16 years ago, Northwestern University basketball coach, Ricky Byrdsong, was gunned down by a white supremacist in Skokie, IL. Since then, the Evanston YMCA has sponsored the Race Against Hate in honor of Ricky and his family. This event brought out over 5,000 runners and walkers for this amazing community event.

The race gives the options to run 5K, 10K, or a 1 mile kids/family walk.

We registered on race day, which took less than 5 minutes. The shirts this year are great looking tech shirts in a cranberry color. Very nice. Not much in the goodie bags other than ads for other races or services, so the kids were a little disappointed with that. There was plenty of water, bananas, and snacks at the finish line.

The race begins at the north end of Northwestern University's campus. The run takes you south on Sheridan Road, before heading over to the lakefront for a nice loop through campus and along the lake. Very beautiful!

The only criticism is that one of the water stations was not set up in time for the race. There was even a sign saying "water ahead", but there wasn't anything there. So, water was set up at mile 1, and mile 5. It was a hot and humid day (100% humidity), so I really could have used an aid station at mile 3. Not the end of the world, but it didn't help anything either.

No live music post-race, but lots of happy, smiling people.

For serious runners, this is a flat and fast course, with no hills. Most of the participants do the 5k or the 1 mile walk. Since the 10K starts first, there was little/no traffic from slower runners, so there is a lot of opportunity for a fast run.

From seeing other teams and reading other reviews, it seems that the experience of a 12 person team is vastly different from a 6 person ultra team. The actual miles that we ran ranged from 30-38 depending on which leg you had. This is fairly manageable since the 6 runs are spread out over two days. What made things tricky was getting into the van and driving to the next exchange point to meet and trade runners. It seemed like we were on the move every 20 minutes or so. This made sleep almost impossible. And, having to run approximately every 5 hours meant that getting real food was a tricky proposition. So, we relied mainly on gels, bars, and other sport fuel. An occasional turkey sandwich or PB+J were the closest things to real food that we ate. It seemed that we were way busier and more stressed than the 12 person teams.

Being the shortest member of our team, I was relegated to the "way back" of our Suburban. Imagine spending countless sweaty and stinky hours crammed back there with little leg room, 11 spare pairs of shoes, a few coolers, and an odd assortment of other crap...bliss.

There was little crowd support along the course and aid stations were non-existent. Bring all of the fuel and drink that you need on each leg. The day runs were hot and largely unprotected from the sun. A few shady spots, but a lot of running along county roads with little shade. The night runs were a little surreal, but actually quite fun. A little spooky at times, but an adventure.

Parking at the finish meant taking a shuttle from a remote lot the the actual finish line, but there was no other option. The medals are cool and pizza and beer was provided for all teams. And, another bonus was that I bumped into my girlfriend from the 6th grade. That doesn't happen everyday. Go me!

I doubt I'd do another ultra. I'd go with a 12 person team and enjoy the party atmosphere more that we did.