I chose this race because it fit well with my training schedule (after a different travel race plan fell through) and was about an hour from Chicago, where I live. While there was a super helpful packet pickup option right in downtown Chicago, I was actually out of town on that date--so I went with the packet mailing for an extra fee. It came right as expected, about two weeks before the race (and several days before the downtown Chicago pickup day). The swag, a short-sleeve tech shirt, was good quality and my usual size of a women's medium fit great. Cute design, too.

On race day, I was headed up to Kenosha EARLY for a 7am start time, but that probably just meant I avoided traffic. I followed the directions on the race website, which were very good, but didn't include distances so I was a bit nervous I was missing Kenosha. When I did arrive, there was tons of parking. I parked in a free municipal lot several blocks from the start, which was the perfect way to warm up.

There were some port-a-potty lines, but I made it into the slowest corral just as people were starting, and the race started off super smoothly. The course was immediately fun: right through Kenosha's historic downtown and to the lakefront, which is just beautiful there. After heading south, we looped back north and ran a few blocks inland for a while, but it was cool to see the town and there were a goodish number of people who had stepped out of their homes to watch and cheer us on. (It reminded me a bit, in this section, of the North Shore Classic in Highland Park, IL, for those who are familiar with that race.)

After running north back through the harbor area, we reached the lakefront again and continued north for a few miles. This was the toughest part of the race due to completely crazy headwinds (I checked the weather later and it was 20-30mph winds with gusts up to 45mph), so my memory is a bit hazy, but it was a pretty simple out-and-back section of the course that went mostly along the lake and a bit inland to Carthage College. There were pretty much no spectators in this area.

Once we turned around, the rest of the race passed pretty quickly (thanks tailwinds!) and the lake just continued to look gorgeous as we headed back toward downtown Kenosha. Another trip through downtown, a short out-and-back segment along the early part of the course, and we headed back to the harbor area to finish. Crowd support at the finish was good enough to give me a nice kick through the last 0.1 miles, which is nice, and I could hear the announcer calling my name as I rounded the final turns (fun!).

I grabbed a banana and bottle of water in the finish chute but didn't bother with my beer and brat (I realized I had left my ID in the car). I like the race medal, although the felt cape that indicates the year seems like it probably won't last very long. I do kind of wish the medal was year-specific, but it's not a huge deal. I was super glad for the mylar blanket, too, since the wind was so strong out at the harbor.

Over the whole course, aid station support was pretty good, although some of the tables were starting to be broken down when I passed them. I ran a pace a bit under 12 min/mi so while I'm not the fastest, I was certainly nowhere near the time limit, and it can feel depressing to have support disappearing on you like that. There were also two port-a-potties set up at pretty much every aid station, and they all had lines. (There were some additional bathrooms we passed on the course that I saw people run into--municipal fieldhouses at the beach.)

I had a great time (and a PR), and the course was really pretty and fun despite the wind issues. I'd totally run this again--it was just far enough from Chicago for me to appreciate new views of the lake, but close enough to make it an easy morning trip without a hotel room.