I am following the Galloway training for the WDW Dopey Challenge and this Half Marathon perfectly lined up with the long run this weekend. Although I now live outside Detroit, I grew up near WPAFB in Xenia and attended the University of Dayton, so this had natural appeal. I was not able to pick up my own bib, so my brother, who works at the base took care of this for me. I bit of a wrinkle for this particular event with someone picking up your bib, signed waiver and picture of your ID is required for someone else to get your bib.

Parking was in a large field about 1/2 mile or so from the start/finish line, there is also a transportation option where you can catch a bus from the Nutter Center, however, the last bus left at 5:30am, which is 3 hours before race time. I believe this is an area of improvement for this event is to have buses run a little later.

The start/finish are of this event is amazing. The finishing chute passes under the wings of 3 military aircraft from the museum. Prior to the start, there was a flyover of one of the newest military planes from Boeing.

There was lightening on the course, so the start was delayed about 45 minutes, the forecast for the day had temps approaching 75, so this added high humidity to the mix.

The race profile indicated that the course was a bit hilly on paper, in real life it was like a roller coaster, up down up down...in fact, we were climbing a long gradual hill right after the starting gun.

The course had many different types of scenery, country road, golf course, highway etc, I liked the variety, just not the hills. Some of the best scenery I saw were the great t-shirts that the runners that were passing me were wearing, I'm going to copy several of them!

Around mile 8, a local bar was offering a cup of beer and candied bacon, my pace was already slow so I partook. it was also in the middle of a long gradual climb so it hit the spot. Fast forward past several more hills to the finish line. The finishing chute gave me a burst of energy, the race announcer was enthusiastic and I was pumped up until someone flew past me and the announcer said he was a marathon runner %$#*&!!!

Uniformed Air Force personnel presented the awesome medals and Miller Lite provided a post race beer. Overall a great event, I would recommend it but not sure I will run it myself again unless the course changes.