Monday, September 10, 2012

Chicago Half Marathon Race Recap

Half marathon #6 completed yesterday!  A big thank you goes out to Nina for my free entry into this race!



Out of the four half-marathons I've done this year, this is the only one that had good weather (sunny and temps in the 60s).  Therefore, I had set semi-high goals for myself going into this race.  My first goal was to break 2:25, and my second goal was to break 2:20.  However, I was coming off of some trepidation following my awful 18-miler last weekend, as well as another 5-mile training run done last week in the same god-awful horrible heat and humidity.  But more on that another time.

The day started with a 5:20 AM wakeup call.  Kim, Erin, and Maggie came over around 5:45, and we got into my car and headed out.  There was more traffic and less parking than anticipated at that hour, so we cut it a little closer than I thought we would with our arrival.  But, since Maggie is the orchestrator of all of our Chicago Running Blogger meetups, I finally made it to a pre-race picture!

From L to R: Sara (and her adorable dog Waffles), Lauren, Amanda, Maggie, Kim, Erin and me

The race site was madness - runners, portapotties, and traffic everywhere.  Not to mention that the race site was enormous, so it took us some time to get ourselves situated.  We were in line at the portapotties when they blew the starting airhorn.

Photo courtesy of Kim.
(I am cheesing it a little too much for a portapotty line picture.  Oops.)

Similarly, the first several miles of the race and the first few aid stations were jampacked, too.  I had forgotten that this race draws over 18,000 participants and it sure felt like it.  Wow!

Kim and I ran the entire race together.  She's a very strong runner and she's doing a 50K next weekend(!), so she wanted to take this race easier.  Nevertheless, I knew she would push me in a good way - and push she did!  We did the first few miles at a pace that was a bit faster than I thought I could maintain for the entire half-marathon, but then I started slowing down a little into a more comfortable pace.  It was nice to have Kim there to chat with, and the time went by much more quickly than at my previous half marathons.

The course is almost entirely an out-and-back on Lake Shore Drive.  They actually close a southern chunk of the Drive for the race, which was cool.  My commute to work takes me on the very same stretch of the Drive that we were running on.  But, it felt completely different to be traveling on it by foot with hordes of other runners surrounding us.

Chicago's Lake Shore Drive (aka "LSD" and aka "the Drive") on a normal day.

Chicago's Lake Shore Drive during the Chicago Half Marathon

I had told Kim that I wanted to do a 9:1 run/walk ratio, but I was so focused on staying on pace with her that we ended up overshooting the run ratio several times.  There were lots of aid stations and I walked through all but maybe two or three of them to get water/Gatorade.  I had taken a pre-race GU, and also took a GU at mile 5 and again at about mile 10.5.  I had also brought some salt capsules with me and planned to take about one each hour.  But I completely forgot about the salt capsules until close to the end of the race.  Oops.

By mile 9, we were cruising along but I realized that a sub 2:20 was not in the books for the day.  I knew I'd still be able to finish at or below 2:25, though.  In my previous half marathons, I had always been feeling tired by mile 10 or mile 11.  But this time, I felt solid - by FAR the best I've ever felt at that point in a half marathon.  It was a great feeling.
OK, maybe not quite THAT great, but still a great feeling nonetheless!

We began speeding up around mile 10 and passing other runners left and right.  Kim kept pushing me to show her what I had, to which I kept gasping, "I will do my best!!!!!"  There were signs up in the final mile denoting three quarters of a mile to go, half a mile to go, a quarter mile to go, etc.  After passing the half-mile to go marker, it felt like eternity passed with no sign of the quarter mile indicator.  I finally screamed to no one in particular, "WHERE IS THE QUARTER MILE MARKER?!?!?!?"  (When we finally did see it, Kim shouted to me, "There it is!")

Around the 13-mile marker, Kim yelled to me that this was it, so I took off and gunned it as hard as I could.  I only lasted for about 15 seconds before I realized I couldn't keep up that pace, so sadly I started slowing down a bit but still pushed as hard as I could.  I saw Adam close to the finish line, waving his Terrible Towel, and then I crossed the finish line.  Woo hoo!



My official finishing time was 2:22:52, more than 6 minutes faster than my last half marathon (the Rock N Roll Chicago Half Marathon).  Admittedly, considering just how much better the weather conditions were this time compared to my other half marathons this year, I had been hoping for an even larger improvement.  But still, nothing to sneeze at.  Many thanks to Kim for running with me and pushing me as much as she did!

I also later learned that Adam had undergone yet another set of unseemly adventures trying to navigate his way down to the race amidst all the street closures and traffic. Huge thanks to him, as always.  He continues to timelessly support me in my crazy endeavors while having to undergo some very stressful situations.

After the race, Erin was so kind to host a fabulous post-race brunch at her place.  It was a blast!  Erin put out quite the spread of food, too.

 
 
Here's a picture of us brunch-goers on Erin's rooftop:

From L to R: Christina, Emily, Erin, Maggie, Kelsey, Kim, me, and Chris.

Really fun times and a great way to close out my week off from work!

I do have a lot of lessons learned from this race that will pertain to the Chicago Marathon (e.g. another chapter in the great shoe audition, sigh).  More to come on all that later this week.

24 comments:

  1. Great job! I'm sorry, I never got a chance to talk with you at the meet up! It was a bit chaotic!

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    1. Thanks so much, Amanda! Congratulations to you on a great race as well! It was fantastic to meet you in person, despite things being so rushed and chaotic. Can't wait to meet up again soon!!!

