I loved this course in spite of all the rain. It starts out downtown at some of the scenic areas but then goes through some of the more residential parts of the city that wouldn't be familiar to most tourists. I really liked that mix. We started out on the national mall, ran past the Washington Monument, crossed the memorial bridge toward Arlington Cemetery and then came back across the other side of the bridge. The first band was at the start of the bridge so we saw them twice. There were also some cheerleaders on the other side of the bridge.

We then ran on the Rock Creek Parkway, which was beautiful, even in the rain. I really enjoyed this portion as it was a bit quieter but filled with natural beauty. Also, at a certain point there were photos of fallen service members and individuals with US flags lining the road. They were very encouraging and this was a very moving section.

Then there was the dreaded Calvert Hill. I walked up the whole thing. After the hill, we were in Adam's Morgan and this began the residential portion of the race. I am sure the rain kept a lot of spectators away but I was surprised at the number of people that did come out in the rain. There were people who had music playing off their porches, people dancing in the rain, people grilling and giving away meat, and of course people giving away beer.

I looked up at one point and all of a sudden, the Capital was in front of me! It's always amazing to look up, see that, and remember where you are. And I loved being able to run toward it on the streets surrounded by other runners.

Good - Logistics and organization, course, volunteers and spectators
Meh - entertainment (it just didn't matter to me either way, the bands were find but it's not like you stuck around long enough to really listen), shoe tag (I didn't think many big races still did this)
Bad - rain, elevation
Ugly - metro

I didn't check a bag or park anywhere so I don't know if those things went smoothly or not. But I think the biggest thing to show my opinion of this race is that I signed up for 2016 the day after the race!