Soldier Field 10 Mile

This run has been a favorite since I first ran it in 2013.  Finishing on the 50 yard line and your medal being awarded by an active military officer is just a couple of the draws that bring me back to run this one.  This year my friend Jo joined me in running this 10 miler, so that made it even better.

The morning started really early.  In the past there is usually a long line to get into the parking structure, but this year there was no lines at all, we parked fairly quickly and ended up with more than enough time to get to the start.

This year they had us start and finish inside Soldier Filed.  Jo and I were placed in Corral G, which was the last corral of the first wave.  In the beginning they had a ceremony which included the presentation of the colors of our Flag, announcement of those who have fallen in the past year, a gun salute and taps.  After a few announcements they had the national anthem and released the corrals.

They released the corrals quickly, we exited the stadium and headed south.  This year after we passed McCormick place they routed us to the northbound lane of Lake Shore Drive.  Just after the 4 mile mark, they routed us back to the lakefront path.  Just before the 5 mile mark they had the turnaround and routed us back north.  As we ran north we saw the end of the race, which was well over 2 miles, so we had plenty of time to finish the run.

Running with Jo helped keep my pace.  We didn’t do any intervals for the first half of the race, except for the bathroom break and the water stations.  After mile 5 we started taking 1 mile/30 sec intervals, which kept us on track to finish at a good page.  I finished in 2hrs 4min 35sec.  We were hoping to finish below 2 hrs., even though we didn’t finish in that time, we did very well.  The weather was a bit cool to start with, but it warmed up.  It was much better weather than we had last year, and this year we didn’t have to run along with concert equipment that was there last year.

I am glad that I ran with Jo on this race, and look forward to other runs with him.  This is one of the races that I will continue to run as long as I am willing, because it is for a good cause, the theme is great and it always has a good vibe with the run.