Half Marathon

Today was packed with fun stuff. I left my house at 5:15 to catch the bus to Millennium station 5:25 to get the 6:10 metra train. To arrive at the race at 6:45 to get situated for the Chicago Half Marathon which started at 7:30 am. It was so much nicer this year being on the Fleet Feet team because I could bypass the gear check because we had our own team tent. The gear check line was ridiculously long since the race sold out at 20,000 people! One problem- I went to the start and found out that I didn’t have a seated start. Well, apparently I can be pushy! I just climbed over the rope and hopped into the first corral. Looking around I saw 3 Brooks-Hansons girls (have to be very fast to be on that team) and several others with shoe sponsors and coaches that were giving them pre race advice…I was intimidated. I kept repeating to myself- run your own race, just run, run your own race. That is just what I did. I let everyone go at the beginning and then slipped into a pack of about 10 guys. My name was on my bib and so everyone kept cheering for me because I was the only girl in the group. For the first couple miles I lead our pack and then I realized that it was dumb because we had a head wind. I like leading though because I feel in control of the pace. I tried to drink at each water station but I would end up spilling all the water or breathing in the water instead of drinking it. When I got to mile 10 I was starting to be ready to see the finish line. The race bike pulled up by me and said I was number 3 girl. At mile 11 the race bike came back to me and said that 4th girl was 400 meters behind. I thought-NO-I will not get fourth like the last race! So I picked it up and passed 2 guys. That made me feel good but then I realized I still had another mile…so unfortunately I slowed down. But once I turned and saw the finish line and the time I knew it was going to be close to a PR so I went as fast as I could and ended up with a 3 second PR! : ) They whisked me away to the VIP tent and I was interviewed by a reporter from the Suntimes. There was a cook in the tent who would make you an anything you wanted for breakfast.

I made it back to my apartment and got ready as quick as possible in order to make it to half of the 11am Church Service and then stayed at Church for the church potluck. I got back at 1:30 and didn’t know what I felt like. I decided a hot tub sounded good so I rode my scooter to Bally’s and used the hot tub. It was great! Then I went to the Celtic Festival in Grant Park. I met a couple friends from my work and I had a great time. The dancers were amazing! They were all kids and they could move there feet so fast and were so flexible. I even got to see the National Champion of the Under 11 years perform. That was pretty neat! The Irish music is horrendous though.

I stopped by starbucks on my ride back to my apartment. It was so nice out that I got my starbucks frapaccino and drank it in the sun while I talked with Jeffrey.

Very good day.

(the flowers they gave to us on the podium- I had to wait for the train for a long time so I took a picture with the train map- you can see that I was at the cottage grove green line stop- the last stop of the el! - far south.)