So this race has been going on for years now and has become a Labor Day tradition for many in Jax. This was my first time doing it.

Registration: Online or in store. $25 when I signed up. $2 off if you own your own chip.

Expo: Packet pickup at 1st place sports store you selected at registration. No real expo. After the race there were a couple tents at the store with sale items but not a lot of stuff.

Photos: Found some free ones on 904happyhour but you had to pay for the Speedy Banana ones.

Course: Pancake flat. Mostly residental with not a lot of crowd support. Kind of boring.

Aid stations: Some teenagers with water. No bottlenecking.

Medal/swag: The shirt was dry fit but not cute at all. The medal was really big (see picture). I love big medals but this was almost overkill for a 5K.

Food: Post-race bagels and bananas.

Parking: Easy to park at the store. No real traffic jams.

I overall liked it and would do it again. Simple and no-frills like a lot of races 1st place puts on.

This was more like WETlanta because of the downpour that happened but overall still a fun time!

Registration: Online, I think it was $55 when I signed up. I used a code for $5 off that I found on Google. There was day of race registration available.

Expo: Packet pickup at Big Peach store. Location depended on what day you picked up. It was outlined in the email. The post-race expo had a few vendors but most of them packed up and left because of the rain so those of us that stuck it out didn't really get anything at the end other than a bagel.

Photos: Trying to find them online. Haven't received anything about where they'll be posted or how much they'll be. I saw 2 photographers on course.

Course: Holy hills, Batman! For a FL girl like me this was brutal. Net elevation gain of almost 700 ft and I'm pretty sure it was all after mile 5. Piedmont park was no joke with that climb. But other than that it was a fun way to see Atlanta and see things you'd otherwise miss driving. Going under the overpasses wasn't too great because it was basically running through homeless people's bathrooms. I liked the beltway because it was nice and flat and running through the GA Tech campus.

Aid stations: Thank you so much to the volunteers that stayed in the rain! There was water, Nuun, Chia gel, and PowerIce so it was good. No bottlenecking.

Medal/swag: The shirt was a cotton fitted shirt that's really cute. Also some sunglases! The medal was HUGE!!

Food: Post-race bagels and bananas.

Parking: Easy to park at World of Coke for $10. 3 stars because I hate paying to park. It wasn't so crowded that you had to take MARTA. Driving worked out just fine.

I overall loved it. Even in the rain it wasn't bad. But definitely train on hills before doing this one! I may do it again in the future!

So this race took a year off in 2014 so I was really excited to see it back. I did the 2 previous ones in 2012 and 2013. This year was by far the best overall but there was still a couple hiccups.

Registration: Online for a reasonable price. I got it for $20 about a month before the race.

Expo: Packet pickup at any of the 1stplacesports locations. Not a real "expo." There was a post-race expo with some vendors and freebies. There was a giant wheel to spin for prizes but it was $10 per spin cash only and I don't run with cash. Nor do I pay to spin a wheel.

Photos: Free by 904fitness and posted the same day online. Had to go through all of them to find/tag but it was nice that they were free. Also paid pics by Speedy Banana. The pics were on the field so that was pretty cool.

Course: This is what makes this my favorite 5k. It's DEFINITELY not a PR course but it's so much fun to run on the Jaguars practice field and up and down the stadium ramps and around the field. Plus I loved seeing so many people in their Jags gear.

Aid stations: Very chaotic with major bottlenecking. I skipped the aid station and just stopped at a water fountain inside the stadium.

Medal/swag: AWESOME medal with the Jags logo on it. Also the Tshirt was dry fit but they used 3 different companies so I had to try on 5 shirts to find one that fit right. One brand's small was another brand's large. It was apparently like that for the men's shirts too.

Food: Bananas, bars, nothing fancy. No free beer.

Parking: Free parking in lot J at the stadium. Parking pass was in the race packets.

1st place sports tried doing 1 competitive wave, a walker wave, and 2 "fun run" waves. We were in the 2nd "fun run" wave but there were still a TON of walkers, all up front of course. It would have been nice to inform people of race etiquette even though it's wasn't competitive. I got bottlenecked a few times. Even though I wasn't competing I still wanted a good time. Maybe they can work on that for next year.

Overall I liked it and will be back! GO JAGUARS!

Registration: Easy online registration, cheap price for a race. I signed up for the whole series (3 races) for $90. There was on-site day-of race registration.

Expo: Packet/shirt pickup at the park where the start line was the day before the race. Also had the option of going to the store the day before to pick up. About 10 vendors there outdoors. The only bad part was the bugs! Luckily someone had bug spray. But there were 3 massage vendors so lots of post race recovery!

Photos: Free by 904fitness and posted the same day online. Had to go through all of them to find/tag but it was nice that they were free.

Course: Pancake flat with a little baby hill. Out and back from the Nocatee town center to the paved trail. Really pretty!

Aid stations: 2 on course all with water. Seemed a little chaotic but no major bottlenecking.

Medal/swag: Loved the medal! The shirt was a tank top which was AWESOME (not too many races do tanks). Although it was cotton.

Food: They had Dick's Wings with wings and salad. Also bananas and bagels. Jax Sports Nutrition was there with BCAAs.

Parking: Plenty of paved parking at the Nocatee town center.

Pretty competitive race. Although I don't think it's fair they let their employees podium.

Super fun race by Jacksonville Running Company. Can't wait for their next one!!