This was my 2nd half marathon. This race starts and finishes at the i Wireless Center in downtown Moline. They draw a good crowd for this race so it's a little cramped in the starting corral. I'm pretty slow though so it thinned out to where I could manuever around after the first mile or so. Some decent hills in the first 4 miles, in particular a long one in mile 3. Once you pass mile 4 it's basically pretty flat for the rest of the race. There are enough runners where there are always people around but not so many that you can't move about freely. There are spectators at different points along the course but there are also long stretches where nobody is out. Very scenic race, you run in both Illinois and Iowa and cross two bridges over the Mississippi river, running a good portion of the race on a path along the river. Plenty of aid stations with water; only had gatorade at certain ones so it was a little confusing sometimes if you wanted the gatorade but not a big deal. Really nice crowd cheering you on for the last 3/10ths of a mile which was nice.

The race director Joe Moreno is extremely enthusastic in his pre race talk and the race overall is very well run. Joe is also there at the finish line to high five every finisher. He's still there 6 or 7 hours in greeting the last runners to cross the finish line. The post race party is excellent with live music and just about anything you could want to eat or drink. All I had was water and a chocolate milk as my stomach was a little upset due to the high heat and humidity.

That is one thing; you never know what you'll get weather wise at the end of September. Unfortunately we got warm temps with really high humidity for this years race (around 80 when I finished with a dewpoint of 70) so the overall times were slow. I personally ran 16 minutes slower than my half in May, the heat and humidity just kicked my butt about 7 miles in. A lot of runners commiserating with each other over the last few miles, it was a tough one,

Overall, putting the heat, humidity and personal suffering aside, I really liked this race. It's a nice course, well run with a great post race party. I would highly recommend it and would like another shot at it under better conditions.