Soldier Field 10 Mile

They have this race always on Memorial Day weekend. I signed up for this awhile back and it may become a regular on my racing schedule.

Woke up early to get ready and checked the weather. It looked like it was going to remain in the 50’s so I dressed accordingly. Did my regular routine and then we headed down to Soldier Field. The nice thing about this race is that they offered free parking.

I was assigned the orange corral which was in the second wave, so I had plenty of time. We walked around and went up to the spectators area and got to see the field and take a few pictures.

I entered my corral and waited for the race to start. They had a few speeches to talk about the meaning of the race, why it is held at soldier field and why this weekend. The honored the men and women who are currently serving our country and had a moment of silence for those fallen and they played taps. After the national anthem they started releasing the corrals.

The course followed the lakeshore path, pretty much the same path as last weekend’s race. Although it didn’t seem like the same course. I need to stretch more before I run, because my legs started cramping after the 2nd mile. It started loosening up after the bathroom break.

Again, since it was along the lake path there were sporadic cheerers. The volunteers at the hydration stations were very animated and kept the encouragement high.

When I passed McCormick Place I knew that we were almost done. When I approached the Stadium my playlist started playing “Let it Go” and it made me think of the WDW marathon when I heard that song, so that kept me boosted to kick it into gear for the end. When I entered the entrance my playlist played the rendition I found for “When You Wish Upon a Star” and that kept me going till the end.

The highlight of this race is that we finish on the 50 yard line on the field, and get awarded our medal from uniformed armed service men and women. I finished in 1hr 54min 48sec. It was a beautiful day for a race and this race was fun and has a nice medal.

2014 Chicago Spring Half Marathon

I found this race when I was looking at the dates for the Chicago Half Marathon. When I did my search I saw that they made a Chicago series which you would get an extra medal. There were 2 types of challenges. The first one is run 2 in the series and get a 26.1 medal and the second one was run all three in the series and receive a 36.3 medal. Guess which one I decided to do. Yup all three.

The course followed the lakefront path starting be Randolph and the Lake and finished at a park that I didn’t know existed!

Before the race I met up with a fellow running buddy that we connected through Facebook and Instagram, also we have a mutual acquaintance Dave Mari. As Bryan said…who doesn’t know Dave Mari…he seems to be everywhere in racing, and I still can’t believe I bump into him at the races that we are both at along the course or at the expo. It was nice to finally meet Bryan in person.

The race started at 7:00 AM, but I was in corral H so we didn’t start right away. It was a very brisk morning and I couldn’t wait to start running to get warm. Once we started, the sun started coming out and the wind slowed down, so it became the perfect weather for running.

Along the course I found a fellow half fanatic that I met down in Springfield at the Lincoln Presidential Half. It was nice to see Dawn. She wasn’t wearing her HF shirt, but I noticed her because of the blue flower in her hair.

I felt good running this course, although I had to take a couple bathroom breaks. FYI if you are running and you need to use the bathroom please lock the door, I had quite a surprise at the last bathroom stop!

Since this race was along the lake path, there were not that many cheerers to keep us going, so thank you to the volunteers for their encouragement and water/Gatorade! Also they had a few bands along the way. The one I really enjoyed was the Chinese Drum band.

I finished the race at 2hrs 36min 58sec. I did better than my time at Springfield. The after party was well planned, they had a breakfast for the runners and a bunch of booths, including a booth to engrave your medal. I also found a couple of HF that also live in the city.

This was a fun race, and it also offers a 10k that has a medal, so all you runners you can either do the half or 10k next year!