Coming off of running the Akron Half Marathon earlier today. I live in Cleveland and actually ended up driving down yesterday and staying at one of the race hotels. Worth it to me to be able to wake up an hour later and shower before heading back on the road!

Expo: At the John Knight Center. Only on Friday since it's a Saturday race, but it goes from 11-9 pm. Parking garages were free by the time I got there around 545. When you go in, you get your bib and bag and then have to weave your way through the vendors in order to get your shirt. If you ran the full, you got a jacket and they do exchanges, but only after the race and starting in October. I was cranky because I got stuck behind slow people walking around. Typical Expo. They do have merchendise there for sale, I may have gotten some sweats.

Race Day Parking: If you stayed at one of the race hotels, they offered a free shuttle (at least at the Holiday Inn Express). I signed up for it, but then decided to drive myself since the shuttle left at 515 and I wanted an extra hour of sleep. I drove and was parked within 15 minutes and parking was free in the garages/lots (public at least). I got within 1/4 mile of the start.

Start time: 7 AM

Bathrooms: porta potties, and if you were thinking and went to the student union first, indoor bathrooms

The Course: Akron has Hills. I hate hills. There were parts that were flat and/or down hill which were fine, but you do go over bridges which have some incline of their own. You see some good parts of akron and then some other parts that are meh. They had a good amount of entertainment on course, a plus. There were parts with spectators and other parts where it was you and your music if you had any. Since there was a Half and Full marathon and a Full Marathon Relay, the course was marked well and had color coded letters (H, F, R) to let you know where to go. When the relay runners split for there hand offs, there was more than enough staff at each exchange during the first 2 to keep things in line. Also more than enough people and notice just after mile 12 to let the Full and Relay Marathon runners to go one way and the Half Marathon Runners to go another. If you missed it, it was your own fault.

The Finish: In Canal Park Stadium- at least you didn't have to go around it!

Post Race Party: you walked after the Chute and got water and your medal. You kept walking and there was a food tent that took your food tab off your bib and handed you a bag and afterwards, you got a banana, another water and chocolate milk. You were then directed to the beer tent and then there were the porta potties right there if you needed it. They also had a Pizza tent. Took no more than 5 minutes if you weren't waddling!

Organization: A+! Just wish there were 1-2 more aid stations at the beginning

Disclaimer: I received entry to the Madison Mini Marathon to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Awhile back, I signed up for the Madison Mini after getting in through being a BibRave Pro. It was a plus for me, since I needed to add Wisconsin to my 50 state list, especially before I move out west.

Getting to Madison: if you're flying in, you'll likely go through O'hare in Chicago and in up on a little puddle jumper on a quick 30 ish minute flight to Madison. Rental Car companies are right in the airport after you get out past security to get around

Lodging: Main partner hotel was the Double Tree and it was about 1/3 mile from the start. I stayed a few miles away at the Sheraton, but it was a quick 10 minute drive to parking

Parking: Madison is a college town so there are parking garages all over the place. I parked a little farther out (by the Double Tree), just so it would be easy to get out. About 4 hrs was $4

Expo: I can't' speak to the expo, as a fellow Pro picked up my bib for me since I got in late. Bonus points for making things easy as to having someone pick up your bib for you. If that's not an option, they do offer race day pick up for $25 when you register. If you didn't get to check out gear, they have gear at the finish off the terrace in the post race party.

Race day: race starts at 7 AM. Corrals are pretty easy to get into and visible. Expect hills. There are flat parts to the course, but the last few miles had some hills that I wasn't ready for (I was undertrained to begin with). The course (from what I've been told) changed again this year, but I have nothing to compare it to. You go through the capitol, through UW Madison, Camp Randall, the UW arboretum. You get a good amount of scenery and cheering sections, though I wish more people would have come out since it was a nice day. It did get hot towards the end. In terms of aid stations, at the beginning they were spaced pretty far apart and then closer together for the back half (every mile or so). The last mile or 2 was through campus, how does it have hills in it?!? Not a lot of photographers at this race. I saw one around mile 12 and 1 at the finish

Post race: Huge post race party on the Terrace and 1 free beer if that's your cup of tee. Banana, water, granola bar, Wisconsin Pop corn and chocolate milk through the chute as you finish. I wish they'd just bag it up and give it to runners so it's less to carry. Pretty decent bling too. If you due the Rock n Sole in Milwaukee the same year as Madison, you get extra bling!

