Chicago Half Marathon Recap

Today was the Chicago Half Marathon.

I was supposed to run 12 miles for my Chicago Marathon so this race fit in perfectly. Several people asked me what my plan was for this race. After giving it a lot of thought I decided to just to the very best I could. I was hoping to get a slightly better time than last year so I knew a 1:55 would really be great.

I left my house at 5:00 AM after having my typical breakfast of 2 Bagel thins with peanut butter. A running friend Mark was nice enough to allow a group of us park at his girlfriends house which was only a mile walk to the start line. I LOVE FREE PARKING!!! After hitting gear check and super long port a potty lines we hit the start line.

Another Mark who came out to run had a similar goal for the race as myself. We decided lets try to run together. We were both in corral G. The race began on the street just outside Jackson Park. We anticipated a slow mile 1. However we hit mile one at just over 9 minutes. We decided to just keep going and see how we felt.

Miles 3 came and this is when we headed for Lake shore drive. Mile 4 also seemed to blow by without a wink. Then mile 5 came. We were on Lake Shore and my legs and feet were really starting to say why are you going so fast. After a brief moment I told them to shut up and kept going. Miles 6 and 7 came and went. I was having to hit every water stop on the course though. It seem to give my legs just a brief break and I was able to push on. This is where I took my hammer gel and hit up another water stop as well. I knew we were getting close to the turn around on Lake Shore and the push up the ramp was mentally breaking me down.

Just after we went down the ramp to head back toward Jackson Park I was just feeling very sluggish. I told Mark to go. I didn't want to hold him back. I had to mentally just start breaking down the remainder of the race. 15K passed and I knew it was just under 4 miles to the finish so I just really pushed to mile 10. At mile 10 of all half marathons I always tell myself ok go run a 5K... you have done that plenty of times. So I really started to break it down mile by mile. At the final water stop a girl said ok orange headband you got this and it was just the push I needed. Then I got to mile 12. The race broken the remainder of it for me with signs... 3/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile.. when I spotted the giant gold statue and the 13 mile marker I just pushed really deep down hard... To say the least I was pumped when I saw the sign for the minutes...

 I got a personal best!!

1:54:39...This felt amazingly good. 

Mark and I post race

I earned two medals today.
1 for the race today
2 for running both this race and the June race (Chicago 13.1) therefore completing the windy city challenge.