I ran this race with a bunch of friends and my husband and it was a BLAST! I have always wondered why this race is on Thanksgiving weekend though considering we have much better weather during other parts of the year. Haha. The weather this weekend ended up being dry and very chilly which wasn't so bad.

The course is beautiful, although it seems that the half marathon course was slightly long. Both myself snd my friends tracking ended up at about 13.4 or 13.5 miles. You run by a lot of Seattle landmarks, get great views of the Space Needle, beautiful lake Washington and serene nature reserve in the arboretum. It is a very scenic course and it made the miles go by very quickly. There are a few intense hills on the course, with 2 of the last 3 miles being a slow climb, but over all it wasn't so bad. I have run courses with MANY more hills in Seattle. The great thing about this course was there was lots of flat and downhill areas too so you were able to recover in time for the next hill. The finish inside the stadium is a lot of fun. I was thankful for the indoor recovery area to be able to get out of the cold. The race day organization in the recovery area, clothes changing area, finish line & clothing check was great.

I was somewhat disappointed in the start line organization though as it is a fairly large race and there is no coral starts. You have to try to line up with the pacers and get started. I wasn't able to push my way up to my pace, but it turned out ok. I just would have liked to have had it sectioned of or easier to get in with the people running your pace so you don't spend the first mile or two dodging people. The half marathoners start and then a half hour later the marathoners start, so at least they dont have ALL the runners at the start line together. On the bright side, the start line was really accessible as far as parking and public transit so you had lots of options to get there.

On the course the aid stations were plentiful and every two miles. They also had lots of medical tents along the course with band-aids and other medical accessories as well as paramedics that could help if you needed it. While I didn't use the medical tents, I was thankful that kind of support was there & wished more races would provide that.

The expo was great, lots of cool vendors. They also had a TON of race day information which I appreciated. They had a video preview of the course, the were maps with all the bathroom and aid stations and everything was very clearly marked. I appreciated that since it was my first year running. It was also very clear what was going to be available at the finish line. Since we found out there was going to be a changing area, I brought a change of clothes & checked it for post race. I am SO thankful that I did because as soon as I cooled off, I was sweaty and freezing. I definitely recommend doing this if you run the race.

Overall, this race was great. I would definitely run it again! I am thankful to have PR'd and it's a great way to use all the Thanksgiving food and left overs as fuel!!