Heart of the Hills 10k and 5k

i have mixed feelings about the heart of the hills race. while on the one hand this is a small, community race, i think that i still had higher expectations for it based on the fact that it is a certified race and course.
the 10k course is beautiful and scenic passing the kirk in the hills church, various little lakes, and gorgeous homes. my sister walked the 5k and said that course was a little bit uninspiring.
i found the on site registration and packet pick up pretty good, but i was surprised that as a pre-​registered runner i received no race day information in advance. the race website is also pretty bare bones. **i strongly suggest that they add an elevation map since while it is the «heart of the hills» it was not really clear in advance how hilly the course was going to be.** and for the record, none of the hills is super intense, but there are quite a few of them. so definitely if you train on the typical flat michigan terrain it might be very challenging, luckily for me i have been training the climb from the sd harbor to balboa park. =)
overall it was a really good tune up race in prep for my half, but i don’t know if i’ll rush back to run it again.
but, as my first 10k i get to now say:
10K PR: 57:14
(although that’s another thing – the start line was not all that coordinated so i think that technically i could shave some seconds off of that).