Overall: This is a small and friendly race. By small I mean less than 230 runners for the half. If you are looking for a race where you can spread out and not be in a crowd, this one may be for you. I do highly recommend it for the younger runners that has hill experience.

T-Shirts/Swag: The shirts were nice for the half. Long sleeved tech shirts. They are sized unisex therefore the medium is a tad too big and the small is too small, but what is a girl to do. The medals leave something to be desired.....they are small with a generic ribbon. I have run 5ks with nicer medals. If you are in it for the bling, this is not the race for you. This race use to be put on by Big Peach Running Co. and had nice medals at one time....this is not that time.

Aid Stations: Aid stations could be found every 1.5 miles and were great. A lot of young volunteers with parental supervision, which is always great to see.

Course Scenery: It is nothing spectacular. You run on some major roads in some industrial parks. No nice neighborhoods and homes on this one, no beautiful park or anything like that.

Expo: There is no expo but a packet pickup, which was in a bar. It is really strange. They had a pasta party included in the registration fees. Do yourself a favor and skip it. Very bland and nothing special.

Elevation Difficulty: Hills and more hills. If you have not trained for hills, you are going to be very sore for the next few days. If you have trained for hills, you will be fine.

Parking: Parking is right there and plenty of it. Be sure to show up early as they close the roads down. Oh and parking is free, who doesn't LOVE that?

Race Management: Race management was great. Wonderful communication about everything and it was well organized. The road closures were good with police support all the way. Just wish they would get a solid running company in order to up their game to where it could be.

I would recommend this race for someone who has hill trained and looking for a peaceful half. I would not recommend this race for people who are in it for the bling. I tend to fall in the middle....love the bling and the peaceful half. If that is you, I would say run this one once and mark it off your list.

First off one must know that I ran the 5k not the half since I ran the Atlanta 10 MIler the weekend before. However, if I am in Atlanta next year for this race, I plan on running the half. That is how great this race is!!!

T-Shirts/Swag: The shirt for this race is great! It is a gender specific technical shirt with a great logo. Honestly this is my favorite race shirt to date! It has a sugar skull and I am a HUGE fan of sugar skulls!!! The medal is great and it glows in the dark!!! It was a nice surprise when I walked into the house without lights on. I now need the large half marathon medal!!!

Aid Stations: Only one on the 5k course but was well stocked and they were ready for us. Aid stations were set up every 1.5 miles for the half and I feel that is sufficient as I carry my own water. Bathrooms were at every aid station and there were plenty of bathrooms at the starting line as well.

Course Scenery: The 5k starts and ends in Piedmont Park so you can't get better than a run around the park!!!

Expo Quality: No expo but a packet pickup at a local running store. It was a nice store that was very overpriced, even with their 15% off coupon they were offering that day. I am not about to pay $40 for a store shirt from a running store.

Elevation: Not bad considering Atlanta is know for it's hills!!!! My costume made it worse as I had a beard on and I underestimated the beard. Drinking water and breathing did not go well for me on this one. HA! Lesson learned.

Parking: Since the course starts in Piedmont Park, parking is about 3/4 of a mile away at the Botanical Gardens. Parking cost $5.00 which wasn't bad at all and it is a nice warm up to the start of the race.

Race Management: LOVED IT! This race was organized and thought out. Music was great as well as vendors that were there after the race. The management of this race is what makes me want to run the half next year even if it is the weekend after the 10 Miler!

There is a reason that the Atlanta Track Club is the second largest in the country....they know how to do it right.

Expo/Packet Pickup - The hours were very reasonable to let everyone who had to work on Friday get their packets on Saturday. The "expo" was more of a set up for Atlanta Track Club to sell some shirts, etc. I didn't mind it at all as I did purchase a shirt and my friend got a race belt. It was nice to have it set up at Atlantic Station which gave runners an idea of the parking and area before race day....smart!

Race Day - Parking was super easy and very reasonable cost, $5.00 (purchased at the expo). Finding the start line and getting corralled again super easy. National anthem was played and gun went off at 7:30am on the dot! Love a race that starts early. I crossed the start line 8 minute after the initial wave, in Corral D. The race went through beautiful neighborhoods of Atlanta, which the amazing houses made it a bit easier as I was not focused too much on all the hills! There is an 800' elevation gain in this race so be prepared! Cardiac Hill is no joke so hill training is important for this race. The running lanes did get a little narrow for 6500 runners in some parts but it wasn't too bad. Cheer sections were AMAZING and spectators were great as well. People in their yards drinking coffee with music blasting as we ran by. I love the running support in Atlanta!

