chicago half marathon recap
First of all, let me just say that my camera/iPhone stopped working mid-race, hence the lack of pictures. Yeah I know, I shouldn’t have to make excuses…it’s just a blog. But I want to sincerely apologize, because I know it’s not as much fun without pictures of red, sweaty, exhausted me. (joking). I promise I didn’t break it on purpose.
Sunday morning was the Chicago Half Marathon! I was definitely dreading this event. I signed up for it mid-June to keep me motivated to workout all summer. HA! I followed my training plan through the end of July, and then the hot summer weather hit and I completely fell off the bandwagon. However, I did some swim workouts and hoped that those would transfer over to help my running.
Thankfully, I now live really close to the starting line of the half marathon, so I didn’t have to wake up too early. My alarm went off at 5:50 a.m, and I quickly got dressed, ate a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter, grabbed my stuff, and drove with my roommate to her relatives’ house, which is a couple blocks from the starting line.
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| my roomie, J, and her little sis |
I think if I had to create the perfect racing weather, I would have picked Sunday! Sunny, no clouds, and 55 degrees at the starting line. Hello beautiful.
I was put at the letter ‘G’ starting gate based on the clock’s time from the last time I ran this race. I pretty much got there right before the gun went off, but since there were a couple thousand people in front of me, I had 2 or 3 minutes to kill before I actually crossed the starting line. I had time to kill and I took pictures:)
“Ladies and Gentlemen! 2 minutes until the race begins! 2 minutes until alllll of your training will show!”
(or lack thereof)
Mile 1: Since the weather was crisp and I had been standing still for a couple of minutes, I was ready to get moving! I started the race with my legs, not my head; I was weaving in and out of the slower runners around me to find open spaces to run. The first mile was finished in 7:45. This is a bad sign, people.
Miles 2-3: I freaked out a little bit when I saw the clock at mile 1, so I decided to slow it down a little. I wasn’t sure if I had enough calories at breakfast, so I sipped on some gatorade at the first water station, which made my belly a bit nauseous for a minute or two. But my legs were still strong at this point, so the next two miles were around 8:00. Awesome. I’m gonna fly through this race, no problem!
Miles 4-5: There’s a slight hill on mile 4. Actually, it’s just a highway overpass, but it takes about 2 minutes to cross, so it’s the biggest hill on the Chicago half marathon. It felt much steeper than it actually was, which I should have seen as a problem.
Running anything longer than 10 miles is a mental challenge to me, so I have to break it up into pieces so my mind doesn’t think I’m actually going that far! I try to think of the first 5 miles as the warm-up. Even though I had my iPod with me, I didn’t let myself turn on any music until I saw the 6 mile marker. I really didn’t need it, though! There were tons of people screaming and holding signs on the sidelines for the first 5 miles. The race starts with a sort of down-and-back start (it’s the route of the 5K, which starts after the half marathon), so I ended up seeing some of the same signs twice, like “Wait, I thought they said rum?” (with a picture of a margarita), and a bunch of other sufficiently cheesy self-made signage. There are high school bands and cheerleading squads and mariachi bands and the whole thing just feels like one big party!
Mile 6: But by the time I got to mile 6, the crowds had thinned out and then completely cleared, and it was just me and 12,000 other runners. I turned on my iPod and tried to focus on the beauty of the lake and the privilege of being able to run, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t constantly thinking about a PR at this point. My 5 mile split was 41:39, so I figured if I could hold on to 9 minute miles from that point on, this could be a piece of cake!
Mile 7: I saw the top finishers coming back on the other side of Lake Shore Drive. Oh crap, I’m not gonna win. (Kidding).
Mile 8: The race course starts with the 5K loop, then it’s mostly a down-and-back course on Lake Shore Drive. The nice part is that the turn-around is after mile 8, so once you’re around the corner you’re well over halfway finished with the race. Since mile 8 is headed in the other direction, I was running toward the sun. I drank water at each aid station, which were spaced at almost every mile, because despite the 60 degrees, it felt really warm with the sun in my eyes!
Mile 9: Wall. Whoever says the wall is more mental than physical doesn’t know what a wall feels like.
Mile 10: The worst part about a half-marathon wall is that once I hit it, it doesn’t go away. The rest of the race was a struggle. My playlist was designed to last for miles 5-10 (thanks to Cara for all the Maroon 5 songs!) and I focused on the music and kinda sang along to take my mind out of the race. Since my playlist was still playing, I was mentally in the “middle” of the race, so I didn’t think about being close to the end. My 10 mile split was 1:26.42, which was a lot better than what I thought I had been running!
Mile 11 is tricky. It’s the 3rd to last mile, so you can’t even say “after this, only one more!” Mile 11 is just kind of there. I don’t really remember it.
Mile 12: The crowd started thickening, which is awesome for cheering inspiration! It also means that there’s no room on the side to duck out of the race – finish or die. I’m a drama queen. My pace slooowed dooooown, so I simply focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes, when it really hurt, I would count my steps. For some reason counting to 100 makes it go by faster.
Mile 13: The signs are back! “You’re not almost finished, Rick!” I’m guessing that Rick falls into the same trap that got me during my first half marathon – once you see the 12 mile marker, you think you’re just about there! Lies. You still have 1.1 miles left. The only thing I dislike about the Chicago race is that they put 1/4 mile markers at the end, so after I passed marker 12 and I felt like I had been running forever, I wanted to shoot myself at “3/4 mile to go!”.
The final 1/2 mile was actually a ton of fun. I saw some people I knew from school, and they cheered my name which helped so much! I pushed it to the end (and by that, I mean that it was probably an 11 minute mile) and it was all smiles and waves at the finish line. Gotta smile for the camera!
The clock 1:59.40, but my chip time was 1:57.23. PR!
A banana, tablespoon of peanut butter, and two water bottles later I headed over to the recovery area to get my free pizza and beer meet up with friends. It was at this point that I realized my iPhone wasn’t working. I had turned off the music for the last few miles, and it got splashed with water while I was getting a drink at an aid station so I didn’t even realized it had turned off. Sorry for the lack of post-race pictures, but trust me: I wasn’t really lookin’ my best:)
Now, 48 hours after the race, every muscle in my body aches and my pinky toes still have blisters the size of the toe itself. I’m in bad shape. I’m pretty sure that my body is paying me back for putting it through that without proper training:) But I’m so grateful that I have a body that is willing to take a beating every now and then. It was such a fun day! Even though during the race I was thinking “I’m NEVER signing up for one of these again,” I’m looking forward to my muscle recovery so I can start running again. Next race, I’ll be in shape!
-Kelsey-
Have you run a half marathon or any other distance?
What’s your favorite race location? (Chicago is pretty great!)
Congrats on your PR, that's amazing! 🙂
thanks, claire!!