Day 2 of the Rock n Roll Remix Challenge was the half marathon. The race started earlier than the 5k so woke up really early to get ready. Riding the train down we met a few runners which this was their first half marathon, I remember the feeling since this is my first half 4 years ago.
We arrived at the start early, we walked around, found my corral. I was placed in 23 and I believe there were 32 corrals. There was a Half Fanatics meet up for a picture in front of the Art Institute so we headed over there. On our way there we found Dave and Devona. There was quite a few fanatics and a few that I recognized that were at the half down in Springfield. We made it back to my corral and my cheerers were able to follow me along to the start.
It took awhile for my corral to get started, once we did we went north and were were on our way. The course was a bit different from last year, they kept us near downtown, the furthest west was to des plaines. They brought us to the regular spots, state street, Daley center, Lasalle Street and the Board of Trade. By mile 6 it was really getting hot. As usual there were not that many band in the first half of run, but the ones that were out were pretty good.
I saw Rick, Dave and Devona in several spots along the course. I always like seeing people cheering especially if it’s for me. This race I really needed it, it was a really draining run with the heat. When we were going south on Michigan I started getting signs of heat exhaustion, so I slowed down and took a lot of walking breaks. I wished that they had more water stations, I needed it on this run, drinking it and also dousing myself to keep cool. It was pretty tough in the last few miles because it hardly had any shade. After the 11th mile the had the Humana video cheers, I only saw a couple that were for me, I know I missed others because I didn’t see Rick’s.
Once we got closer to the end I saw people putting something around the runners necks, I was thinking are they handing out medals now? But when I got closer it was cooling things from Humana. When I saw the finish line getting closer I booked it to the end. I finished in 3hrs 35min 5sec. I am just glad that I finished without passing out!
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