This was such a fun race!! I ended up parking about a half-mile from the start, but whatever. That's what we call a "warm up", yeah? When the race started, it only took a minute or two to cross the start and I didn't experience too many walkers ahead of the runners or bottlenecking. The course went uphill pretty much after the start and there were quite a few hills thrown in. Lots of crowd support. After the finish, there were tons of booths with food and running info. I got some goetta, trail mix, a nice soft pretzel, water. There were other food options, but no need to be greedy, right? Also, the swag! The t-shirt is a nice technical Brooks T that you get at packet pickup. After the race, you turn in your "finisher's gift" tag off of your bib and you receive (this year) a NICE beach towel with the race logo. Super nice. I also somehow ended up with two frisbees that my kids were thrilled about. RUN THIS RACE. You won't regret it!!

This is such a nice, friendly race. It is set in a medical village and is somewhat hilly but nothing too crazy. The majority of the race is ran on the road though at points we were on half a lane and sidewalks. It was so early in the morning that there wasn't much traffic anyway. The "swag" was almost nonexistent which is FINE, because they are raising money for a good cause. I did get a towel, a water bottle, and some coupons in there. They were obviously making an effort, but could honestly just skip that part. I'd rather the money go to the foundation. Anyway, there were hotdogs and drinks for refreshments and everyone was so polite and civil at the end. It was a really great, well organized race!

This is a well-organized race, just very boring. Race morning was a windy 30-degrees. I had my outfit laid out: tights, long sleeve tech shirt, running wind breaker, compression socks, hat, gloves, maternity belt.

This route is a super boring, hilly out and back. I have ran that stretch a few times and am always amazed at how grey and bleak it is, perpetually. There isn't much crowd support. It's basically the first race you can run coming out of winter and that's it's main draw.

This race experience was pretty nutty.

First of all, traffic was insane. You'd think WKRP was giving away free turkeys from a helicopter again with all the people (15,000, to roughly exact) who converged on downtown Cincinnati yesterday morning. Erica and I rode together and with our poor navigational abilities combined and paired with traffic, I parked my car at 830a, 30 minutes before start and a half hour after entering downtown. Erica scouted out Porta-Potty Land while I pumped in the car and 5 oz later, we were headed to the start.

It was freezing and packed. We had 15 minutes to kill so we looked for her friend. We never found her, but it was way better than standing in the cold, just thinking about how cold it was. 15,000 is a lot of people. It is 66% of the population of my city and it certainly looked like it as we all lined up in the start according to pace. We were so far away from the start that we didn't hear a single word that the announcers were saying, we only caught snippets of The National Anthem, and we did not hear the gun go off. It took us 12 minutes to even make it to the starting line. TG4Chiptiming.

I'd like to say, "And then we were off!!" but somehow, despite there being pace corrals, we ended up behind walkers. And walkers. And walkers with linked arms. And more walkers. So, Erica and I meandered through the course, talking while jogging. Around mile 3 we dodged some more walkers and I almost seriously wiped out. I tripped on a curb, the concrete was flying at my face, my arms and running-tight-adorned legs were flailing attractively--and I regained my balance. Without falling. And I'm sure that little detour shaved 5 seconds off my time. Score.

15,000 racers do not "thin out" over the course of a 10k. We were tripping over walkers the entire time, but we gave up any hopes of smashing records anyway and were still talking as we crossed the finish line.

Then, after we had our chips removed, we went to grab a snack. This is where things got weird. All of the food booths (SunnyD, Crystal Lite, peanut butter crackers, bagels, apples, etc.) were getting swarmed by grabby sweaty people. It was like a feeding frenzy. People were walking around with ARM LOADS of food! Some had 6 to 7 bottles of water/juice and others carried discarded cardboard boxes full of crackers and snacks! The bagel booth no longer had volunteers (I would have jumped ship, too) so people were REACHING INTO THE BAGS with their SWEATY, SNOTTY FINGERS and getting bagels. Around these bags was a crowed at least 20 people deep. DISGUSTING. Seriously. People were walking around with these black boxes and my hungry brain thought "sandwiches!" so I asked several people what they were and NO ONE HAD A CLUE. One of these women had MULTIPLES of this box and had no idea what she was holding. I found out later the boxes had a glasses case inside. Seeing all these people hoarding and grabbing and behaving like wild animals was so disturbing. It was the lowest point of racing that I have personally witnessed. You hear things like "Oh, I can't believe someone got trampled at this concert/Wal-Mart/etc." but after seeing how crazy this mob of people was getting, I can totally see how that happens.

And the underlying kicker: 99% of these people were going to go and have a gigantic meal in a matter of hours.

So, anyway. I finished in 1:05, which is 5 minutes slower than my goal, but whatever. Between the huge crowd and the post-race snack zombie mobs, I'm fairly certain I won't run this race again any time soon.

The expo was crazy. It honestly took me an hour to get all the way through! And I only bought a couple of things (gels, mostly). It was like walking through a running/nutrition flea market party. By the end, though, I had huge full-size samples of deodorant, Gain, a donut, ice cream, and protein bars. Pretty awesome.

Race day, at 430a, it was raining and 57 degrees. I decided on shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt. I was cussing to myself "I don't run in RAIN!!" and was pretty irritated that I was going to be running in the rain for 2+ hours. I told myself to snap out of it. It kind of worked. When I left my house, I saw a search light in the sky. I thought it was weird. Especially the fact that I was driving towards it. My mind was totally blown when I arrived at the race 35 minutes later and realized that the search light was at the starting line!

This is a photo of where I parked because I knew I would forget!

Both the half and the full were sold out (and the 5k and 10ks held the day before were sold out, too!). 33,000 people were registered for events! Isn't that amazing and wonderful? The corrals were full and there were military personnel checking race tags to make sure no one was in the wrong place. There were police officers everywhere and helicopters overhead all throughout the race. I was happy that there was heightened security, but it was a shame that those measures are even necessary, you know?

The rain held off, thank goodness. At times, I was worried that I was overdressed, but then other times I could tell the temperature was dropping and it would sprinkle a little bit. I was really able to just chill out and enjoy the run. I walked some of the hills, which I think helped morale a bit. Also helps: seeing a dear friend at mile 5!

I did a gel at mile 5 and a little after mile 8. My legs were like bricks and it really made a difference. Miles 9.5 through 11 were all downhill. That sounds like it would be a huge relief, but it's not! It's just a whole different set of muscles that hurt!

There were lots of people showing support for Boston. There were tons of spectators. Lots of awesome fluid stations. It was a great, happy race.

And then it was finished! 2:25, my slowest one yet, but who cares?! I had a blast. Hung out with some friends at the finish and got a sweet medal. I call this one a "Win!".