There is a very slim chance that I will actually do this race again!

STRIKE 1 - I, among many others were so dissatisfied with the race starting from packet pickup. It was a TOTAL HOT MESS!!!!! It was held at the Sports Authority on Lasalle in Chicago. The space was so tiny for the amount of people they were expecting. One of the staff also disapproved of the location and said that it was a "last minute" decision. I waited in line for about 30 minutes before reaching the tables to get my packet. They ran out of jackets in certain sizes and asked participants to give a name and bib number to write with the size jacket they wanted and it would get mailed to them. I had originally signed up to get a large jacket, but it said on the website that it was on back order and wouldn't be received until December, so I switched to a medium because I was in no hurry to wear it and I would fit into within a couple of months anyways.

I get up to the table and they tell me that they don't have any women's medium. I was getting ready to give a name, size, and bib number to write down, but before I could reach the next table to do that, someone brought out a box of women's medium jackets and said anyone could take those if they wanted, so I grabbed one, since that is the size I was suppose to get.

STRIKE 2 - I got to grant park and immediately went over the judging area. There was a volunteer who was standing there looking lost and confused. I asked him if they were still doing the costume contest, since nobody was around and most of the volunteers were standing under tents. He tells me that his friend is the one who takes the pictures for the contest and that she would be back from the restroom in a few minutes. I say to him, "Oh! Okay!" and started getting excited and retouching my makeup, while he and my hubby made small talk. We see the girl coming towards the area and she proceeded to walk right past us, ignoring the guy who was trying to get her attention and me who was trying to ask her about the contest. The guy tells us to hang on, so that he could go get her. Well, 8 minutes later and we are still standing in the rain waiting to hear if she's going to take my picture or not. I kept glancing over a little bit trying to see if anyone was coming and every time I glanced over I saw both of the volunteers just standing there under the tent across the way just laughing and staring at us. The guy who was helping us hid behind the table when I kept looking that way and wouldn't look away. The 5K wave had already started. It started when she was walking toward us coming from the restroom. I got tired of waiting and ended up leaving because by then, it was just awkward and I was very upset with the customer service and treatment from the volunteers. So, I didn't get to participate in the costume contest. I put a lot of thought into my costume and I kept thinking to myself the entire time.... Did I do something wrong?!?! Strike 2!!

Strike 3 (YOU'RE OUT!) - The course was a disaster! They claimed there would be trick or treating at water stops, BUT THERE WERE NO WATER STOPS!!!!! NOT 1!!!!! There were NO aid stations/water stops for the 5K. I should have brought my handheld water bottle because I was dealing with dry mouth and had no water. I don't know if there were aid stations for the 10K and the half marathon. I thought I remembered reading a comment from someone on Facebook claiming there was one aid station at mile 3 or a little after and they had nothing in stock to give runners. I am glad I didn't do the 10K if that was the case. I would have been suffering big time! The course was poorly marked and I almost went the wrong way on course 3 times!!!! When you tried to ask for help, the volunteers would either turn the other way, or ignore you altogether until you actually did more to get their attention. I was so fed up with everyone's attitude. You see us runners and walkers out on course battling the weather and in high spirits, but the staff and volunteers can't leave their funky attitudes for 30 seconds to interact and answer questions for participants. REALLY?!?!?!?!

U.N.A.C.C.E.P.T.A.B.L.E!!
U.N.P.R.O.F.E.S.S.I.O.N.A.L!!

Coming from more sources on Facebook who did the longer distances, many people actually ran longer than a 10K because of course screw ups and a poorly marked course! People claimed that the turnaround for the 10K was poorly done and a lot of people missed the turnaround. The turnaround for the 5K wasn't any better. Other participants had to tell us which way to go and where to turn around.

Strike 4 (DISASTER!) - Strike 4 came after the race when they ran out of 5K medals. Are you kidding me? Not only did they run out of 5K medals, but after the race we had to walk around to find the medals. They were not being given at the finish line, which is the usual place of medal distribution for a lot of races. We had to walk around to find the medal distribution and we found a table where they were giving out the medals. By the time we got to the table one of the volunteers said that they had run out of 5K medals, and a lady behind me with 2 kids said that her kids will need a medal and that she wasn't leaving until they got one because they worked for it. The volunteer said that she could give them 10K medals and she agreed to that. Little did we know at the time that the medal was the same for all distances. The only thing that differed from distance to distance was the color of the neck piece, which we got separately with no medal attached.

After my husband and I take our neck ribbon with no medal attached we started walking to find the registration tent we were told to leave our name and bib number at, so that our medals could get mailed out, eventually. As we arrive at the tent, we see a lady wearing a Team Ortho Jacket, so we figured she worked for the company. She stopped us and another group of people heading her way and asked if we got our medals. We told her no and she said they had medals waiting for us. She seemed very irritated at that moment. With the weather and way this event is being run.... who could blame her. She takes us to the medal table and tells the volunteers that the medals are all the same and the only difference are the colors of the neck ribbons. So, she and the volunteers start detaching medals from other neck ribbons for the other distances and gave them to us to attach to ours. I guess they STILL ran out of medals for people because a lot of them claimed that they still never got one after the event was over.

