Overall, I think the race management did an excellent job and I would do another of their races and recommend them to friends.

The highlights from the experience were:
1. The medal. It was a Halloween theme and just looked really cool.
2. Plenty of free, nearby parking options.
3. They offer FREE race day packet pick-up (I got mine Friday, but still an awesome perk).
4. They found the flattest 13.1 miles in Nashville for this course.
5. Most importantly, ample portapots at the start. I got in line between a couple runners at 7:10, the line of two was for about 5 units.

Other thoughts that didn't make or break my experience but might for others:
1. No bag check, but the lots are pretty close. This would only be a bummer if the weather was much cooler than it was today.
2. Hydration stations were not consistently setup (some water first, others gatorade, one had water on right side and gatorade on left). This is a pet peeve for me.

And more extensive thoughts:
Pre-race communication was on point. I received the race reminders about daily the week of the race. It was nice to have the email handy with key information, like race day parking and packet pick-up times. Packet pick-up started on Thursday and was held both Thursday and Friday at Fleet Feet in Nashville. A couple days prior, the race sent out an email with “expedite packet pickup” as the subject. Super helpful, not deleting that one. You could have someone else pickup your packet. The pre-race swag was a black tech tee with a Halloween theme.

It was advertised packet pick-up would run from 5:15 – 6:15 morning of, for a 7:30 start. There was a line of about 20 runners when I got there around 6:15, but they didn’t seem to be turning people away. They were trying to expedite the process by splitting the 5k & 10k pickup from the half marathon pickup. I was a pacer, so thankfully I was headed to a different tent.

The starting area was a little confusing as GNC set up their truck pretty close to the start line winding up in the middle of the “corral” of sorts. The race started on the road next to Bicentennial Park. The course was almost completely flat. There was one hill about 2.5 miles into the race. There was an out and back around mile 4 (I think this was due to course changes), but normal road traffic was separated by a median, so there was no dual direction running. Shortly after mile 6 the course jumped onto a running/biking path which led to an out and back. There was a short bit right as we entered the path with runners coming back at us, but then it split for a bit. From just before mile 7 for about a mile there were runners in both directions on a regular sized running/bike path. Not ideal conditions but I still felt like there was space to breath. From around mile 8 to about 11.5 the course ran along the Cumberland River which offered a nice Fall view. The rest of the race was back on the streets of Nashville ending back in Bicentennial Park.

At the finish they had bottles of water right handy along with the medals. Outside the “chute” (no physical chute), they had a variety of food and beverage available including Pizza Hut pizza, apples, bananas, candy, trail mix, beer from a local brewery and juices from I’m guessing a local juicer (I can’t find the name and am failing to remember). The medal had the same design as the shirt, I really like the medal.