Race Report: Chicago Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon

As you may remember, I got this race entry for free, so I was going into it planning on enjoying every second, reflecting on last year and how far I've come, taking lots of pictures and soaking in the atmosphere, and hopefully getting all 18 miles I had on my schedule done.

Damn. Typing all that my day seemed pretty epic FAIL.

Backing up - the expo, like last year, was awesome. RnR really knows how to put on an expo. Jenna and I hit it on Friday early, to beat the rush, since John took the day off of work to work (that seems really really wrong) in the basement. We have flooring scheduled, so we're on a time crunch now, and he's working really really hard to get it done. Anyhow, Jenna and I had a really nice time taking it all in and trying a gajillion free samples of everything imaginable.

After the expo, we stopped for lunch and then hit my favorite running store for new kicks. I am in desperate need of new shoes, and my shins are telling me so. In my shoe store dreams, I wanted to try on every pair in the place before blissfully choosing the PERFECT shoe. Um, not so much. He took one look at my feet, brought out 3 pairs, and I settled on the most expensive pair. (Brooks Ariels, for the record) I came home very much un-in-love with my shoes.

So I sent John in to take them back and get me new Adrenalines.

Yeah - I know - NOT how I was hoping that would go.

But, getting back on track....

Saturday John spent the ENTIRE day in the basement (have fun in the BASEMENT, da da, da DAAA, I'm sitting on my lucky couch...are we the only family who sings that song incessantly?) and I tried to go to bed sort of early. I got all my stuff ready to go, since I knew that I was on my own. I had considered driving down with some running club peeps, but that would've meant LEAVING MY HOUSE at 3:45. Um, no. I had everything laid out for the morning, I hopped in the shower, and I was in bed before 11.

Only, John was NOT. In fact, John was still working in the basement. With drills. And hammers. And various other noise-making paraphernalia.

Until 1 in the mutherfucking morning (please excuse my french, but I was a LITTLE pissed off by this time). And then he came upstairs and got in the shower (in our master there is no door between our room and the bathroom) and then he came to bed and said, "Oh, I'm sorry."

Sorry.

Grrrrr.

And now, I am too cranky to even sleep. And my alarm goes off at 3:30am, and he's still snoring. I am only a little irritated. I am TRYING HARD to not let it ruin my day.

I made it down to the city right when I hoped I would, found parking super close (and super expensive) with no incident, and only managed to forget the plastic bag I planned on keeping my phone in for the race. So of course, I knew right away that I'd be running in the rain. What I was unprepared for though, was how long it'd take me to find gear check. It wasn't clear where I was supposed to go (I am really not used to checking anything - that's what husbands are for, right?) so I didn't start my warm up miles in time to get all 3 done before the race began.

I did manage 2.66 and trotted up to the start corrals with 2 minutes to spare. I didn't exactly find my corral either - from what I saw, they only went up to 11. But I KNOW there were supposed to be more, I just couldn't figure out where they were. I was supposed to be in 15, but I hopped into 11 and we crossed the start like 5 minutes after the gun went off. Super fast.

Immediately, I was happy. I was feeling good. The weather was cool and overcast. The energy was great. But it was so freaking crowded. And that never really went away - I was elbow to elbow with people the entire race.

As in all Chicago races, my garmin freaked the eff out from the get go. I lost signal completely under the first set of tunnels, and it chimes mile 1 and I wasn't even close yet. It was a half a mile off that fast. And for the first few miles, I'd look down and see that I was running a 4 minute pace (HA!!) and then a 17 minute pace. So I just stopped looking and ran on feel. Garmin splits for the first 5 miles? 9:34, 10:15, 8:50 (hahaha!), 9:15 (also funny), 10:50. Basically, I didn't have a clue, and neither did it.

AND. Despite the fact that there were bands nearly every mile, THIS is what I had in my head. For 5 miles. There's something wrong with me. Finally, I just put my music on...

So I gu'd at mile 5ish, which considering my warm up miles was probably a bit late, but I was feeling pretty good. My stomach was staying out of the picture, which is huge. It had been drizzling on and off, but nothing major. I had decided to carry my handheld, not knowing how cytomax would treat me, and that turned out to be a good decision. I was taking water from each water stop.

I'm not sure exactly where my wheels fell off. I remember struggling to stay running just before the 9 mile water stop where I knew they'd have gu. I was mentally pushing to keep running to that. And then around 10 my ass really started talking to me. But not the way it usually does - no GI stuff here - but my muscle was REALLY sore. And each time we'd run up an overpass, the hill wasn't big, but my butt was SCREAMING. I stopped at one point to lean against a bridge and really tried to stretch it out well. But it was not helping much.

Splits: 6 - 10:25, 7 - 11:26, 8 - 10:16, 9 - 11:44

And then? I just stopped caring. I walked and stretched when I needed to. I got all pissed off when it started to rain harder. I was cranky. I was over this run.

At about 11.5 I walked with a girl for a minute and she perked me up some. I think company would've made this run much more fun. I convinced her to run the downhill and we stayed together for a little bit. Then she wanted to pick up the pace for the last mile and I sent her off.

I ran as much as my butt would allow me to until the finish line. It was raining harder than it had been the whole race when I crossed. I was soaked.

heading towrds the finish - happy to be done

Splits: 10 - 12:05, 11 - 12:07, 12 - 12:22, 13 - 13:07, 14 - 10:30

Afterwards, I navigated the giant cluster that was the chute. It took forever to find medals. It took forever to find food. I had to backtrack to get a popsicle. I skipped finisher photos. I needed to get out of there.

I got my gear checked bag (I was really worried about my phone - I wanted to get it into something dry) and then I walked back up the course and cheered for the runners coming in. I knew that anymore running was out of the question for me, but I wanted to try to get another mile or 2 in, even if it was walking.

My finish time was 2:28:36 - my slowest half of the year, but all things considered, I'm happy with my performance. I wish I could have gotten over being crabby and enjoyed myself more. The rain made it impossible to take photos - I should have taken more in the beginning when it was less rainy, but negotiating the crowds made that tricky.

I did learn that big city races are not where I'm at right now - I'll take a smaller less chaotic course any day. I spent too much time trying not to step on / get stepped on and losing myself in thought was near impossible, so no reflecting really happened. I am thankful I got the opportunity to run a repeat race - they really improved the course over last year. I don't know. Just wasn't feeling it I guess...

hey Marcia! The ribbon was even crappier than last year's...