Prairie State Half Marathon

This race took place in the northern suburbs of Chicago, the race started in Libertyville in the Independence Grove forest preserve. I didn’t go to the packet pickup so we had to leave early so we could go to the remote parking and take the provided transportation to the start and pick up my packet.

We got there early enough to get all the pre-race routine our of the way. It was a brisk morning and I am glad I dressed appropriately. This race was both a half marathon and marathon. We both started at the same time at the appointed time.

We went north along the paved path of the forest preserve. Just over the 1 mile mark we started running on the gravel path and that was pretty much the terrain that we ran.

I have to say that this course was very nice and running in nature was quite beautiful. When we passed mile 5to the left you could see roller coaster, which I realized we ran all the way north to Six Flags Great America. I didn’t know that we were that close to the amusement park.

At 6.5 miles we looped back and went south along the same course.  I felt pretty good running this course. The weather started to get warmer and it turned out to be a really nice day. I did see a couple half fanatics along the course and a diverse group of people. Around mile 10 my legs started to get tired and I took a few walking breaks.

I finished in 2hrs 46min 33sec. I am back at my normal time.  Overall it was a beautiful course, a really nice day for a run, I felt good running this half, I enjoyed this run.