RT

Humana Rock 'n' Roll Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Great Expectations, Poor Execution
08/16/2018

I had been dreaming of running one of the aRock n Rollať franchise runs since I was a freshman in high school. Bopping along, listening to bands playing classic rock anthems along the course sounded like the coolest thing ever.
The online service was as great. The website was intuitive, had all of the info I needed, and they were able to email me multiple times to make sure that I had the info for registration/packet pickup/etc.

Race Day was a mess. The pacers for their assigned corrals were way off target and those who arrived at a normal time ended up having to depart the gate a corral later than what they were expecting. They definitely needed more corrals. From the 15minuters/walkers to the 1st corral elite runners, it was more packed than it should have been.
The actual course was fine. It started raining which was refreshing, given the humidity. The half marathoners and the 10k runners split within the 1st mile. The rejoining at the end was a nightmare. Folks who had only signed up were fun were unaware of the etiquette to get out of the way of those half marathon runners who were actually competing for a faster time and made it more difficult for them to get through. Iam sure they must have lost a few seconds at least to that unforeseen obstacle.
Iam not sure of the playlist that is organized for this event, maybe I was going crazy, but Iam pretty sure I heard aThunderstruckať play at least 4 times more than it should have been. The spacing was way off between at least two of the speakers playing the exact same song, they were just slightly off by a word. That drove me nuts.
I wanted to love my experience with Rock n Roll. I really did. Iall probably try it again somewhere else, just to shake off this experience. But yeah. I had hoped for better.