Finishing up the Chicagoland Half Marathon Series with the Chicago Half Marathon in Hyde Park. Usually this race has cooler temperatures, since it is towards the end of September. But this year Chicago has been having out of the ordinary weather and the weekend weather had the potential to get into the 90’s.
This year I was joined with my friend Jo, which it would be his first half marathon. We got up early, picked up Jo and headed down to the Museum of Science and Industry where we usually park. There was a photo meet up for the Midwest Half Fanatics, which I went to, but there were only two others that arrived. So we took a quick picture and then I headed back to gear check and joined Jo and headed to the corrals.
We were both placed in corral M. They released all the corrals at once, so we walked up until the start line and then we were off! We started off at Jackson Park, made our way through the eastern boarder of the University of Chicago campus. We ran through the Hyde Park neighborhood until we connected to street connecting to Lake Shore Drive.
Once we passed the Museum of Science and Industry we made our way to the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive. Just as we passed mile 8 we went on the off ramp on 31st street and crossed the overpass and turned left onto the on ramp to go back on Lake Shore Drive.
We were now heading back to the finish on the southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive. They had the Event Alert System at Yellow before we started the race, which indicated that the event conditions are less than ideal for the race. I saw when we got to mile 10 that they changed it to Red which indicated potentially dangerous conditions. It was because it was really starting to get hot. The had water misting fans along the last part of the course, which was a welcomed addition to the race, which helped cooling us down.
We started with my regular interval pace, but once we got closer to the finish, and when it was starting to get hot, I modified the intervals so that we would take more time walking and a bit more frequently. Jo did very well with my pacing and we managed to navigate this course in best way we could considering the conditions of the weather.
As we turned the last corner we saw the Statue of the Republic and right next to it was the finish line. I finished the race in 3hrs 1min 44sec, and Jo finished a few seconds behind me. We collected our medals and headed to the Finish Festival, where I got my challenge medal and got our free beer and pizza.
Although the weather was not ideal, it was fun running with Jo. I am happy that he finished in an upright position and that he finished his first half marathon with me! There were a lot of people take away by medical, I hope that they got the medical attention they needed and that they are doing OK.
Another challenge done for the year, and again they did not disappoint with the medals.
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