There was a nice, long stretch along the river; however, the race started at noon, and the vast majority of it was in direct sunlight. There was no relief from the sun until the finish line, and even then you had to go back into the sun to get some water. With an earlier start time, the sun would not have been directly overhead and it would have been cooler out. It's New England, so you never know what the weather will be, but a noon start time is generally a bad idea on a course with little to no shade. The other challenge was that early in the race, after crossing the bridge, the running lane was just the shoulder of the road. It was too crowded. People were still trying to set their pace, and it was difficult to do. This might not have been a problem for the fastest runners in the front, but for the main pack, it was tight. The road is a busy one, so it was not particularly safe to run outside the cones to get more space.