This was easily one of my favorite short/mid distance race I’ve done in long time! This was my first year running this race and I will most definitely run it again next year.

PROS –
• There were several days of packet pick-up and also race day pick-up.
• They had a team competition. You could enter as a male team, a female, or a mixed team. The lowest total combined time of the fastest four runners for each team (or first 2 males and first 2 females for the mixed team) was declared the winning team.
• Parking on race day was a breeze. There was metered street parking as well as a huge metered parking lot right across the street from the start/finish line. (The parking meter machine in the parking lot was a very slow but this was not the race organization’s fault. It took each person a good 3-4 minutes to process payment.)
• The course was different from many of the other races held in Chicago. It starts and ends at Montrose Harbor. However, there were a lot of turns in the 10k route. Yes, all of the course is on public streets, sidewalks or paths and yes, there were times when it was a little crowded on the lakefront path with other runners, walkers and bikers – but if you know this going into the race, then you can be mentally prepared for it. There were some great views of the lake on the course too!
• There were tons of volunteers!! The course was very well marked with cones, volunteers and an occasional spray paint marking. Given the last 10k I did had almost no course markings or volunteers – this was a major plus! The volunteers did a great job cheering and smiling and of course directing race traffic.
• The post-race party was awesome! The music was fun, clean and energetic. The songs were familiar that you could sing and dance along to. They had a couple of dance/cheer companies perform. They also had a free raffle that was based on your bib number.

CONS –
• Packet pick-up at Universal Sole on Lincoln Ave. wasn’t easily accessible by the EL; however, it could’ve been easily accessible by the bus – I have no idea. I don’t like the bus so I didn’t even consider it an option. I drove to US and metered street parking was a breeze.
• They had aid stations on the course (pro!) but the spacing of the aid stations weren’t ideal. I don’t personally remember where they were but a handful of people said they were spaced too close to each other too early in the race.
• They didn’t have gender specific size shirts; however, they did offer XS.
• They didn’t sing the national anthem before the start of the race. This was the first (and hopefully the only) race / sporting event that I’ve been to that they didn’t sing it. Maybe there’s a reason but I was very surprised by this.