I decided to do this Half because it is close to my house. The race starts in Shawnee Mission Park and the majority of it is on the Gary Haller Trail. It is paved and in late October is beautiful to run through. I thought the race was a little unorganized as they had a vendor issue and the shirts were not in by the race day. They also didn't have awards for the overall winners or age group winners- I was told they will be mailed which was a bummer for those who placed. It was a charity run benefiting kids with Autism and they will be making the awards, which is neat but again, would have been nice to receive it on the day of the race.
It was a super small race, much smaller this year than in years past.
The course itself started out going downhill and since it was out and back, the last mile or so was uphill. the rest of the course was fairly flat with a hill right before the turn around point, mile 6. The aid stations were well placed and had both water and Gatorade. The course could have been better marked as it was a small race, I did almost second guess myself at one point when I was completely alone on the trail, after coming back into Shawnee Mission Park whether or not I went the correct way. Around 11.5 miles you join back up with the 5K participants which got a little confusing (for the aid workers) as I approached the aid station from a different direction than the 5K runners. Most of the 5K runners moved out of the way as I chugged up the hill in the last mile. I think if the half people had different bib's some of the confusion might have been less. It was also a little bit of a bummer that, the kids run, 5k participants, and 1/2 marathoners all got the same medal but in the end- they all came out in the drizzle to run, and my kids thought it was neat to have the same medal as me that I got over it.

Because it was a small race, I had the chance to personally meet the race director communicate some of my suggestions. Overall it was a great course to run on, and probably one of the prettiest courses I have ever ran. The race director is continually wanting to improve the race, so it might be on the bucket list in 2016.