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| The start line in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. |
Last weekend, B Rich and I traveled to Chicago so that I could participate in the Chicago Rock n Roll half marathon. Ever since I got the half marathon itch, I'd been researching fun half marathons throughout the country to run and the Rock n Roll series was on my list. I debated about doing this one since it was in July and we all know how hot and humid the summer months can be in the Midwest. But I decided to bite the bullet and do it since it had an early start time of 6:30 a.m.
I was unsure of how hot and humid it would be that morning so I decided to run in the lightest colors I could find and opted for no tank top since I was afraid I'd overheat. While it was humid that morning, it wasn't anything unbearable and didn't seem too bad.
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| Before the race..ready to head into my corral. |
I was originally scheduled to start in the 22nd corral but moved up to the 14th corral. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to finish, and I was also worried if I started later that the heat and humidity would be too much for me to handle.
The route took us all around downtown Chicago. I ran most of the first 5 miles, and was surprised when my first few miles were between 7-9 minute miles. I wasn't pushing myself and I kept telling myself to pace myself because of the heat. Around mile 5.5, my face started to feel extremely warm. I did carry a water bottle with me but I started to worry how much hotter I would get. Luckily, starting at mile 5 throughout the rest of the race, the medical tents had pools of ice and sponges that they were passing out. Anytime I saw the ice, I'd take some and put it on my wrists and neck and throw the rest down my bra or shorts. That really helped to cool me down and would give me an extra pep in my step to keep me going.
I told B that I would text him around mile 10 so he'd have enough time to walk down to the finish line to meet me. I was going at a good pace and figured it wold take me another 30 minutes to finish. I was super excited because although I didn't have a goal time in mind, I was going to finish around 2:15 which is great to me since it was so hot outside.
Well, I started to realize as I was running south that I seemed farther than 3 miles away from the finish line. Pretty soon my app told me I had completed 13.1 miles in 2:19 and I wasn't at the finish line! I was a little frustrated and started to wonder if this was a full marathon. I kept pushing on and the race ended around 14.5 miles. I'm not sure if my GPS on my phone was off, but I Google mapped the course and it said it was 14.5 as well.
My final time (for the 14.5 miles) was 2:35. I was proud of myself for finishing since I started to walk a lot after that 13.1 mile mark.
As always, I was super sore afterwards and it was quite the struggle trying to stand the past 2 days. I did get some severely bruised toe nails, one of which I had to go to urgent care for this morning. It was super swollen and had a major blood blister underneath it. I was worried it would burst on its own and didn't want it to get infected so off to the doctor I went. He said he'd never seen anything like that before! I decided to let him cauterize the nail and pop the blister. It wasn't painful but it took the pressure and pain off the toe so it doesn't hurt to walk anymore thank goodness.
Overall, the race was fun. Around mile 6 I actually started to have fun..although I think that's because that's the point I couldn't feel my legs anymore. The streets were lined with tons of people with lots of inspiring signs which really help to motivate you. There are also bands at each mile marker too which made it fun as well.
Taking a few days off from running but then I'm up and training again for the Omaha half marathon at the end of September. I also just signed up for the Disney Princess half marathon in Walt Disney World in February! I'm really excited to do that one.
Rock n Roll stats
5k 33: 47
10k 1:11:19
10 miles 1:57:31
Pace 11:54
Chip time: 2:35:53
Overall place: 10,368 out of 14,881
Division: 1486 out of 2207
Gender: 5626 our of 8998
Nike app time
13.1 miles 2:19:07
10k 59:02