This race far exceeded my expectations. While it did have a slightly corporate feel that is characteristic of Rock 'n' Roll races, I was impressed by the organization and overall experience. The corral system was organized such that there was no congestion, and you could reach your pace right from the start. The first half of the course was a nice tour of downtown, with rolling hills throughout. The second half was less scenic than the first, as is often the case. There were several tough hills from miles 12 to 18, followed by a nice flat section around a beautiful lake, then another tough hill at mile 20. I did not find the hill at 25 to be as difficult as advertised. My only complaint is the lack of spectators along the course; there were virtually no crowds except for the finish line. Overall, very well done.

The Rock 'n Roll wave starts are phenomenal - I hit my stride moments after crossing the start line, and I rarely had to weave. The course had hills that provided a challenge, but that's what I came for. I particularly enjoyed weaving through several of Raleigh's colleges and being cheered on by the band at Shaw and the students at the women's college. I could not help but think just how pleasant miles 17 to 19 through the park were, as it was very similar to my training. All in all, I enjoyed the tour of Raleigh and the concert in the amphitheater afterwards.

Advertised as a less hilly course than the inaugural year (which I also ran), my GPS, Fitbit and mapping programs all came up with more elevation gain compared to the previous year. Just fewer steep hills compared to last year. The elevation changes were spread out over a longer distance. So, yes, it was a smoother course, though I noticed the downhill pounding more on this race. Again, it's central NC. There are hills everywhere in this part of the state unless you want to run along the river. I had not signed up for this year's marathon or half as I had run two marathons on back-to-back weekends in February. However, the race sponsors gave some good last minute discounts and I made a late decision to run it again with the new course. The weather was just about perfect compared to last year's warmer temperatures. This made the running in the sun-exposed areas much more tolerable. Last year the race fell on Palm Sunday so you had the complicating factors of higher than normal church traffic downtown combined with a not so efficient parking plan made getting to the start very difficult. Not as many observable problems this year with parking. I got in very early to avoid the sort of traffic last year. I sped right through into where I was going to park. The execution of the race logistics seemed excellent. They had plenty of volunteers and liquids at each station. My impression was there were more people out cheering during the early sections of the race compared to last year. But there clearly fewer runners than last year. So places that seemed crowded on the course were less so this year. I know that this is RnR race is one of their smaller ones and I'd be surprised if it survives beyond the current contract with the sponsors and the city which I understand is a 5-year contract. I am signed up for 2016 because the discount during the expo was too much to pass up. It will be about one month after what I have set as my goal marathon race, so it will likely be a more social, easy run compared to a PR attempt.