Matt Hopken's Staging Area

So, the event outgrew the nice community center, located on a nice parkway with wide open routes. I get it, I understand.
What I liked:
– Some very challenging hills
– Nicely distanced apart aid stations
– The community participation in aid stations was cool and something that I hadn’t seen done before
– The new venue is nice and the college gym for packet pickup is cool.

What I didn’t like:
– The event promoter should be very disappointed that he held up traffic for 1 mile on Hendren Drive. Hendren Drive should have been closed to traffic. There were a lot of upset drivers.
– It was a very tight fit at the start, as compared to the wide open parkway of years past. It remained tight through the first few miles.
– Just me, but having to run by the finish as you are climbing a hill was really heartbreaking for me. Just give us the turn down the hill and finish.
– I hate loops to get miles. Just give me wide open miles without silly little loops please.
– It’s like they tried really hard promoting the event, but didn’t try hard enough on having a great route, and policing vehicle traffic.