This made me very upset. I felt very bad for the kids who worked hard and got nothing and adults who also worked hard to do this race in the cold and rain and received nothing for it. It really breaks my heart to read all the comments and stories that I did on the Facebook page and their event page.

*** About a week after the event, I noticed that they had taken down their 2015 Chicago Monster Dash Facebook event because of all of the comments. I also noticed that they deleted a lot of negative comments posted to their main page.

I had such a bad experience with this race and Team Ortho, the company who puts on this race as well as a series of races, that I have decided against doing the Polar Dash in January. It sucks because I was looking forward to doing that one. I didn't find too many January races I was actually interested in. However, I happened to come across another January race I was interested in to take their place.

Thanks, but no thanks Team Ortho.

Parking was a little difficult because a lot of the roads were blocked off. Other than that I have no complaints in terms of parking. Had it not been for the only one or 2 ways to get to our parking garage that we reserved parking in advanced, then parking would have been 5 stars. The race was a lot fun, but I felt that the color zones were a little crowded and instead of it flowing naturally and running or walking through the color zones, we had to wait in a crowd/line to get color thrown on us or to pick up color and throw it ourselves. That is my only complaint about the race. I guess you could avoid that and do the very first wave, which is more for runners, but I couldn't do that wave because I knew I wouldn't get there early enough. They included an awesome medal this year for finishers, which was nice! I hope they do it again for next year. The race could also use more photographers on course.

I had such an amazing time at The Bubble Run. It was a rainy day, but even that couldn't ruin my experience with this race, or the horrible traffic dilemma! I woke up at 8 AM waiting to hear on Facebook on whether they were going to cancel the event. Many racers were very upset on Facebook with the slow response time and waiting to hear if the race would be cancelled or not. I kept watching the weather outside and the rain eventually let up a bit. I ventured onto Instagram to look up the hashtag and to see people already waiting at the starting line 40 minutes before the first wave. I figured I would go ahead and get my family and myself ready to go and would head out there anyways seeing as how I live only 10 minutes away from the race location. When I got to the race location (Chicagoland Speedway) there was a HUGE traffic jam and everybody was arriving and waiting to park. It took us 45 minutes just to get into the race location to park!!! So, parking pretty much sucked! We had to pay $10 just to park in the field. The officials were waving cars into the field to park. The race was really fun... the crowd kind of made it hard to run, so I ran some of it and walked some it. Bubble bogs/stations are where you pass through the bubbles and foam. There was a wait for EVERY bubble bog we had to go through. The wait was between 5-10 minutes when I reached each bubble bog. Some of the bogs had a huge buildup of bubbles and it was as tall as me or even taller when there was a good buildup. I'm 5' 4". Others were pretty shallow. I'm assuming because we missed the buildup of the bubbles whereas with other bogs, we had perfect timing! The cotton t-shirts were nice and the headbands! Would of been nice had they included a medal with the swag, but that's just my opinion! Makes it that much more fun! Overall, they need to improve on parking, customer service response, bubble bog backup, wave times, and organization with packet pickup. In the end, I still recommend this race because it's so much fun despite the few problems and it was so much fun playing in the bubbles/foam and watching kids have the time of their lives :)

Parking was not a problem. I make my way over to the starting line. Before the horn blew... we were warned over the speaker that the path had a lot of potholes and to watch our surrounds, then off we went! After I cross the finish line, I grab my medal, bottled water and a protein bar. I headed over to the post-race party; there was music, a few vendor booths, photo tent, and the race logo photo backdrop. The race logo backdrop is like the red carpet for races. I did the photo tent, but totally forgot about the logo backdrop, which I am bummed about. After I took pictures, I went to get my green beer! My first green beer!! The race was amazing! It was well organized for the most part, but there were a few things that bugged me a bit. They ran out of shirts, the customer service could have been better with a faster response time, and they could have opened up registration a little earlier rather than a little over a month before race day. I consider that last minute planning and I don't like last minute planning. It raises my anxiety levels. The Soldier Field lakefront course was beautiful despite all the potholes we had to dodge. The volunteers/race staff were friendly, some more energetic than others. The bling was amazingly huge and heavy! I wasn't expecting the medals to be as big as they were! Green Beer 5K really stands by their quote when they say it's Chicago's luckiest finisher medal! It really is! It beat all of the medals for Chicago's St. Patrick's themed races! I have already received a ton of compliments on the medal and people telling me how nice the bling was for being a 5K. Note to you all: There are 5K's with some amazingly awesome bling that exist!! Would I do this race again?! Absolutely! I recommend this race to anyone looking for a fun 5K with a St. Patrick's theme. It is very walker friendly (for those of you who are walkers) and a great option for your first 5K whether you are a runner or a walker. The environment was very non intimidating and comfortable! I hope to see these guys around again next year!