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  2. Congrats on the huge improvement!! The weather was absolutely wonderful for this race. I'm happy you felt really good in the later miles of the race, awful 18 miler or not it still made you stronger for this race. Im jealous I didn't get to run it this year and meet you, I was out running on the lakefront during the race and stopped to spectate a bit. It was awesome seeing all the happy runners out there!

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    1. Thank you, Xaar!!! I wished I known that you were out on the lakefront spectating, I would have looked for you to say hello! How are you feeling in the last week prior to Fox Valley?

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    2. I pretty much suck at spectating. :) I should have gotten your goal pace and what you were wearing so I could have looked for you too! It was a kinda last minute decision to spectate and incorporate it into my Sunday run.

      Ankle is pretty cranky at me today. I've also got some horrible allergies... Nothing ever goes according to plan. Haha

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    3. We'll definitely have to try to meet up another time. Once the craziness of your Fox Valley Marathon is over, we still need to find a time to go for a run on the lakefront together!

      I feel your pain on the allergies, I have pretty much been going through a box of Kleenex an hour. Praying for frost!

      Sorry to hear about the ankle being cranky, grrrr. Has resting it helped at all?!?

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  3. Nice race. Way to go! Great recap and pics. I too had difficulties getting to the starting line on-time! Oh well...

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    1. Great race to you, as well - you are a speed demon!!! And the starting area was just madness, WOW. It is too bad that I didn't get a chance to meet you in person at the HD tent (isn't Waffles ADORABLE?). But definitely hope to meet up soon at another race!

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  4. Yay for having a strong race! See, I told you it was the heat that was getting you down. I'll keep my fingers crossed we get good weather on October 7th!

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    1. Yay for you having a strong race, as well! For someone who has been taking it "easy" this year from running, you sure do run some incredible races. ;-)

      Thanks again for hosting the fab brunch yesterday!!! Loved your running scrapbooks!

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  5. You ran so well! I know you wanted to run a bit faster, but you should be proud of what you did and you FORGOT TO POINT OUT WE RAN A SECOND FASTER HALF! Come on! Give yourself credit! LOL. Just teasin' ya.

    I loved running with you and hope I get the treat agian someday soon :)

    It was so fun to run LSD. In those temps. Not any warmer. LOL!

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    1. Thanks, Kim! If I had run by myself, I am not sure I would have broken 2:25 - so thanks again to you for all your help! I had such a great time running with you too! Ah yes, I forgot to mention our NEGATIVE SPLIT!!! Not to worry, though, I'll be sure to mention it ad nauseum in my "other lessons learned" post coming up later this week. =D And agreed that the temps were about as warm as I'd like for a good race!!!

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  6. Great finish time! Sounds like you ran a solid race, had a good attitude, and gave it all you had. That's the way to do it! Awesome medal, too. And yeay for a blogger meet-up!*

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    1. Thank you, Amy!!! Appreciate the very kind words and the great support, as always! Speaking of blogger meetups, have you decided what you're going to do for the Nuremburg race!?!?

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    2. I'm still on the fence! I really want to do it (and I need a race so badly), but I'm not a fan of going alone. It'll probably be a last minute decision!*

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    3. Oooh, the plot thickens!!! I still vote that you go for it - I think you'd really enjoy it. But I totally understand being on the fence with these races (I'm on the fence for about 5 different races pretty much at any given point in time =D ) Can't wait to hear what the final verdict is!

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  7. So nice to meet you in person finally!! Sorry i was a little crazed! I am jealous of your run with Kim - sounds like you guys had a super fun race!! That is a great time, especially considering how much marathon training sucks out of all of us!! :D

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    1. It was so nice to finally meet you in person too! No apologies - it was so crazy chaotic that morning that all of us were maxed out before even starting the race, for sure. Congratulations again on a fantastic race, as well as everything that you've been juggling and working through. AMAZING!

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  8. I soooo appreciated you navigating the traffic and parking to get us to the race! Congrats on a great race and a PR! Taking 6 minutes off of your time in 6 weeks in pretty great, especially considering you're training for a marathon so this race wasn't even a goal race!

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    1. Truly my pleasure to drive all of us! It was so great to meet you in person and it was just awesome to have pre- and post-race company (usually I go to these races alone, with the exception of my husband). And congratulations to you too on a fantastic race, even though you weren't racing it. Can't wait for the marathon in a few weeks (and being able to go back to our normal lives afterwards!!!) =D

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  9. Congrats on a super strong race! I so wish I could have made it into the city for this one - looks like you all had a blast!

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    1. Thanks so much, Bobbi! I wish you could have been there for this race, too - it would have been awesome to finally meet you in person! Never fear, though, we will meet in person very soon. =D

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  10. Congratulations on your awesome race!!! A PR is a PR after all :) I am SO jealous of the blogger meet-up! Ugh I MUST make it out to one during the next big race...it's my goal!

    I've never had a running buddy before and usually don't mind running solo, but I can totally see the benefit of having one during a race. In fact, it would be great to have someone pace me during a race. Looks like it helped you as well!

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    1. Thanks so much, Irina! Yes, at one of these upcoming races I hope you can make it out to a blogger meetup so we can all meet you in person! (Lesson learned on my own end to allow more time than you think you need to navigate traffic and logistics enroute to the blogger meetups. =D )

      It was awesome having a running buddy, but I won't lie that Kim really pushed me! So if you're ever looking to run a race casually and/or just for fun, those are the times when doing it solo would work well. =D

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