Overall: good race. Wish they'd cut the hills at the back half of the race. Hopefully they'll keep improving the course

I wasn't expecting to get into Nike Toronto, but I did so here I am a day later to review it!

Registration: Lottery style. Registered February ish and found out I was in in March? $120 CAD, which equals approximately $90 USD. After you're accepted, you have a week to officially submit payment (didn't take credit cards during lottery placement)

Emails/updates leading up to the race: I got close to none after I officially registered and after looking at their FB site, I don't think I was the only one with this problem. I had to email them 5 days before the race to get my bib number, wave, etc.

Website: I wasn't a fan of it, I had to go through a whole lot of stuff, just to get what I was looking for (packet pick up, race day info, etc). Yeah, Nike has fun websites for buying stuff, but the race website needs to be more user friendly and easily accessible

Packet Pick Up: Held at Harbor Centre right along the Lake. Nike had it's own tents, etc set up. They had early pick ups for local runners the days leading up to the race and then race village Friday-Sunday. It was pretty easy, no line (I remember the DC half in 2013, massive lines by the end of Saturday). Able to get my bib and shirt, bag, etc all in one swoop. Then went into the Nike Expo of it, tons of stuff to buy and then a small area of other vendors to go through.

Race day, Getting There: Here's my thing. I drove 4.5-5 hrs on 4 hrs of sleep the day before a race to come run this and see Toronto. They race itself was on Toronto Island, so I really didn't get to see Toronto. The Ferries shuttled us over and we were all given a ticket with a color and time for the ferry. It all ran smoothly from that standpoint. If you missed your ferry, you had to go see what was the next ferry with spots open for you to get on was. If you had family coming to watch, you purchased spectator ferry tickets at registration

Pre Race: Official race time was 930 AM. That means, since I had a 7 AM ferry, and I got there at 705, I had a 2 ish hour wait before much of anything happened. Yeah, I had time to use the bathroom twice and check my bag, but when there are people coming from 24 countries who have hotels to check out of, it pushes check out time down the line. There were food trucks with food for purchase, but no free type food

Corrals: So everyone was given a corral, but you were suppose to get a wrist band with what corral you were in. Mine wasn't in my packet that I saw, and I didn't realize it until I was at the start area and was given a corral 7 wrist band (again, not good in terms of time when the latest i can check out is 1 pm). I was able to get into my corral 4 and inch up into corral 3. Suggestion: make the bibs fun/cooler and somehow have waves indicated on bibs. Less crap for me to remember on race day. Waves were let out minimum 5 minutes apart. Wave 3 started 15 minutes after the start.

The course: Very flat course, get some Toronto Island Scenery, really good views of Toronto, and hey, got to run on an active airport jetway. I really wish it would have been in mainland Toronto. Like I said earlier, driving 4.5-5 hrs on not a whole lot of sleep, it would have been nice to actually see Toronto and all it's neighborhoods, especially for the price of the race. Also, the course was 3-4 different terrains. I think we ran on sand, grass, pavement and gravel. I feel like I needed cross country shoes! Paths were narrow to boot. Overall though, I enjoyed the flatness of it, the views of toronto and what not. Good otherwise

Bling: A Tiffany's Pendent. A good thing because my medal rack's neck can't handle many more medals and I can wear it daily

Post race: food was in bags that they handed you as you exited, much appreciated. Food trucks still there and heat sheets if you wanted them. Bag check was crowded, but people didn't realize bags were being handed out on both sides of the bag check, so it only took me a few minutes, but others who didn't realize this waited awhile. I was lucky to get on a ferry within 15 minutes, but others waited awhile. Really didn't get a chance to do the post race finisher's shopping (getting a shower and checked out trumped all).

