The Race 13.1 course starts at a mall parking lot, which is very nice because there is a lot of parking. The first half of the race is fairly flat with a few rolling hills, but there are some pretty significant inclines along the latter half. The toughest is around mile 11 when you do an out-and-back section with a hill loop. The 10K runners were still on the course there too, so it got a bit more crowded and that part was really hard. There was one part where the course went into a wooded area and some of the runners took a wrong turn.

I was really surprised and pleased with the number of spectators along the route. There were folks along the neighborhood streets and a lot of people along the Duke east campus area. There were also a couple of music groups playing! The finish area was really nice. There was a beer garden area that I did not visit because it was 35 degrees out, but some folks seemed to enjoy it! There was a lot of free food including hot pizza. The BCBS (race sponsors) had a cool photo booth set up where you could get your picture taken holding your finish time and they green screen-ed in a neat background. I enjoyed that!

Overall, a very good race with nice course support and a fun finish experience. I recommend it!