I had heard great things about this race last year, so I decided to sign up. Expo was very tiny and hard to move through. There were a lot of people doing this race and you would think they would find a bigger place for it to be held. My marathon partner got a glass that had 2012 printed on it, instead of this years wine glass. We still haven't figured out why that happened yet. Shirts are great. They fit wonderful and I love their logo. Marathon morning we parked at the YMCA and walked over the bridge to get onto our shuttle. Runners were not allowed to be driven to the start due to security issues. I was confused by this because we never went through any type of security and it seemed like anyone could just drive up there if they wanted. They had a warming area for us, which consisted of what looked like a big garage. Runners were all huddled together and we looked like a bunch of homeless people. This race did have pace groups, but because of the way they lined up we couldn't even get close to our pacer. The course wasn't as scenic as I thought it was going to be and we ran mostly on roads next to a highway. The course was full of cones that we were supposed to avoid, which is really difficult when there is a swarm of people. I saved my friend's life by stopping her from falling over a cone at one point. The course was mostly flat, which was nice and the aide stations were wonderful. The medic tents were well stocked and the people that worked them were wonderful. I wasn't impressed that the only place they took photos was the last mile. No one looks good in photos during that time. I wouldn't travel a far distance to do this race. Personally if you want to do a NY race I think Mohawk Hudson is a lot nicer.