Even though it started out cold, the temperature ended up helpful. I never got overheated, and the wind was almost always at my back. I felt good through the entire race.

Mile 2 was incorrectly marked, and gave me a scare. I didn't think I had slowed (especially between miles 1 and 2!), but my time was nearly two minutes slower. I chatted with a guy at mile 3 who had a GPS receiver, and he told me that mile 2 was definitely marked incorrectly!

I like knowing the course better before running it. Even though I drive over the bridges a bunch, I had no idea where the mile markers would be, and didn't have a good feel for the distances.

I would have rated this race top notch, except for the bus fiasco at the end. They planned to bus everyone back to the start, except there were two starting lines (one for the 5K and one for the 15K), and they only had four school buses to accommodate everyone! On top of that, it was 40 degrees and windy, and we had to stand in the freezing cold for 45 minutes to catch the silly bus. BAD PLANNING!!!!