This half marathon is in its 11th year and this is the first year I ran this home town race. What a great experience. From the expo through the post race celebration this was a class act and I cannot wait to run it next year.

Expo - Easy access downtown Columbus at the convention center with plenty of vendors. The shirt this year was an Under Armour shirt with separate shirts for the men and women. This is a very nice shirt that you will want to wear for more than just working out and running.

Race - The race starts broken up into 5-6 different corrals which are started a few minutes apart so you never feel that you are running on top of another runner during the beginning of the race even though you are running with 15,000 other people. The course is pretty flat as most midwest courses are. The killer came in the last tenth of a mile where you did have to run a couple blocks up hill. On a normal day it would not be a challenge but at the end of the race, it really stretched you to finish hard.

Post Race - Great celebration. Plenty of food and activities. There were blow up slides and such for the kids and food truck and drinks for the adults. This truly could be an all day affair if you wanted. One of the most popular attractions was the booth where you could have your name and chip time engraved on your medal for 10.00. I always struggle with how to best record the time so that I can remember it and this was perfect. The times are posted online as soon as you cross the finish and the engravers look them up for you.

This was another 4 miler on Thanksgiving Day. Great way to start off the Holiday by burning a few calories so you don't feel as bad putting them back on at the dinner table.

The race is limited to 4,000 people and runs through a scenic city park. It is the end of November in Ohio so it was very cold for this early morning race but the excitement kept you warm.

SWAG was great, in the race packet you get a little airplane bottle of Wild Turkey to warm you up and at the end they gave full size bottles of wine for those of age and I believe cookies or pumpkin pie for those under 21.

Great 4 miler. You run through the Ohio State Campus beginning outside the Horse Shoe and finish by running through the stadium and crossing the 50 yard line on the field. How many chances would you ever have to be on such a great and storied football field.

This was the inaugural race and it sold out at 10,000 runners. Other then the usual people not starting in the appropriate pace corals it was great and will make my annual list of races.

This is a must for any Buckeye fan.

Great race. This was my first distance race and I completed the half marathon. You start at the Air Force Museum and run through the Wright Paterson Air Force base area. There were a few hills but mainly just entering and exiting a stretch of highway that you have to run during the beginning of the race.

The worst part was the entrance being backed up to get into the parking area. The line was out on I-75 for miles. In the end, I ended up with a great parking spot and a short walk to the starting line. Hopefully this year the parking delay will be resolved.

The best part about the race was the finish stretch as you run through a line of Air Force planes. Being a pilot and aviation enthusiast, this was the ultimate ending. There are Air Force officers that place the medal around your neck at the finish line which was a nice touch. I guess there is normally a flyover to start the race but the weather was bad that morning so the fly over was cancelled other than a few geese in formation.

The spectator area for the half was pretty much limited to the finish area as access to the base is pretty much off limits. I understand that the full marathon has a much better spectator area because you run outside of the base for a while.

The race is about 1.5 hours from my house and they do not offer an option to mail your swag bag to you so that was an afternoon spent driving over to pick that up and visiting the expo.

I signed up for the full marathon for 2014 so will update with a new review after that.