This is the first race of the Chicagoland Half Marathon series. As most of you know I am in for the medals and this one has a new one and it gets me eligible to get the series one I will complete in the fall.
I was placed in corral G, which wasn’t too bad, it gave me a cushion to be ahead of the end. This is the first time that I was going to use my interval training on a Half Marathon, so I wasn’t sure how it would go. While I was waiting we saw some friends from Hinsdale. They started the race on time and they released the corrals fairly quick. This year they moved the start and finish on Columbus Drive right next Maggie Daley Park.
We headed south on Columbus Drive and then turned left just before Roosevelt and made our way through the underpass that lead us to the Museum campus. We ran down the lakefront path passing Soldier Field and the McCormick Place. From there it was all open Park and it was a beautiful day for a run. Around mile 3 I saw the lead runner and he was going at a fast pace. We continued to run south and had a turnaround just past 47th street.
I finally found a gel packet that I like which they gave out at this race, it is the Gatorade Endurance Gel, it is not as thick as Gu and it is like juice. Since it rained the night before there were a bunch of puddles that you had to avoid along the path.
When we ran back north we backtracked in a few spots, so I was able to see the last runners and I was able to gauge how much of a cushion I had, and by that time I had enough distance to now worry about it. We again ran past McCormick Place, Soldier Field and Museums. We continued north on the Lakefront path up to Randolph street. We took a left on Randolph and then another left on Columbus and the end was in sight.
I finished in 2hrs 31min 07sec. My interval training seemed to work, I still have a lot to work with, around mile 10 I started doing double intervals run for 1/2 mile and walk 30 seconds. I am trying to get my time down again so I can use that time for better corral placement, especially in the Disney runs. We didn’t stay for the after activities because I was heading out to California in a couple hours. I did get my plant, which is one of the highlights of this race. It was again a fun race, the volunteers were great and the medal was bigger than I thought it would be.
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