Texas Roadhouse Homes for our Troops 5K

Road Race Name: Texas Roadhouse Homes for our Troops 5K
Location: Scarborough, Maine
Distance: 5K
Price: $17 With T-Shirt, $15 With No Shirt 
Race Rating: 4.5/10

Course Review:
Since I am not sponsored by this race, I am going to of course give my honest opinion of the race. This course was not very great. The course was just a little too dull in my opinion. It was a lollipop style course which means that the you run the course, loop around a cone on the ground in the middle of the road and then follow the same exact route back to the starting line. The course followed a main road which wasn't blocked off and I felt that sometimes I was running on my own down the street and wasn't part of any race (not in a good way). The end of the race was the worst when it came to the volunteers and there was a lot of confusion about where to go. They sent the runners into a parking lot and tried to tell us where to go while we were running by! As many of you know, at the end of the race, all you are focused on is finishing and the last thing on your mind is trying to figure out where to go. Some runners, cut through the parking lot, while others ran completely around it. After contacting the director of the race about this problem, he said that the problems would be resolved the next year, so we will see about that. 
Overall Course Rating: 2/10

Race Atmosphere Review:
The race atmosphere was actually pretty nice. They played the National Anthem before the race, which you don't see very often and their was a sense of camaraderie between the runners. Since it was a 5k, there was a variety of people running this race, and nobody was too competitive during the race. We were all looking forward to the end of the race since it was sponsored by Texas Roadhouse (a great local steakhouse). There was more confusion however during the middle of the race, when the policeman led the first 10 runners the wrong way and they missed their turn. Maybe it was the charitable attitude of the runners or the humor of the situation, but nobody seemed to mind too much and we laughed about the confusion. Anyone who was trying to run a specific time might have been frustrated by this situation though.
Overall Race Atmosphere Rating: 5/10

Post Race Food and Drink Review:
I have to say, that the food and drink did help my opinion of this race a little bit. Their was plenty of delicious Texas Roadhouse pulled pork and bread. For those who weren't interested in BBQ, there was also pizza. Water and gatorade was provided and overall the free BBQ helped smooth over the mood.  There was also some coleslaw and corn to round out the meal. Overall, I definitely enjoyed that the race was sponsored by Texas Roadhouse since they have great food and were very generation with their donation to the post race party.
Overall Post Race Food and Drink Rating: 6/10