Post Race - After crossing the finish line you are immediately given nice bling and offered an Atlanta Track Club recovery jacket....bonus swag! From there you are given Powerade, a box or treats and of course a banana. A runner comes out of the post race area into Atlantic Station where you can find Big Peach Running store and Atlanta Track Club set up with merchandise. Big Peach was having a sale....score. The only thing I was a little blah about is that they were selling the race shirts I had bought the day before for $5 less than what I paid at the expo. Lesson learned.

Overall: This is an amazing race and I highly recommend it to anyone. But come prepared for the hills. Atlanta doesn't joke around with hills in races.

Registration: Registration was simple as it was an Active race. One thing I did appreciate is that this race did not clutter up your email inbox as some races do.

Expo: Better than expected. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was Diva wear for sale on race day for those who were not able to attend the expo or had to opt for the race day pick up simply due to the 4-7 pm expo time. Those coming from Atlanta may not have been able to take part.

Swag: Who doesn't love swag? the tech shirt is super soft, the bags are nice, although do have that plastic smell that needs to be aired out and the tutu is very nice. The boa and tiara on race day do exactly what they are suppose to do, give you that little extra sparkle for the finish. Remember, these are props!

Aid stations: They were nice and had plenty of water and gatorade along the course. Plenty of volunteers manning them. This race does not provide an aid station every mile, more like every 1.5 miles so if you are a person that needs that every mile drink, bring your sports bottle with you.

Course Scenery: You run through some neighborhoods of Peachtree City, which is a very cute town, then you hit the golf cart trails for most of the run, which is nice. Plenty of shade and some tunnels which is a neat.

Elevation: Maybe I am too use to the hills of Atlanta but this course was a breeze when it came to elevation, sure there are some hills but nothing like that I am use to. This is not a flat course, but nothing that requires hill training either.

Parking: Parking is off site and you are shuttled to the race location. There are pros and cons to this. Pros, don't have to worry about finding a parking spot close, cons...getting back on that bus after 13.1 miles! It was super convenient though.

Race Management: The management of this race are rock stars!!! They know exactly what they are doing. It is a very well organized race with plenty of volunteers to control traffic and make sure safety is the first priority. You will not go .25 miles without seeing a volunteer. The police are blocking traffic and they have EMS/Fire cycling with the racers to ensure all medical concerns that arise are met.

I highly recommend this race to anyone thinking about a fun half marathon.

Now I have to keep in mind that I was the one that signed up for a 5k in August in Atlanta. That was my first mistake. The start time of the race was 5pm...which meant that it was 100 degrees with 85% humidity. Alright, I can counteract that by slowing down and hydrate! The race had us in the corrals at 4:55pm with the start at 5pm. Well....the race didn't start until 5:20pm....so here we are in corrals on hot asphalt waiting. The race wasn't even able to give an official start because as soon as the racers saw the police escort, everyone went! As far as securing the course from traffic, I saw at least two angry drivers that threatened to run down runners plus a driver having to slam on his brakes in order to stop at a light because he was too busy watching the runners. Not the safest race.

The aid stations were ok...they did give bottles of water which was nice and they were iced however, it was one little tub filled up and the one person at the aid stations couldn't keep up with the demand.

There was no expo, just a packet pick up at the local running store. When I picked up my packet, the shirts were unisex size. Therefore I asked about doing an exchange and they told me the day of they would be exchanging the size. Well guess what happened the day of...they had no more shirts! But they did re-direct me to where I could purchase a race shirt for $25 or tank for $20...ummmm no thanks. Again, poorly organized...they should have made the runners aware that it was an oversized fit for the shirts as I ordered my normal size and it came down to mid-thigh! Although the shirts they were selling were properly sized. Hmmmmm.

Now the wine glasses and drawstring bag were nice, which runners got when they signed up for VIP, which I did. The medals were even pretty decent.

A lot of improvements need to be made in order for this to be a good event. The start time should be later if they are keeping the August date, the course needs to be more secure, they should start on time and the quality in shirt sizing needs to be considered.