Chicago Half Marathon

This was the final race of the Chicagoland Half Marathon Series for 2016. Different from the spring Half this race brought us through the southern area of Chicago, with this series you get to run through the north and south of the city along the side of the lake.

We arrived early and parked by the Museum of Science and Industry While we were walking toward the start I realized I forgot my ear phones, so it was going to be a music less run for me.  We started in Jackson Park, where I bumped into some Hinsdale friends. I was placed in corral L, which when they released all of the corrals at once so it didn’t take too long for me to cross the start line.

We ran up Cornell and around the west part of Jackson park. We ran through the neighborhood streets and parts of the park before we entered Lake Shore Drive. Once we passed the museum we were well on our way up the drive. Running without my music wasn’t that bad, I talked with a couple of pacers that I met at the fort to base run two years ago, heard some interesting conversations, and heard some live bands along the course.

Running along Lake Shore Drive is definitely a different experience than driving it. I didn’t notice the new walking bridge before, and it is definitely much longer getting up to 31st street where we turned around back to the finish. We really lucked out with the weather, it was forecasted to rain, but it turned out to be a really nice morning for a run.

We finished back in Jackson Park, right next to the gold statue. I finished in 2hrs 48min 28sec, much better than my last half and getting back to my average. This year is the 20th anniversary of this race and the medal reflected that with the Roman numeral 20 that spinner in the middle of the huge medal. The challenge medal was nicely designed this year, but not as big as the half medal.  This was an enjoyable race and had a lot of cheerers and volunteers that helped get us motivated to run a bit further and to get to the finish.