Chicago Half Marathon & 5K

This Half Marathon and 5K takes place closer to the south side in Jackson Park therefore you lack the beauty of Chicago’s skyline and Grant Park areas. However, I only did the 5K so I can’t comment on what the Half Marathon course was like, but the 5K course was boring, flat, with nothing fun to look at versus if the run was at Montrose Harbor then you can actually run along the lake.
The goodie bag? Fliers and more fliers. The best they could of done is give us drawstring bags instead of plastic recycle bags. The cotton t-​shirt definitely reflected the ⁹⁄₁₁ tribute, but I must admit I like the yellow shirts the volunteers/​workers had better than our white shirts.
The best part was the FREE Lou Malnati’s pizza! (Can’t remember the name of the group that provided it for us) We also got a medal and a free cup of Michelob Ultra. Also bananas, rice krispy treats, water bottles, after the race.
The gear check line after the 5K? Holy cow it took us a good 20 minutes standing in line before we even got to the front and it was so disorganized. The girl who was trying to look for my bag never found it because I happen to spot it towards the front of the pack when it should of been towards the back. Very disorganized. They should give the 5K at least 2 gear check sections.
Maybe the Half Marathoners got a better run out of this than the 5Kers. I guess I’ll be the judge of that since I plan on running the Half in 2012.