Chicago Michelob 13.1

Second half marathon for the Chicago series is done. Just one more then I will be getting an extra medal. I realized I ran the half on the north shore last week and today I ran the south shore. Call me a dork, but I thought that was pretty cool.

The race started at the South Shore Cultural Center in Hyde Park in Chicago. I was placed in corral A, which shocked me when I found out, I’ve never been assigned corral A before. I’m still unsure how I got into the corral, because I am not that fast!

The race started at 7 am and had us start in the street going towards Jefferson Park. One thing that I didn’t like about being in corral A is that a lot of people passed me. Going through the park was really nice, and when we looped back around I saw the oncoming runners and that’s where I saw Dave Mari. It’s always nice to see Dave on the course, he and my cousin are the ones that gave me the idea to join the half fanatics.

After the park, the course took us to the lakefront. From there we passed 63rd Street Beach House, Museum of Science of Industry and Promitory Point. We ran along the lake up past the 8 mile mark and then looped down to go back to the cultural center. That’s where I saw a fellow Half Fanatic Dawn Demo and gave her a high five when we passed. I always like to see people that I know along the course.

I totally believe that cheerers and their signs help get you going. One sign I saw was “tap for an extra boost” and when I did it did give me a boost. When we got to the cultural center it brought us through the entrance, which always remind me of Gone With the Wind with the long driveway. They led is to the back, just before the finish I saw Rick and the sign he made me. I finished the race in 2hrs 29min 39sec.

I enjoyed this race, a relatively flat course, nice weather and enough aid stations. I would do this race again and would recommend this to others.

North Shore Classic Half Marathon

I chose to do this race because I heard that it is a nice course and I wanted to run in a different scenery. Got up early to get ready and made sure that we had plenty of travel time to drive up to Highland Park.

The race started at 7:30, I was assigned to corral E, but they merged D & E. I don’t know if that was intentional, but I’m glad that they did, because I don’t like being in the last corral!

It was a really nice day for a run, but it started getting hot by the time I approached the halfway mark. The nice thing about the course it, there are a lot of trees, so that gave us a lot of shade.

The course took us through the perimeter of Ravinia, the neighborhoods of Highland Park, along the lake and Fort Sheridan. A couple of things I didn’t like about the course was that the first bathroom area was at the 5 mi mark, and as you know from reading my blogs I usually need the facilities by mile 2. The other thing I didn’t enjoy was all the hills, I try to run up the hills, but had to slow down after doing that!

I finished the race in 2hrs 44min 32sec. Still my average and I’m happy with that. Also this race made me moon up with the Half Fanatics, I just mooned up to Uranus. By the end of the year I believe I will be mooning up to Saturn, but I need to double check the numbers.