I've heard really great things about this race and I was so excited to sign up and run my second marathon. My experience personally and my race itself was far from enjoyable. I HATE to write a bad review, but how can anyone learn with only hearing positives?

**HUGE Shoutout to the medic on the bike who gave me water and biked up to see where the next aid station was to get me more incase it was more than a half mile away. Thankfully it wasn't. He yelled to me, ALMOST TO WATER!!!**

My race started out according to plan, a few hills, a little unexpected, but I flew on the downhills.

I did not attend the race expo

What I liked:
-Location of the race is nice, an hour outside of Chicago. I stayed at the Comfort Inn less than 20 minutes away, totally recommend the hotel, it was so nice!
-Packet pick up option in Chicago
-Parking was easily accessible
-Race started on time
-Predicted paces were marked at the start
-Miles were marked I noticed on the road the miles were spray painted, some of the signs were off of the spray paint.
-Bibs were clearly marked marathon/half/5k - makes it easy for volunteers to divert half marathoners and full marathoners at the split
-Split was clearly marked with a ton of volunteers lettings ALL runners know
-I like the shirt image
-Gave out free shirts at the finish, even though they only had XLs it kept me warm along with the heat sheet post race
-Water bottles, banana, mini bagels brats, hotdogs, beer, propel, and cups of gatorade were available post race.
-Plenty of seating in sun and shade post race
-Gear check was easy
-You could use your OWN bag for gear check. I usually have so much stuff, it's nice to not have to shove everything in one tiny plastic bag that will probably rip.
-Post race band
-Polka band on course
-I think I paid $65 in September

What needs to be improved:
-Aid Stations. Each station had 4 tiny tables, two water two gatorade. Staffed with anywhere from 4-6 people. Twice I had to completely pass the water station and turn back to grab water because there wasn't enough people passing it out.
-Some of the cups at the aid stations were empty and runners had to grab them themselves because volunteers were busy pouring cups.
-I finished in 4:14, the last station was completely out of gatorade, based on today's heat that is not good.
-I knew going into the race that there would be gravel. I didn't realize how much gravel. It was brutal with the heat and coming off the black top which neither had shade and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Not really the race's fault but something to note. (This is after the half/full split)
-The course for about 4.5miles-10.5 was torn up. The surface was not even at all, I heard a lot of complaints.
-I know with tangents and weaving courses can get long however I'm not the only one who had 26.5ish on their watch. If you look at the mapmyrun page: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/366806085 it shows 26.38, so this is something I'm curious about.
-I'm not a big medal person, but it would be nice to have completely separate medals for the full and the half. Also not a fan of the bottle opener.
-Crowd support was though for marathoners after the split. Throughout the race they were mostly just staring, not cheering. If you thrive on the crowd bring some music.
-No time clock at any of the miles, not that I cared about that today, If you do bring a watch. (I did)

Suggestions:
- if the race is posting on social media it needs volunteers for aid stations it might be a good idea to close registration early especially since aid station volunteers were clearly lacking.
-Longer tables of fluids for aid stations are needed.