MO' Cowbell 5K Race Recap

You know my opinion on this race will be a bit biased because I am a MO' Bassador, but I am still going to be as thorough and honest as possible.  This is a great race not only for locals, but also out-of-towners because St. Charles is so close to the airport and Main Street is such a fun place to visit....and there are two casinos close by if you are feeling really lucky.

The Highlights:

•           Great pre-race communication via email and social media.  Emails were both informative and entertaining.  The pre-race emails were also broken into more bite-sized emails so that they weren't too overwhelming.
•       The expo was at St. Charles Community College, which was a bit of a distance from the actual race course, but it also allowed ample parking.  Back when the expo was at Lindenwood University, I remember parking being an issue.
•       The expo had a lot of interesting and unique vendors.  The Brooks trailer and the Alter G treadmill experience were outside in the parking lot.
•       You could sign up to become a MO' Bassador at the expo!
•       I worked the morning shift of packet pick-up on Saturday, and it seemed to go smoothly from my perspective.  Some times were busier than others but I didn't really have too many questions so the process must have been pretty straight forward to runners.
•            Road construction affected our race day drive, but we were alerted to that in pre-race communication as well.
•       Shirt - The shirts this year were made by a company called tasc.  The shirts were very soft and partially made from bamboo.

•      Super generous t-shirt exchange policy -  If when you pick up your shirt it doesn't fit the way you would like, bring it to the shirt exchange tent (near the stage) at Runners Village on race day (sorry not at the ExMO'). If we don't have the shirt size you need, we will order you a shirt and get it to your local Big River Store to pick up.  How many other races do that?  We love our runners!
•       On race day, you were encouraged to arrive at the start early due to the road construction and to get good parking.  We arrived around 6 a.m. for the 8 a.m. 5k and we parked right on Main Street by the shops.  At that time, there was still plenty of parking available.  I knew the gazebo had real restrooms underneath, so we parked pretty much adjacent to the gazebo.
•       I loved that this 5k was part of a longer day of races.  You never felt alone because you were always surrounded by other runners and the cheering at the finish was pretty amazing!  In fact my fiance and I came back around 1 p.m. and there were still tons of people in the runner's village and around the finish line.  
•       Did anyone notice the similarities between the Rio 2016 Olympic medals and the MO' Cowbell medals?  

•        The MO' Cowbell PR bell!  I didn't get to ring it though :(  At least I "won" a gold medal!

•       There was a coffee food truck this year!