This was my first year running the race and I loved it.

Pros
• $19.72 (or something just shy of $20) and no handling/service fee. I don’t think I’ve ever done a road race for less than $20!
• Lots of pre/post race entertainment and activities. There were plenty of vendors handing out free stuff like sunglasses. There was a DJ and a photo ‘booth’ for pictures. It was a very fun atmosphere. People seemed to hang out both before and after the race. It wasn’t one where people disbursed immediately afterwards.
• Trucker hat instead of a race shirt! Don’t get me wrong – I love a good race shirt but I also love a fun hat. I wore mine during the race.
• People dressed up in ‘70s outfits. Well, the majority of people did not. Only a few people, myself included, seemed to dress up. My guess is most people don’t own things that would fall into the ‘70s category but it was still fun that they promoted the ‘costumes.’
• I love the race location and course. I’ve done other races on this same course and I really like it. There are a few sharp turns and a couple of short, gentle inclines. The surface type also varies – there’s crushed gravel, concrete, asphalt and a wee bit of grass at a turnaround point.

Somewhere between a pro and a con
• Bib numbers were assigned when you showed up to packet pick-up. I’ve had less than ideal experiences with this with past races but for this race, it didn’t seem to slow things down. I know this allowed them to pass out bibs at a couple of different locations at the exact same time.
• You could order tube socks at registration. You had two different color options. I did not order any but when I picked up my bib I noticed their display of socks had different colors than you could order. I asked about it and they said their supplier sent the wrong colors. In my opinion, the colors they sent were really ugly and I would’ve been annoyed that I paid for them. In their defense, the supplier did say they would ship the correct socks to you if you wanted.

Cons
• It rained for 2 minutes while we were at the start line waiting for the gun to go off. (Obviously this is just a joke. Well, it did actually rain but since I can’t think of anything negative about this race so I commented on something out of the race organization’s control….

I’ll be back in 2016! 5ks aren’t my strong suit or my preferred race distance but this one was fun (and cheap) enough I’ll do it again!!