I ran this year because the Pittsburgh Half has been a bucket list race for me. It's 2.5 hrs from Cleveland and with family outside of Pittsburgh, I have a free place to stay (and free laundry afterwards to boot!).

The expo: really, one of the better expos I've been too. You pick up your shirt and bib on one side and your swag bag on the other side of the expo (obnoxious in my opinion, but it seems to be a common theme to get you to walk through the expo). You could sign up for other races if you wanted (to sign up for the 5K the day before was $50). Tons of vendors and races, a lot of race/city specific decorations, etc. There's a T-shirt exchange as well if you want a different size, but there are more women's sizes than men's sizes to be exchanged

Getting to the race: if you're staying with family on the outskirts, take the T (public transportation). It drops off/picks up right at the start and finish and saves you the time of trying to park (there's always construction and knowing me since I'm not familiar with downtown Pittsburgh, I wouldn't have been able to get out). There's garages if you drive in

Pre Race: plenty of porta potties. Easy to get to the Corrals. Things are kind of spread out in terms of bag drop off, etc. If you check a bag, you pick a fed ex truck to drop it off at (#1-14). They have stickers to put on your bib/markers so you remember.

The course: HOLY BRIDGES! Regardless of half or full, you go over all 5 bridges in downtown Pittsburgh. I have a tendency to block out things I don't like (i.e. bridges, which include gradual inclines). There are gradual hills and inclines, so hill training would have helped me out. I was drained by mile 9-10 and my legs didn't want to run any more. Maybe the half marathon 8 days ago and the 15K 2 weeks ago also played a role. You really get to see Pittsburgh and the crowd support is good.

Post Race: you finish and have enough room to keep on walking through the chute to pick up your medal, food, beverages, and a bag to put everything in. I wish races would have food already in a bag and just hand it to you, it would make things so much easier. Plenty of medical staff for people who needed it as well. I wondered around the post race party they had. More food vendors, etc there, but you had to pay for that food. There was some bottle neck of families waiting for runners where we exited, which was kind of crappy.

The weather: nothing that the race can control. Started out really nice. After 2.5 hrs of running, it was in the 70s. I was feeling it for sure. It was good weather, but I felt for the marathoners who were still going

I was in Jackson for a job interview and found the Magnolia Meltdown, which happened to be 10 minutes from my hotel. Bonus for me is that flight/rental car/hotel was covered by who brought me in to town.

Expo: very nuts and bolts, which is nice for a change. Held at Hyatt Place, you walk in, get your bib and shirt and there ya go. They have other races that had advertising there which is good for people who are local (i.e. a majority of runners). Expo sign up if you want. They also have a 5K and 10K in addition to a kid fun run. A few local shops present and since it's sponsored by a hospital, a quick rundown of how to do CPR

Race day: Start/Finish located in Renaissance at Colony Park. Perk is they offer race day pick up for bibs and shirts. Porta potties present, but could have used a few more. They also had it down as a 730 AM start time, but they started announcements, prayer (Catholic Hospital sponsored the race) and the national anthem, so it started more like 735

The course: combination of roads and paved running trails. Well marked and police/volunteers at intersections. Water every 1.5 miles for the first like 7.5 miles, then every mile after that. Some hills (i.e. a lot) to the race

Weather: Hot and Humid! I could have dealt with heat, but the humidity made it tough for me and slowed me down. Didn't help that this was my 3rd half marathon since April 25th

Post race: food tent available with plenty of fluids (though chocolate milk would have been a plus!), food and pizza.

Bling: Amazing!

This was the inaugural half marathon (the 5K/10K are like 6-7 yrs old). Overall, well run I think!