The race start, finish, & post race party all take place at Chicago's Grant park. This beautiful downtown location comes with the perk of nice views, convenient access by public transportation, but does mean expensive parking. I highly recommend carpooling if you are driving to the event.

The majority of the race takes place on the lakefront path. This can be a bit narrow for the size of the crowd, but luckily the first mile or so is on closed city streets with a wider girth. The lakefront path cannot be closed for events, so there is the chance for outside walkers, joggers, and bikers to share the space, but this was not a problem for me. If you are going to be at the back of the pack, this may be more frustrating as it will be less obvious for external users of the trail that a race is ongoing.

This race has beautiful views of the city skyline when you are about 4 miles from the finish line, but overall the course scenery is nothing to write home about. You can appreciate the lake on one side and some views of the city, but overall there is not much change. The course is flat, had nice volunteers at the aid stations.

The finish line party was nice. They have a local grocery store cater a brunch with breakfast tacos, sausage, french toast sticks and more (in 2017) and each participant over 21 received one Lagunitas beer. They had a free flower station where you could take home a plant.

The registration process was easy enough, the packet pickup went smoothly (but it is not an expo, only a brief pickup at a sporting goods store), and the t-shirt was a fine quality technical fabric short sleeve t-shirt.

Overall, I recommend this race.