For a half marathon in Chicago during late July, we lucked out on weather this year. Overall, I enjoyed the race and would recommend it.

What I liked:
+ The first 6 miles have great scenery through downtown Chicago and are very fast and flat
+ Fun theme & nice shirt and medal
+ Plenty of aid stations and relatively well managed race (with the exception of the last or second to last aid station that was ran by really young kids(?) - someone else mentioned this as well. They were cute, just didn't really know what to do!)
+ Great post-race party with very well-organized vendors.
+ Easy gear check
+ Well-organized and extensive expo (though I have some gripes... that will be mentioned later). I also appreciated that they don't give you a lot of extras that you don't want or need - they keep it simple: get your bib, bag, shirt, pins & information.

Things that could improve:
- I REALLY hate that people can't pick up each other's bibs - you HAVE to be there and show your ID to receive your bib - no exceptions. It was a hassle for me and I am from Chicago so I can't imagine how other people from out of town felt. As they make this a necessity, it would be helpful if they had more extensive hours for bib pick up. It would have been SO much easier for me if my friends could have gotten mine for me. I also am a little upset that they don't have some kind of subsidized parking for the expo. I took a bus this year, but when I ran this two years ago I drove in and it was ~$25 to park for the 30-45 minutes we were there. That's a pretty steep rate. Every other race that I have been to with an expo at McCormick place gives a discounted rate for parking. Not sure why Rock and Roll doesn't negotiate this but I think it's really annoying.
- Lots of turns in the first 6 miles.
- Once you head south out of the loop (mile 7 or so?) there really is no scenery; I find the route to be pretty boring. When you head back up north, the route takes the lakeshore path for the last 3 miles - which is a really confined space for how large this race is. I'm guessing this saves a signficant amount of money to not have to close down another street for a 3 mile stretch but the extra width would be very helpful with spacing.
- Others addressed this, but quite a lack of bands along the route. Apparently this was not the fault of RNR but due to city regulations.
- I didn't really see anyone checking to make sure people were starting in their assigned corrals.

It's a big race with a fun theme in a great city. Though it's not my favorite race in Chicago, it's fairly well managed and has some good things going for it.