I had considered running this race in the past, when it was a "women's" race, but participated for the first time this year when they changed the marketing. Everything leading up to the race was typical of RAM Racing's (and Fleet Feet's) usual professionalism: easy registration, solid communication, reasonable packet pickup, "good" swag. (I use scare quotes because I am not personally 100% in love with RAM's designs, though they seem popular. This was one I didn't really care for, but lots of people were wearing it at the race--even though it was long sleeves!)

The race was also very well-organized, as I expected from these organizers. The start in Grant Park was super smooth, especially since so many races that start there are HUGE and this was only around 1,400 runners in the half (not sure how many in the 5k or total). So all the corrals were off and running within 6 or 7 minutes of gun time. There were elites, who had a special tent in the start area, and I do think it's fun that RAM attracts elite runners to the HMs they do in the area. And there were pacers going all the way up to 15min/mile.

I had a head cold going into this race so I started out pretty far back in the pack, going out around 12min/mi as we zigged from Columbus via Randolph to Michigan. The race went north on Michigan from Randolph to Superior, then turned around and came south, also via Michigan, again to Randolph. I hate to complain about getting to run on Michigan with no cars, but...you run on less than a mile of Mag Mile, I would have LOVED to run up to Oak St., say, or at least to the Water Tower! But you could see the Water Tower. A girl can dream!

Heading back east on lower Randolph, the 5k runners split off to go back south on Colombus to their finish line, while the half marathon runners continued straight east to the lake, turning south on the main part of the Lakefront Trail. The three-mile marker came just after this turn, and the race continued south on the Trail until about mile 8.5, then turned around to head back around the Shedd Aquarium and into Grant Park from the south, finishing at a location very familiar to Chicago runners.

There's not much crowd support for races on the Trail, which is fine, but there was kind of disappointingly little support on Michigan too--probably because it was a cool and drizzly morning, aka perfect racing weather. There were plenty of water stations, though, about every 2 miles or less, and each one had water as well as nuun, which was great (I drink a lot of nuun). One of them was also passing out luna bars.

The post-race party was pretty small, but then I was pretty late getting to it so it may have been more exciting earlier. The medal is really nice, one of my favorites ever, and despite my cold and slow start I ended up with a PR.