Expo: I caught an Uber to the expo because it seemed like parking may be tricky. I had a hard time finding which building of the convention center the expo was actually in. I team up with a woman I met that was also running the half. We went to three buildings before we found the right one,.

Packet pickup was a a breeze. I was in and out in under two minutes. The expo itself was what you would expect from a larger race. I took a quick picture with my bib and picked up some Honey Stingers for the race. The one thing that impressed me was all of the RnR medals for doing multiple races. They were in a glass display case. I've never seen anything like that before and now I kinda want to do multiple RnR races just to get one!

T-Shirt/Swag- The shirts were tech material which I'm not a fan of. They ran small but I opted not to exchange mine because I'll be donating it anyway. The swag itself was coupons. I miss the days when SWAG bags had food =(

Parking/Access- As I mentioned above I Ubered to the expo because we had been warned parking would be expensive. I opted for the same on race morning. I paid $16 between the two trips and saved myself a lot of headaches.

On race morning it was easy to find and get into the corrals. I liked having so many and staggering the start so it wasn't a big crush of people right off the bat. This was the best corral management I've every experienced.

Course Scenery- The first few miles of the race took us through downtown Philadelphia where you couldn't help but admire the architecture. The first few miles were very flat with a few small down hills.

We then headed out of town along the Schuylkill river. One of my favorite parts was going through a stone tunnel! It was very peaceful to be along the river. There were some runners on the path along the river as well as people out on the river rowing.

Eventually we crossed a bridge and headed back into town. I overheard someone saying "it's downhill from here. That include just kept going!" I actually felt like we were going DOWN on the way out not up. I live in Central PA and I'm use to running up a hill only to turn and have to run up another. This whole flat thing was very foreign to me.

Once we were on our way back into the city the sun came out. It had been cool yet humid up until then and I was not looking forward to running in open sun. Luckily we were only out in the open for a little bit before being saved by trees lining the road.

Before long we were back in the city crossing the finish right in front of the "Rocky Steps"!

After I crossed the finish line I was given a ton of food and drinks. They were handing out bananas, chips, hummus, soft pretzels, water, full bottles of Gatorade, chocolate milk, bagels, fruit snack and my personal favorite a wet wash cloth for the back of your neck! I've never been given so much swag after a race. However, I wish they would have handed out bags for it all. I didn't check a bag and I was by myself so it was a lot to carry.

I didn't stay at the finish long because it was starting to get hot out and there wasn't a lot of shade. A band was playing but I wasn't sure if it was the headlining band or not.

Elevation Difficulty- I kept bracing myself for some sort of hill. I knew the course was suppose to be flat but I though for sure with those downhills we were doing there would eventually be a hill to go up. I was wrong! I definitely want to come back to this course for a PR attempt in the future!

Aid Stations- There were plenty of aid stations on the course and I believe all of them had both Gatorade and water. A few of them had SIS gel which I tried but had to throw out. Not my jam.

Overall- Overall I loved this race. The course was beautiful, we were well supported along the way and the finish line was one of the best in terms of taking care of the runners.

Parking would have been tricky but I planned ahead to use Uber. That was the only drawback I could come up with.

If you're looking for a well run PR half course in the fall you really need to make a trip to Philadelphia!

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