Going into this race I had heard only positive things, so I was expecting a lot and I wasn’t disappointed. Hard to compete with the other big Midwestern race, Chicago, in the fall Indy puts on a great show attracting a large crowd for the full and the half. There were tons of people this year trying to get an OT standard, which made the environment even more exciting.

The expo was super easy to get to plenty of garage and street parking. The expo itself was very small and you are in and out in 5 minutes, very well organized.

I can’t speak as to how well gear checked work because I was able to keep my stuff in the elite room, but from what I saw it looks well organized.

The race start happened very quick, I left the next door building with about 5 minutes to start was jumped into my corral very easily, I’m not even sure if they played the national anthem.

The full and the half start together and then break off around mile 8. The first 5 miles there’s tons to see downtown, my favorite part was mile 2.3 when you run around the Sailors and soldiers monument, its truly beautiful and breathtaking.

For the fill you work your way through city streets, side streets, neighborhoods, viewing all sorts of cool art installations and monuments. There are a few long straightaways that can be quite demanding if you have a strong head wind, luckily today the weather could not have been better. The aid stations were small but well staffed, the volunteers were extremely energetic and strategically placed along the course where there were no crowds.

The course is super flat and fast with one semi long gradual incline at mile 11 and then a few rolls from 15-18 nothing a first timer cant handle.

At about mile 22-23 you merge back up with the half and they have the lanes clearly separated to divide the two race, but ic an imagine it being a bit of a cluster as the main pack of the marathon makes it way through. I had to yell at a few half runners that drifted in the marathon lanes as I came barreling through.

Similar to Chicago as you make that turn at 23 you see the skyline of downtown and you know you are VERY close and you turn up the fire and FIGHT to the finish.

The crowd at the end was LOUD and energetic which made for a great finish, the finish itself was a little clusters and staff seemed overwhelmed with the people pouring through the finish from the half, that I had to ask for my marathon medal.

OVERALL and amazing course, cool little city and I am certainly looking forward to running this again in a few years.

You can't go wrong when you run the Chicago Marathon.

IT's a great race for first time runners, if you can get in through the lottery if this is your first time running a marathon. The course is flat fast and offers a ton of scenic view of Chicago taking you through 29 of chicanos diverse neighborhoods.

The expo is always pretty painless once you are there, as any expo goes I always try to get int eh first day when it open to avoid the weekend crowd, it's worth taking a day off or a half to to navigate through. It is large and spread out to accommodate the 45,000+ runners, friends and family coming through to collect their packets.

Race day is well organized, there are quite a few checkpoints to get to as you try to make your way through gear check and to your coral, so give yourself a few extra minutes, the lines can get back up fairly quickly. If you can avoid having to check gear your line through the security points will be much shorter and faster as they break it out into 2 section of bags and no bags.

the volunteers and aid stations are long and fully stocked with fluids, sponges, and nutrition. They do a great job of making sure the stations are long so that plenty of runners can get access to fluids with out bottle necking the streets. But do be careful as the day goes on these sections can get slippery.

The course only has one major con, the last 1/3 of the course doesn't offer much coverage if the sun is high and hot, which it was this year with a strong wind. so be prepared to feel the burn on those last few miles. they can seem 10X longer than the really are.

The finishers area is packed with fans/volunteers/food and drink. its quite the reward fro finishing such an epic race.

This was my second chicago marathon and the crowds never disappoint, even on the south side the crowders seemed larger than year prior.

on a beautiful day this course can be you best friend, but on a not so forgiving day it can also be your worst enemy.

I highly recommend this course for athletes of ALL ages and abilities. its a great course to run and a great course to spectate on.

I had very very high hopes for this this race since it is such a house hold name for races.

For a race that bros about on course entertainment they clearly forgot to book a few bands. I only remember seeing one band playing and one band still setting up through out the entire course and that was all in the last 2 miles of the course. While it is cool to run downtown and through the streets of the city, it would have been even better if there were actual bands playing, the only "entertainment" was one Celeste and a few clowns, yes.. clowns, on stilts.

Not to mention that this race is always run on the hottest day of the summer which is never any fun. So even if you are running for the enjoyment of running and to run though the streets of Chicago you may want to think again because the heat and humidity can quickly make you wish you slept in that night.

The mile markers were so inconstantly spaced apart, so you had to really on your watch if you had one.

the aid stations were well staffed the first half of the course but then once you got to the second half of the course they were un-manned and pretty bare because we were tailing the end of the 10K. I had to grab my own water off a table a few times. And for a race that is run in such drastic heat conditions hydration should be top priority at every water station.

Over all its was a very challenging race which only make you a better a better runner....but i have no desire to run Rock N Roll Chicago again.