This was a wonderfully scenic city course and a great race experience, even with the rain and ice(!) that day. I loved the variety of it. No terrible elevation. This is a nice, fairly flat course, which made it a perfect first long distance race of the year. I was worried about parking, but is was a breeze. The commuter lots just across the River were great and bus ran all of the time to take you the few blocks over to the start staging area. The only thing I would suggest for the race is to have the warming post-race wraps at the ready. The race IS in April, but also this IS Michigan. It was a cold and wet/icy walk back to cars without one. I also think more runners would have stuck around to buy food and drinks from the vendors and food trucks if those were available. The expo was disappointing after going to expos for other races of this size. VERY tight space for the number of people and vendors. I saw some people carrying around food from the food demos but things were SO tough to find, and the close quarters didn’t make you want to stay long and make your way through to find things. It was heavy on organizations and other races vs. merchandise variety — the later of which is the fun part of expos because you can see or try (and buy) new products. The expo is the only part that was a little disappointing. Otherwise, the race itself was fantastic! I plan to do it again next year!

This race course is so spectacular. The bridge elevation is no joke, so make sure you train for a serious hill during your training runs. Knees up and pace. Some runners walked the bridge, as it is pretty soon after the start (some said they did so as strategy to avoid expending so much energy on that portion). The expo was solid, although it gets really crowded. I do wish it extended into the hall or other areas to allow more space, sort of like the expo for NYC marathon. Overall, a great expo with nice vendor variety. The apparel stock through the official marathon online store goes fast, and unfortunately not much variety in official race apparel at the expo. That was a little disappointing. My hotel, the Motor City Casino, let me check out an hour or two later than normal without charging me so I could come back and shower before heading home. So generous! I recommend spending a little more to stay downtown, as this made the journey to the start line easy the day of the race. All in all, I recommend doing this half at least once!

This race is as incredible an experience as you might imagine. The team of staff and volunteers make sure all of your questions are answered. Transportation to the start line waiting area was seamless, even with tens of thousands of runners and walkers. The water stations and others such as the cold sponge and banana stations were so appreciated in the final half of the 26.2. One of the best parts of this race is the crowd and entertainment along the route. They keep you going and help keep your mind off how tired you feel in the final stretch of the race (or when you realize you are still in Brooklyn and need to make it through two more boroughs). Everything about this race was world-class.