This is a good marathon that leaves some things on the table to become great.

Pre-Race Weekend Stuff:

The Twitter presence of this marathon is basically broadcast-only - I had mentioned them in several tweets on BibChat (which garnered no response at all - not even a like) and even sent a question to the race via Twitter that went unanswered. It does look like they use Facebook, but I didn't notice until many weeks after sending my question via Twitter.

The hotel booking service is a joke - after I received an email that said "you have until April 23, 2019 to edit your reservation" and the resulting page said to NOT contact the hotel. Prior to that date, I attempted to change the hotel reservation to add a day, when it reported an error, I contacted the hotel booking company who told me to contact the hotel directly. My recommendation would be to provide a list of known-good hotels (e.g. those with shuttles to the race, etc) rather than utilizing a booking service (in fact, I won't use any sort of these services again).

The race website lacks good answers to some of the basic questions. There is no elevation chart on the website's map (you have to find one via peoples' Strava races), and you have to dig to find out that the Gatorade on the course is lemon-lime (no mention of whether it is the endurance formula), and many of the other basic questions. For a race that claims to be the flattest in the state, I'm shocked by the lack of a simple chart.

Expo:

The expo was congested and busy, but decent. Representation from several northern-Ohio and southern-Michigan races were there, and a few vendors (some running-related, some not). The packet pickup volunteers were nice and there were no lines despite me visiting around the same time as people filing in from Saturday's 5k and 10k. Parking for the expo at that time was a little messy (it seems the traffic cops weren't really considering traffic flow... once you made it into a lot, all was good). Swag consisted of a pullover, which is nice.

Pre-Race:

Arrived via hotel shuttle, which had to wait through the same parking congestion as everyone else (there was a good mile-long backup to turn into S Towerview Blvd), and neither the shuttle bus driver or the volunteer at the mile 25-ish road closure in front of Rocket Hall seemed to know where the shuttle bus should drop off at... perhaps some coordination is necessary there. After being dropped off, I headed towards the "BAG DROP" banners which were not actually at the bag drop. The race did start on time, although the delay from the main start to corral B start seemed much longer than I anticipated.

Race:

The course is mostly flat. There are pockets of spectators sparsely distributed throughout. During the first half, there are aid stations every mile. In some places (miles 1 and 3 stand out), the course gets very narrow due to over-zealous volunteers moving towards the center of the course. After the split, the course gets very sparse of runners, and aid stations go down to one every other mile (which is fine, the race temperature was in the mid-40s and was apparently close to average). After this split, the race uses a bike path (no scenery), the shoulder of some suburban thoroughfares (boring), a subdivision (somewhat boring, but there's some hard-core cheer-ers out there!), and back onto a paved path through a park and onto the paved path. During the latter miles, the paved path seems to drag on forever... You get past mile 24 thinking that the course might "crescendo" at some point, and it's fairly unceremonious through to mile 25. After mile 25, you suddenly find yourself on the University of Toledo campus and is soon after on a downhill finish that IS ceremonious in the Glass Bowl (UT stadium) where your name is announced as you cross the finish line. There is plenty of post-race space in the stadium to stretch or rest, water and Mylar blankets are available, and the finish line volunteers are quite awesome (medals are placed on the runners as opposed to just handing the runners the medal, one actually wrapped a Mylar blanket around me, as opposed to just handing it to me... the person with the water bottles did just hand the bottle to me, but I can't say I would have wanted too much more there :-D ).

During the race, I saw lots of people wearing Boston Marathon jackets cheering for runners. For the race that claims to have a lot of BQs, that is NICE to see! Additionally, despite the sparse pockets of spectators, I'm pretty sure I got more mustache compliments in this race compared to all other races I've done... combined... and probably by a factor of two!

Post-Race:

From the Glass Bowl, there are signs pointing tired runners to a parking lot north of the stadium where runners are immediately handed a glass mug (the mug is quite nice, but trying to hold a Mylar on + getting food made for the want to have a third hand... perhaps the mug pickup could be elsewhere). Runners are then shuffled into a line for some pizza and pasta, and there is a shaded dining tent... I sat outside. At some point during this process I was handed a bag and was able to fill it with some food (orange, banana, cookies or granola or something). The bag drop pickup is nearby but difficult to find (I ended up directing a few runners to it), and it was with little security - I walked INTO the area around MANY bags to pick up mine (I'd recommend taping this area off and allowing ONLY volunteers to pick out bags and hand them to runners). The beers available are the standard boring AB-InBev products (Mich Ultra, Mich Ultra with lime, Shock Top, and one other I don't remember... I did not see any IPAs). Fortunately, the volunteers would fill the glass mug (otherwise we really would have needed that third hand!) There was a band playing and some additional food offerings in the post-race area, and a massage tent I didn't use.

Overall:

This is not a world-class marathon, but it probably is the flattest marathon in the state of Ohio and schedules itself on what is possibly be the best weekend to race a marathon in Ohio. A few fixes are needed like better Twitter presence, better maps on the website, website improvements (e.g. consider adding "Course Amenities" to the Race Details section to include things like what Gatorade and fuel are available on course, where other amenities, like oranges are at, etc). I WOULD consider running this again, although I would not use the hotel booking service, RaceJoy app, or stay at the Radisson University of Toledo (it's clean but has only king side or two double beds... I took my wife and a kid up there and the sleeping arrangements sucked... not the race's fault, ofc!)