The North Shore Half Marathon is a good pre-marathon tune-up race. It's hilly, typically hot, but the scenery along Sheridan Road is lovely. Great idea to offer shorts vs. t-shirts as swag. Also prefer the downtown Highland Park start and finish. That hill by the beach -- everybody who has done it knows what I'm talking about -- is intimidating, the North Shore's version of Heartbreak Hill. But it didn't slow me down much. Great having clocks at each mile marker, and race organization is top notch.

Recommendations for next year: one of the mile markers (I think it was 9) was off by about a quarter of a mile and so needs to be recalibrated. Running through the Fort Sheridan neighborhood was meh, and actually the inclines there, although slight, turned out to be more difficult for me than the big hill. Also, it seemed there was an aid station missing somewhere in between and while that is not a problem normally, on a hot morning it would have been great to have one more station.

Nice badges, overall well done and well worth the running!