Race Report: Polar Dashing For Team Gab

So, last week I signed up for Giraffy's virtual race (and giveaway!) to support the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation in honor of her daughter Gabby, who is fighting leukemia. Great cause, great prizes, and since I'm a girl with a remarkably low racing budget right now, it fit right in as an affordable way to make me run a half marathon. Yes, sometimes (read: most of the time) I still need a goal to keep me moving.

The race director kindly gave us a month to get our race complete. But as it turned out, I didn't even need a whole month! Riyanti emailed me last Thursday night asking if I was interested in a bib for the Chicago Polar Dash 1/2 Marathon. You see, they'd had to reschedule the race due to weather, and now her friend could no longer make it. All I needed to do was show up. YES!

On Friday, it snowed here. Kind of a lot. No worries, everything was still a go. We met Saturday morning with another running club member, Dave, who'd offered to drive into the city. It was sunny and beautiful as we left, but as soon as we hit the city, the lake effect snow started to fall.

We scored great parking, and they had all kinds of tents set up so we didn't have to wait out in the wind and cold. We ended up walking back to the car instead of waiting in the gear check line which served as a really nice warm up.

We lined up way in the back. Riyanti and I had no illusions about racing this - it was going to be a nice steady long run. In the snow. My goal was to finish feeling strong and to have a great run together. We kept assuring the other that it was ok to go on ahead, but I think we both knew that we were in it together for the long haul.

The first few miles were kind of rough. It was narrow and crowded and hard to find a rhythm. When we finally hit the lakefront path (where the majority of the race was to be run) it was full on snow covered and terribly difficult to find your footing. Thankfully, that didn't last all that long, and the rest of the way the path was pretty clear. It was still kind of "body-stressful" though - I felt like I was being really cautious, the entire way.

The mile marker signs were really throwing me off - they didn't make logical sense to me, having looked at the course map just that morning. Once we reached the turn around for the 10k people though, and they made us ALL turn around, I realized they'd changed the course into a double loop of the 10k, probably to save so many volunteers as they only had to man half the aid stations. Ok, no huge deal.

The good thing about turning around really early was that the wind was no longer freezing my left cheek off. It was such a relief! Finally we were able to settle into a better groove. We took out first walk break at about 5 miles in, had a gu (the race didn't start until 9:30, and I realized that breakfast had been a REALLY long time ago) and drank some water. And stretched out a little. We were both feeling a little creaky, but ok. The walk helped a lot.

There were only 2 things about the course that I really struggled with. The first was that the made the halfers run through the finish chute. Yes - we crossed the finish line twice. That was mentally crushing - kind of sucked the life out of you. But we kept on...with the 10k people all done now, the course really opened up and we had a really nice next few miles. BUT...

When we got to the original turn around, they had pushed it way back. Well duh, 10k plus 10k does not add up to 22k. But at that point in the course, it was SO much a mental beat-down. It didn't help that we'd skipped the last water station thinking we'd hit it on the way back. Or that the trail led up and over a hill and a broken part of concrete that you were forced to jump over (jumping at mile 10.5 equals not so much fun). Or that this part of the trail wound around such that you couldn't actually SEE where exactly the turn around WAS.

It all made for a giant ball of suck.

But that was the worst of it, really. We made it back to the water station and walked and gu'd and chugged water and powerade. After that I felt much better. But my hammy's were starting to protest - I hadn't actually RUN this distance since October. My legs were screaming "what gives lady?!?"

At just past 12, Riyanti need a pit stop and I needed a stretch break. It was JUST what I needed and we ran the rest. I felt strong when we crossed the finish line (for the second time) which was all I wanted out of the day. SUCCESS. At 2:36:19, it was my second slowest half ever, but given the conditions and my training and expectations, I'm still really happy with the results.

Dave finished not too long before us, so he got pics

bling!

As we were running, we both said that one Chicago in January race was enough. But looking back, you never know. It was fun to be out there in the snow. It did suck to have them taking everything down and be out of hot chocolate when we finished though. I understand (those volunteers must have been freezing) but it's still disheartening to run for more than 2.5 hours and be left out of anything hot at the finish.

All in all? A well run race in some crazy conditions. I felt bad for the lead guy (who ran into Riyanti at one point) as those fasties were forced to lap us more than once. But they did the best they could in very un-ideal conditions.

You can still get in on Giraffy's race - go check it out!