Egg Shell Shuffle Half Marathon & 5K

I wanted to love this race, I really did. It’s a local race that supports our running community in a place I love to run with perfect weather. The price was reasonable, the medal was adorable, and I love that they went with shorts instead of another shirt that I clearly don’t need.
However.
There isn’t enough parking at the start. And there are ZERO bathrooms on the course. I also didn’t think there were enough water stations for a half marathon. This race also lacked both pacers and course clocks, so heaven help you if you didn’t have your own timing device.
The post-​race party was amply stocked for such a small race, featuring lots of food and sponsor giveaways. There was also an opportunity to get a photo with the Easter bunny and an egg hunt for kids and adults.
It’s a cute run for the family, but I was going for a new personal best and that just didn’t happen here because of a variety of things that the race could improve upon.
Bathrooms are important!

This race is held in April and is SO family friendly.
The breakdown:
–Registration is $ 50 – 55 for the half, $ 30 – 35 for the 5k. This is about the right price for me to impulse register for a race (however, less is always better).
–Packet pick up at Dick Pond Athletics. Instead of shirts runners got shorts! Different is good.
–Parking was ample, I arrived 30 minutes before the start and was able to park inside the forest preserve lots with no problem.
–Race kicked off at 8:30am. For someone whose had 6:50am race start times, this was a nice change of pace. Sleep in on a race day, what a novel concept.
–The course follows bike paths through Busse Woods forest preserve, some of it’s shaded some of it’s not.
–You’re surrounded by green, the views are great and very zen after weeks of training throughout the city.
–It’s a smaller race, i.e. less crowding once you get on the run.
–Fairly flat, helps the odds of getting a personal record.
–Water stations were well organized and spaced throughout the course.
–Post race goodies were average, typical foods: banana’s, bagels, etc.
–Medals for all. Colorful egg shaped medals with a bad a$$ running bunny no less, but it was much smaller in person than it looked like on their website.
–Post race egg hunt.
I would run this again.