When I originally signed up for this race last summer it was supposed to be at Soldier Field in Chicago. While that is a great place to run a race with the Chicago skyline as a back drop, I am happy it was moved to Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village. This location was absolutely beautiful. However because the race was moved they are still doing a race in Chicago on September 11th. If you do both you get an extra medal called the Double Duty Challenge. There is also a P.R. challenge medal if you beat your personal best time, you have to register ahead of time. I though this was pretty cool! I will be getting mine.

The race has both a 5k distance and a Half Marathon. I opted for the half. It was a little tricky to find which entrance in Busse Woods to enter, there are many, but we found it ok. This is a huge forest preserve. Upon entering we noticed the ample FREE parking. There were even shuttle buses to take you right up to the starting line if you wanted, it wasn't a long walk but a Nice touch. Walking up to the starting area it seemed to have a nice vibe to it. There was music playing, plenty of bathrooms both porta poties and permanent bathrooms in the forest preserve. There was a merchandise tent with some cool gear. The view near the starting area was very nice, It overlooked a lake where many people, including myself, were taking photos. As I was walking up to pick up my packet I noticed a long line. I though that it would take forever to get through. However the staff quickly noticed the line and got people over to help out and it moved very quickly. Kudos to race management! Now, there were two packet pick up options to get your packets at two different Road Runner Sports locations, none were very close to where I live so I opted for race morning packet pick up which was a great idea for the race to do. Before the race we had the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem and some inspirational words from the race founder, who is a retired fighter pilot. He talked about the mission of this organization, which is to help with scholarships for the family's of wounded or killed soldiers family's. A great cause. After all of the pre-race festivities we were off. The race was completely on a paved winding course with a lot of shade throughout.There were nice bridges over rivers and lakes. Some hilly places, nothing too horrible. Then there was a fenced in area where the Elk were. They were awesome. It was almost like running in a zoo. they were just laying around some were walking. just in the middle of the forest preserve. For the most part the weather was pretty good. It did get a bit hot by about mile 7. Around mile 10 I felt some sprinkles and then at mile 12 it rained pretty hard for a few minutes, it felt pretty good though. Then the rain stopped until later in the day after the race was over. There were plenty of aid stations, bathrooms and medical support running with us on the course.

Overall I have to say this is one of my favorite races I have done, I hope it is back at this location next year. The venue was amazing!

So this is my second year in a row running the KDF Mini Marathon, which is a half marathon. First off I love this race. I am from Chicago and it is only about 5 hours away and worth the drive. The course is fast and flat. The expo is pretty good. Not huge but decent size and you can pretty much find whatever you need and somethings you don't. They have plenty of Official Merchandise to buy. I like the fact that they have a pasta party, for an extra fee, right inside the expo. Decent enough food, who wants to eat a lot right before a race anyway. Now on to the race it self. For the second year in a row it rained...no it POURED! But it was no big deal. The race started with no rain but a few miles in it started to drizzle and became harder throughout the run. It actually felt pretty good, I don't mind the rain while running. I finished before it really got hard, I feel bad for the marathoners. The route is nice, you start downtown and you make your way through the city and then past some cool old Victorian homes. Lost of people cheering on the course. Then you make it to Churchill Downs, what a cool feeling as you enter, such history. You do not actually get to run on the track but you go through the tunnels to the infield. You get a nice view of the entire track.Once you leave you pass by the College stadiums, pretty cool to see. Then you are off through some fraternity houses with lots of people cheering. Back though the city for the finish!

The race is great, well organized lots of aid stations etc. One of the best managed races I have been to. I will be back again!

This is my first review, here goes.

Ok, so the concept of this race was pretty cool. The idea, according to race officials I spoke to was to eventually have this race in every NFL city. This race was to take place at Soldier Field in Chicago. What better pace for a football themed race.

About a week, maybe, before the race I received an email saying the race had been moved to a high school in Wheaton, IL. No where near Downtown Chicago or Soldier Field for that matter. Not a big deal for me, I was going anyway. But by the size of the crowd that showed up it was a problem. A few hundred at max. We were told the race was moved due to Lollapalooza taking over the city for the weekend. Poor planning I guess on the race management. But things happen.

Upon starting the race I checked in and got my bib and city specific shirt for the race, I thought that was pretty cool. It was a regular cotton tee but still neat. The race started, right away there were issues. They told us to look for the arrows painted on the ground for the course, but to make sure which arrows you were following because another race had been there recently. It was very confusing. We started out fine until the first arrow, there were 2. Most of us followed the right arrow, some did not. No one was really sure which to follow. There were no course marshalls at all. We all kept running and following painted arrows. A lot of us ended up running over 5 miles. There was never a marshall to tell us where to go. Once we got to near the finish there were race people scrambling to tell us were to turn, but like I said it was at the end of the race. Another note, there was no water or aid stations. It was a pretty hot day.

I get that there was some lat minute changes due to the race being moved, but to have no water on course or no one to tell you where to go is a big problem.

At the end of the race we were all told that to make up for the mistakes we would all receive an entry into the 2016 race. I still have not heard anything and Chicago is not currently scheduled. It would be awesome if they fulfilled their promise as the runners who came all that way deserve to be compensated. That would be a great move for this race.

In conclusion I cannot say I would recommend this race unless they came through with the race entries and fixed some issues. There were many pro's including plenty of free parking at the high school. Maybe the best race medal I have received. It is a huge Hall Of Fame ring. The shirt was nice, again cotton but cool anyway. I didn't mind the course, it was all in residential areas but nice enough, a few hills. Hall of Famer Dan Hampton was there giving high fives at the finish, but unfortunately a lot of people were sad to see he was gone before they finished due to the course being longer than it should have been.