Friday afternoon was packet pickup, which was so quick and easy that we could have been out in under 5 minutes. There were only a couple booths at the expo, which was fine with me.... I enjoy the shopping, but didn't need to spend all that money. There was also a fun cheese photo area!

On race day we found parking pretty quick. There was free parking on the streets and in a parking lot, and it was a short walk to the start. I didn't use the gear check, but it appeared to move smoothly.

The course is absolutely gorgeous. So much of it is by Lake Michigan, and even the parts of the full marathon that aren't by the lake are nature-y and pleasant. The crowd support is also good, but is mostly on the half marathon portion (near downtown Kenosha).
The aid stations were smooth and I have no complaints. I think offering gels at an earlier station as well as at mile 18 would have been a good idea though.

The course is very flat, with only a few small, not- intimidating hills. This could definitely be used as s Boston qualifier.

The cheese medals at the finish were very cool and unique! Medals are a big pull for me... Who wants to fight through a marathon and have a lame medal given in reward?? I love my huge medal with a running chunk of cheese on it! The t-shirts were pretty nice too, they had a women's cut option that came in purple.

My only complaint about this race was the finish line food. I love races that go overboard, because most people feel ravenous after finishing a marathon. All this race had was bagels, bananas, cups of cheese chunks, and each runner got one brat and one beer. Being s vegetarian, I checked online and saw that no veggie brat would be offered. I found out 2 days later there was a veggie brat, unadvertised :-( you were only allowed ONE beer, or ONE bottle of water or ONE can of pop. I thought that was super stingy. We paid out entry and finished the race, they could at least provide bottomless pop.

Aside from the lack of finish line food, I really enjoyed this race and would definitely do it again and recommend it!