The Yorkville Summer Solstice run is a Friday night race held in conjunction with the Summer Solstice Indie Music festival in Yorkville, IL (SW suburbs of Chicago).

Your entry fee gets you your bib, t shirt, one beer, and entry into the music festival. Not a bad deal.

Unless you live near Yorkville, it's a bit of a drive from anywhere in the Chicagoland area; plus unless you try to arrive super early, you'll have some rush hour traffic to contend with. The race starts at 7, and packet pickup is from 5-6:30; there is no pickup on previous days.

Yorkville isn't the biggest town, so parking is a little interesting. There are a couple gravel lots available if you arrive early enough. It's kind of a free for all, but I had no issues getting in or out. There's available street parking in town as well.

Packet pick-up is pretty non eventful, as it should be. The shirt this year was, in my opinion, super nice. It's a soft cotton blend, that you probably would not run in. But it's maroon with the festival logo in yellow/orange. Very 70s looking, and I'm here for it.

The race is very local, so you can imagine the start line is pretty laid back. The course itself is a simple out and back. For the 4 mile, there are literally two turns, so it's pretty easy to figure out. There's water at the turnaround at Mile 2, and maybe a station at Miles 1/3 (I can't remember). The course is hilly, but not HILLY. Enough that you'll notice, but not enough to really effect anyway.

When you finish, you can grab your beer, and listen to some music, which is perfect in my book. I'll likely be back next year.