunteers waiting to put medals on us, and medics on hand (I didn't need one, but one of the other cabooses was overheating and needed ice). The post-finish-line runner-stuff chute was almost entirely shut down at that point. We were able to get our mason jars (one of the finisher perks, also handy for drinking water and/or beer out of), there was a water station right there to fill them. While the Whole Foods food area was closed, I'm not complaining because (1) I finished about a half hour past the official finish time, and (2) I was still able to grab two entire boxes of Kind bars and some bananas.

Finish festival. Most of the same vendors were at the start/finish area as at the expo, though due to my late finish several of them had packed up already. I filled my mason jar with an electrolyte beverage at the Vega booth when I picked up my checked bag. Whole Foods gave me a reusable shopping tote. The beer garden, located in the shaded and paved area next to the grassy part of the plaza, was still in full swing. There were multiple food trucks with a range of food for purchase, plus some of the restaurants around the plaza were open. I opted for The Grilled Cheese Guy, and had the best grilled cheese I've had in years. (Oaklanders, you need to find him.)

Swag. Official runner swag included the race shirt (a tech shirt with a nice design), medal (palm-sized, cute design, some sparkle on Oakland, and a beer bottle opener on the back), mason jar (race and sponsor logos). As mentioned above, some vendors were also giving out swag.

Overall. It was a tough race for me because I didn't expect to be running injured (and I thought I had conquered this injury, but NOPE). I had a great time, and think the organizers did well with this one.