Holy hot chocolate they weren't kidding when they say to come early for parking. I had read Jennifer H.'s review but I guess I really didn't get what she meant when she said the cars were backed up to the 101. I exited at 7am from 101 and it took me 45 mins to the race grounds and park. By then, the 5K was already over!
After taking almost 2 hours to get to the race, I was not going to leave without running so I ended up running the 15K instead!
The parking is definitely an issue I have never been in a race where it took so long to park. I'm not sure what can be done to improve in this area for next year.
Otherwise, the race was very well organized from packet pickup to day of the race. There were a ton of port o johns and volunteers handing out Gatorade and water at the aid stations. I loved hoodie, hot chocolate, and fondue. All were of extremely high quality.
The only other thing I was disappointed about was the finisher mug. On the website it looked like it was ceramic but the actual finisher mug is made from thin, cheap plastic. Almost disposable. In fact, that's where a lot of the finisher mug ended up- in the trash can after the goodies were consumed. I brought mine home but it looks so cheap I don't know if I will display it.
Overall, a very enjoyable way to spend the morning. I don't know if I will do this race again due to the parking issue~ but it is a fun race!