I really like racing with this organizer (All Community Events). Everything was low key but well organized. It took a couple minutes to get through the start chute even though there weren't a ton of runners and it seemed silly since we started on a wide grass horse track, but made sense about 600 yards in when the route narrowed onto a 10' wide forest preserve trail. If they hadn't slowed everyone down with the narrow start chute it would have been a bad bottleneck but the way it was done went smoothly.

The course wound through the forest preserve which wasn't as flat as they made it sound and made me happy that I train in the preserve by our house with similar conditions. The trail was crushed limestone and passed through prairie and wooded sections which was really pretty. The only thing that detracted from the experience was some incredibly rude mountain bikers who were ripping into the racers for "hogging" the path and not moving out of their way fast enough. There was actually a sign at the preserve entrances showing the permit and explaining that there would be as many as 750 runners that morning so it was really just a case of some random people being obnoxious.

The race finished on the same grass track we started on prompting misery from me. Worse was that we came around a curve that was almost 180 degrees onto the track only to have to make a 120 turn around a fence onto the curve of the track. Kind of takes away some momentum when you have to do that 200 yards from the finish line.

After the race they had plenty of hot apple cider, water, coconut water, Matt's chocolate chip cookies and taffy apples for everyone. So much that they were giving seconds to racers and offering them up to the spectators as well. The results were posted prominently and seemed to be updated frequently so everyone could get their official times.

The atmosphere was friendly and easy going from the organizers, volunteers and racers. I'm looking forward to making this an annual event on my race schedule.