Chicago Half Marathon (9-8-13)

My goal for this race was to PR (1:36:02). Based on how well my training has been over the last month I knew that this was a reasonable goal. In fact, I can't recall ever feeling this confident about a race. I just knew it would go well.

I woke up at 2:30am despite a 7:00am start time. I never sleep much the night before a race- too much excitement. I picked up my friend, Sarah, and we found an awesome parking spot (big deal for a 15,000 person race). 

Conditions were decent, but could have been better- cloudy, low 70s, and a little wind. It was humid, but I don't think it affected me much. 

I saw a few friends at the start corral, and it was nice catching up with them. My plan was to go out around 7:15 pace and move up or down a bit depending on how I felt. First few miles were between 7:10-7:15 and I was feeling great. I was goofing around and enjoying myself- giving high fives to the kids, making silly faces for the cameras. My friend, Stephanie, caught up with me and decided to run with me. It was nice having her around. 

By mile 7-8 I was still feeling really good. I thought, "I ran a half 6 weeks ago at a slower pace, and by mile 7 I was struggling." But there was none of that this time around. It was great to feel so good at mile 8. I kept thinking about how much stronger I felt than my recent half. At mile 8.5 I saw my friend, Brad. He gave me a big high-five, and it made me surge. It was on. Even though I still had 4.5 miles to go, I was ready to push.

The last 4 miles of this race were just awesome. I passed so many people and simply felt great. Having started to push that early, I thought at some point I'd settle into a rhythm. But I never slowed down. In fact, until the last mile it didn't hurt THAT badly. Sure I was working hard and I was definitely uncomfortable. But I had a big smile on my face for most of the way. 

With 1 mile to go I was hurting, but in a good way, if that makes sense. This was the payoff. It's funny how I can hurt so badly in these last few miles, yet absolutely thrive off that feeling. Before the race I get butterflies and nervous because I know it's gonna hurt, yet while it's hurting I'm loving it. And when it's over- I can't wait to get that feeling back. 

In the last quarter mile there wasn't anyone running at my pace, so I didn't have a "battle to the finish". But I still kicked pretty hard, and was thrilled with my finish time. I met up with a few friends and we hung out in the post-race party area for a while. I've made a lot of friends in the running community over the last few months. Such an awesomely supportive group of people.

Mile 1- 7:08
Mile 2- 7:15
Mile 3- 7:10
Mile 4- 7:18
Mile 5- 7:18
Mile 6- 7:26
Mile 7- 7:21
Mile 8- 7:12
Mile 9- 7:00
Mile 10- 6:58
Mile 11- 6:57
Mile 12- 6:49
Mile 13- 6:25
0.1- 0:28

FINISH- 1:33:48 (7:09 pace)

3 minute improvement from my half 6 weeks ago, and a PR by over 2 minutes. 

The previous PR (1:36:02) is from my peak in 2008 before any of the fatigue issues began. For the last 4 years that number has stood out to me and represented a place I never thought I'd reach again. I am so excited for this fall and beyond... 

Turkey Trot 8k (11-24-11)

I didn't really have any goals going into this race. But I wanted to run the best race I could in order to gauge my current fitness. I told myself that unlike my last race, I wasn't gonna go out slow. I'd like to run hard from start to finish.

Despite lining up at an appropriate distance from the start line, I still did a fair amount of weaving at the beginning. It cleared out after a couple minutes and I fell into a steady pace. When I hit the first mile marker my watch said 6:46, I thought to myself "wow, it didn't feel like I was running too hard, this is gonna be great!" I kept a pretty similar pace for mile 2, maybe slowed down a bit, and mile 2 came in at 8:00. I realized immediately that mile 1 was short and mile 2 was long. 

By mile 2.5 I was starting to feel pretty fatigued. I had to ease off the pace some. Mile 3 came in at 7:14. I was hurting pretty badly here. I started getting some bad stomach cramps. I could feel my form slipping. Mile 4 was 7:23. It was nice knowing I only had 1 mile to go. I was able to pick it up slightly, but I felt like the cramps were really holding me back. Seeing the finish line was a nice sight, and I had a solid kick at the end.

Mile 1 (0.92 miles)- 6:46 
Mile 2 (1.09 miles)- 8:00 
Mile 3- 7:14
Mile 4- 7:23
0.97- 6:46
FINISH- 36:13 (7:17 pace)

I gotta admit that I'm a little disappointed by this race. I was hoping that I'd be more fit. I also just didn't feel as strong as I would have liked. Hopefully this winter will be a good training season for me and I'll see some decent improvement.