Fort2Base 10 Nautical Miles

Fourth year running this one, and it is still a favorite race.  Although, I wish they would add a couple of miles to the course and then it could be counted as a half marathon.  If you are not familiar on Nautical Miles, it is a little longer than land mile.  The whole course was 11.5 miles.  In the past the race was themed after the Army and the Navy, because of the running from the Fort to the Base.  In the past years I started noticing a lot of participants/volunteers from other branches of the armed services.  This year they encompassed all the branches: Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guards.  In the registration process you were able to choose which branch you wanted to represent as designated on your bib.  I choose to be in the Navy, in honor of my Father-in-Law Louis Schmitz.

We started at Fort Sheridan at 7 AM.  We got there in time to do some stretches, gear check and the lines to the bathroom were not long yet.   While we waited I saw a lot a familiar faces from last year, but I wasn’t able to find some people that I knew that were running.  You had to line up by looking at the pacing team’s times and join that area.  I joined the 11 min/mile group and waited.  They had some technical difficulties with the national anthem, the sound system kept of cutting off, but the nice thing was that the crowd continued to sing filling in for the parts that cut off.  Once they finished the national anthem they let the wheelchair participant and then waited five minutes until they let us go.

We entered the City of Fort Sheridan and ran for about 2 miles through the community.  It was nice to run through the tree lined streets.  When we exited Fort Sheridan we turned right and headed north on the North Shore Bike Path on our way to the Naval base.  It too was well shaded with trees.  Since it is a bike path we shared the route with on-coming bikers and runners.  I actually saw a past co-worker running the opposite way.  I saw Rick at several spots along the way, which was an advantage with this course, because people can follow it up with your car to see your runners at various spots.

Just before the 9 mile mark we entered the Great Lakes Naval Base.  With security high, the runners must have their bibs visible, or else they would not let you enter the base.  They routed us down the area by the lake and brought us up to “Hero Hill” which is one steep hill.  In the past I would stop halfway and walk the rest.  This year I was determined to run the whole way up…and I succeeded!  Started on a slow jog in the beginning and slowly increased my pace and before I knew it I passed the sign and conquered that hill!  Now it was just over a mile to the finish line.

I finished the course in 2hrs 8min 27sec, which is a PR for this race!  They always have a lot of snacks to give away and always have a fun after party at the grassy area of the base.  We stayed for a little bit, and left right when it started to rain.  Since there is not a parking facility big enough to accommodate the cars they shuttled us out to a remote parking area.  Overall, this race was fun, the weather was perfect for running, my interval training helped me to get a PR and prepared me to run through Hero Hill, and it was another way to show support for our troops in the various armed services.

Chicago 10K

Missed this one last year, so decided to sign up this year, because I like their bibs, t-shirt and medal.  This course is similar to some past runs that I participated in and it is a relatively flat and enjoyable course.

The race did not start until 8:00 so we had plenty of time to get there.  Since the course is mainly on the lakefront path, none of the main streets were closed, we drove down and was able to find parking along Columbus which was pretty close to the start.

There were no assigned corrals for this run, you just had to find your pace time and join the area.  I went between 11 and 12 minutes per mile, which was pretty much in the middle of the field of participants.  Once they played the national anthem they released us.

We started running north along the side walk of Lake Shore Drive and then turned left on Balbo and then another left onto Columbus.  From there we took the underpass by Roosevelt to go under Lake Shore Drive and entering museum campus.  We continued south along the lake path, passing Shedd Aquarium, Soldier Field and McCormick Place.  Just beyond 31^st street they had the turnaround and we retraced our run going north.

Once we passed Shedd Aquarium, the finish was just ahead.  Once we went through the underpass of Lake Shore Drive, we took a right and just above a small incline the finish was in sight.  I finished in 1hr 10min 19sec.  The reason for running this as mentioned above was about the swag, but it seems that they have cut back on that, the t-shirt, bib and medal were subdued and different on what they had in the past.

The course was good and they had plenty of volunteers and aid stations.  I did enjoy my run, but considering that it is a similar course as other races, the swag was the main reason for running this.  I am not sure if I will be running this one again next year.