Jon T's Staging Area

Fast 1 mile race in Brooklyn. A lot of fast runners come out and about 1200 for each wave (male, female, masters for each). The swag from Bandit and HOKA make up the registration costs and it is a pretty urban course going on Kent. I’d run it again, spots do sell out quick.

The race took place in West Chicago so it is a bit different from the traditional setting of being right by the lake for the Chicago marathon.

I think the logistics and course were fine. The course was pretty flat. The route consisted of looping around Humboldt, Garfield, and Douglas park. It wasn’t a very scenic course but it was well marked and had great crowd support.

Despite the tornado warning the night before, the weather on race day was beautiful. The event staff adapted the start time based on if it would rain/thunderstorm and it worked out in the end. The half course was well laid out and had pacers up to the 1:30 for half. Really liked the race and I’d gladly do it again next year.

The race day for 2022 was a fairly hot and humid. (Luckily a little overcast) The route itself has a lot of double backing and some areas where you take a detour on the path because it is the marathon distance.

It is a fairly flat course with mainly paved roads and some gravel areas. To be honest, the southern area of the river isn’t that scenic since it is just a park, and some areas have stray bikers or walkers who happened to stumble upon the marathon or half marathon route (which is a little a nuisance). Not a lot of people do this race and a lot of people walk the last mile or so of the picturesque San Antonio riverwalk ending. Overall a decent race but I didn’t perform my best.

This was my first half marathon. I thought this was a good half marathon to set a PR. It is downhill from North Austin and ends right at the capitol with a beautiful downhill. I liked the event as a whole. (Since it is downhill from North Austin it isn’t very scenic) Also you get 3M swag which people may love or hate.