Michiyo Rojas's Staging Area

Race is the kickoff event for the Indy 500 that occurs annually at the end of may. Included was a lap (2.5 miles) around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That lap was exciting & emotional. It included a Gold Mile which honors & remembers fallen service members from Indiana. I had a lump in my throat while slowing down to look at each member’s bio picture. It was a very touching way to remember their sacrifices they made to this country & their family.

Crowd throughout downtown Champaign was amazing. It was never quiet, music was not needed lol. Wished the corrals were bigger as they squeezed 5000+ runner on a somewhat wide street. Corral A probably could be split into two (Corral A was estimated finish time 25:00 or less) and it was quite packed even 30 minutes prior to race starting. I made a mad dash once the buzzer went off to get out of the crowd. Finish line was awesome; we finished at Memorial Stadium Football Field, University of Illinois.

Huge rose gold finisher’s medal. Picture on website did not do it justice. Way better in person. Overall race experience was great from pre-race warmup from Orangetheory to post-race booths and food. Course was fairly flat with a few rolling hills. Awesome atmosphere with ample cheering throughout the course.

Overall great race from start to finish. I’ve completed a few races around St. Louis and this was the best as far as where it started & ended. Enjoyed going over 2 bridges taking you into Illinois and back and going through St. Louis. The rolling incline on the course was challenging. Definitely not a super flat course but I was still able to make a new PR! The medals are great! I collected 4 total from the weekend. I ran the 5K on Saturday for the GO! Short, GO! Long Challenge and this half marathon is the start of the Run Across Missouri Series and received the first out of series of 3 medals. Which once I complete the entire series, the medals put together will make a state map of Missouri. Pretty neat! The only drawback was I wish the gear check was closer to the finish line. Walking another 2 blocks past the post race party area was a little inconvenient. It would’ve been nice to have a tent set up for gear check in that area. Overall great race!