Drove over from Houston to pick up a half marathon finish in my 39th state. Because of some prior commitments, I was not able to arrive early enough to make it to the Expo on Friday or Saturday. I was able to easily find the primary parking area from the race's maps and picked up my bib and timing chip fairly easily even in less than ideal weather conditions. (Even though I have a ton of shirts, race materials said: "Participants will receive a dry-fit performance short sleeve race shirt." What they didn't expound upon were the procedures if you didn't make it to the Expo (which, of course, any event producer wants 100% of the people to come there). The volunteer stated that you could get them after the race, but there was no announcement and I was too tired after finishing to think about it until I was in my vehicle and leaving. Race shirt is a race's second biggest marketing vehicle behind word-of-mouth, but a small minority may be left out in helping that effort out. Course was pretty good with the exception of a mile long industrial section past mile 10 of the half marathon. Events have to balance community impacts to put together a course that satisfies the majority of people. "Aid stations are approximately every 2 miles" is what is indicated in race materials, but beware that the first one didn't occur until mile 2.5. You couldn't put it in the first mile (which is on Bayport Highway, which you want to re-open as quick as possible), but there were locations to move it to by mile 2. Otherwise, they were spaced out fairly well after that. Excellent course control. Nearly every major intersection was manned with law enforcement or volunteers (on less heavily traveled crossings). Not a PR course with the large hill in mile 9. A couple of other areas before that also had some decent inclines. Race started on-time in inclement weather and the finish line experience was solid. Very good race announcer, just give him the city locations on the reader mat (and dump the "Welcome to your finish line" tagline). It got old after hearing it the fifth time. One speaker was out at the start and more than half of the field of runners didn't know that the National Anthem was going on, especially on the weekend going into Veterans Day.