Chicagoland Spring Half Marathon Report

Sorry this has taken a full week for me to put up. It's been a bit busy. My race last Sunday was supposed to start at 7:30 but they actually moved the time up a half hour because the heat was predicted to be so bad. It wasn't as hot as it is today.. but the 80s is definitely more heat that I'm used to running in right now. That's something I'm gonna have to work on with another race coming in July..

Me 2 min before the race. Awkward smile cuz I'm nervous. 

So, as a result, I didn't run as fast as I would have liked. I tried to run with the 8:47 pace group but I actually had the opposite problem that I had last time. The pacers took off way too fast. I could see them and they crossed mile 1 at about 8 minutes. I was like.. calm down there, dudes. I think they were a little bit too excited or something.

And you'll notice, my times are pretty much all over the place. No consistency at all. I think it was partly that I went out too fast with the heat and partly because it got a lot hotter as I was running. I also didn't train too well last month when my hubby was here for R&R.. and had a hard time getting back into routine when he left. So as a result, this is actually my slowest half marathon time. My slowest before this was my first half marathon in September of 2010.. I ran a 2:05:05 then.

Thanks Mom for taking this awesome photo. 

However, the good news is that I placed 11th in my age group. Everyone else must have run slower too. In the Chicago Half Marathon series, if you place in the top 15, you get points. You are eligible if you do at least 3 (of 6) of their half marathons and they take your 3 best scoring races and it's a little competition in itself. You still get 1 point if you do the race but don't place. I didn't place in the first race (even though I ran much faster) and so I just got 1 point for that one and 6 for this one. So I now have 7 points! haha. I have no idea how that compares to other people since they haven't posted current standings. But it's kind of fun.

It was a nice race course. I would do it again if I wasn't going to be at Fort Lewis next year. My only complaint is that since it's another one of the half marathon "series" and apparently organized by the same people, the shirts and medals were pretty much identical.

I don't mind about the medals. They are actually different enough. But the shirt is exactly the same (besides the print). I mean.. don't get me wrong. They are nice shirts. I guess it's okay to have two of them. But they couldn't have switched up the color at least? If they are encouraging people to do more than one of their races, did this really not occur to them? Oh well.

Feels good to have another half under my belt! Gotta keep training. Chicago MARATHON training starts next month!! (omygoodness)

<3 Amy