I have very mixed feelings about this race. As some background, this race is tech driven. There are a bunch of software companies in Charleston. Those companies will pay for their employees to do this race. There is a big competition amoung the companies for the best group. They all do different themes which are really cool and have all their employees come dressed up. The awards are for most spirit. Now, because of this, there are very few actual hard core runners who do this race. I am one of the very few people who did this race that was not employeed by one of the 6 large companies that participate.

I do enjoy this event. This year they changed the location of the event so the course was not as pretty. It used to take place downtown but now it was in a park in North Charleston. You start out in a pretty area but immediately hit the road and its just a straight away with a loop back. Extremely boring course with nothing but a few hideous buildings to look at. You finish the race at the same spot as the start in the pretty park.

The race this year was short. My garmin only picked up 2.9 for the course length. The after party is really nice though. There was pizza from a local shop that made great pizza. Downside was they only had one oven to heat it up so the line for pizza was REALLY long. There were tons of beers from local breweries which was fantastic. There is always music and a dance party that happens at the end as well.

Here is my biggest pet peeve. Two years in a row now someone has worn a friends bib and been in the wrong gender/age group. Last year they called out the person who placed 1st in my age group and it turned out to be a guy (I'm a girl) wearing one of his coworkers bibs who couldn't make it. They awarded me 1st place.

This year, I was the 1st overall female and they called someone elses name because the same thing happened. These companies will have employees who will say "hey I'm not gonna make the race, anyone want my bib?" because the race does sell out. These people are not runners who run races a lot and therefore have no idea what a big deal it is that they are wearing someone of the opposite genders bib. So I did speak with the race director and got it sorted out and was awarded 1st overall female afterwards. The awards were nice, gift certificate to local restaurant, 6 month membership to a local gym, and an external sound system for my laptop.

This was the second year of this race and it was my first time running it. This race supports the backpack buddies non profit group here in Charleston.
The race itself is at Riverfront park, which is a very popular route for a lot of local races so I was very familiar with the course. It's nothing special. You start at a very nice park but then run out to a main road on an industrial area with nothing pretty look at out and back to the park.
Afterwards there were some bananas, water, and a fun photo booth. We waited around for the awards which I thought took way longer than they needed to. A lot of us were getting extremely impatient waiting for the results and awards. There was a raffle drawing which you could buy raffle tickets for and there was a food truck in which you could purchase food from.
The awards were a nice blue plaque for the top three males/females overall. The top 3 in each age group received a medal.

Overall impression: Nice race but with lots of races each weekend in Charleston, I probably could have found one with more goodies for my entry fee.

This race takes place at the James Island County park which gives it a beautiful course and scenery to run through.
Upon arrival I had lots of areas to warm up and there were bathrooms available for us to use. The line was a little long but there was ample time to wait and be at the starting line. The starting line is just out in the grass which is the only downside. The first bit of the race is just out in the field before you get onto the sidewalks which is what you run on the rest of the race.
The 10k group went off first which made it difficult for those who are in the fast group of the 5k. We had to constantly weave around and dodge the 10k walkers or those at the back of the pack. The walkway that you run on is quite narrow so there were spots that made it hard to pass.
The finish line area was nice although it was a cold day so it would have been nice to have hot cocoa or coffee instead of cold items. The awards were little dog tags for those who placed in their age group. The overall male/female winners of the 5k/10k received cash awards.