Chicago Hot Chocolate 15K

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Chicago Hot Chocolate race and they were including a Legacy experience on top of the annual experience they produce for this race.  This year they recognized runners who have been running the race in 10, 5 and 3 year periods.  I landed within the 5 year because I did 6 consecutive Hot Chocolate races in Chicago.  My friend Jo is also a legacy runner the 3 year tier, he also signed up and ran the race with me.

This year was very cold, I layered my clothes and also used my wool running socks, but I was still cold.  While we waited in our corral I was hoping that the run will get me warm.  The sun started to rise and it turned out to me a sunny day, which was promising weather wise.  I joined Jo in his corral “E” and we made our way to the front of the corral.

They released the corrals pretty quickly, we only waited about 15 minutes until we were off on the streets of Chicago.  We started north on Columbus and made our way to lower Wacker Drive, where my GPS on my Garmin went a little whack, which I expected since GPS in general in the downtown area is not accurate, they say it’s because of the buildings.  When we exited Lower Wacker Drive we tuned on Lake street and it looked like my GPS had an approximate .5 difference from the mile marker, so my Garmin did a pretty good estimation from my strides.

We went back down the loop via Clark Street and made our way to Van Buren, where we took a left.  We approached Michigan Ave, where we saw Rick on the side and continued south on Michigan Ave.  Just before Roosevelt Rd they had the big signs indicated the route for the 5K and the 15K.  We stayed to our right where the 15K course continued on Michigan Ave.

We continued south until we arrived on 31^st Street, where we took a left and then a right on Martin Luther King Drive.  We continued south until 35^th Street where we took a left and ran towards the lake.  This was a new portion of the route, which took us to the 35^th street pedestrian bridge that crossed over Lake Shore Drive.  We turned left and started our northern route to the finish where we passed through McCormick Place and Soldier Field.  As we made our way past the Field Museum I knew that we were very close to the end.

We continued through the Museum Campus underpass and went up the incline towards Columbus Ave.  Once we turned right onto Columbus we saw the finish and Jo an I took off to finish the course.  We finished in 1hr 47min 23sec, we beat our time last year over a minute!  Although the weather was cold, it was a fun race.  I basically ran this one for the Legacy experience, I am not sure if this one will be on the roster for next year’s races.

Chicago Marathon

2017 marks the 40^th anniversary of the Chicago Marathon and this race marks my 100th race that I have participated in since starting in 2012.  It was interesting to read about how it began.  It was initially called Mayor Daley’s Marathon, only had about 5,000 participants and the entrance fee was $5!  Sure has changed over the last 40 years.

Weather again was a point of concern, I have been tracking the forecast during the week and for a while it was saying that there was a 60% chance of rain in the morning.  But once it got closer to race day it showed clear skies.  It did rain quite a bit Saturday in the late afternoon and thankfully it stopped just before the sun went down.

Sunday morning, woke up at 4:00 to get ready.  I was placed in corral K and had start time of 8:30. I was concerned that the security was going to be high and the screening would be tight.  Better early than being late and getting to hyped up about that.  We did arrive around 6:30 and met up with Jason.  Rick left us at our gate entrance and headed off to the first stop on his plan.  The security wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, they did use metal detectors this year, but overall it was a smooth process.  Once I got into my corral it was about an hour until we were set to go.  It really didn’t seem that long, it probably helped by meeting some of the runners in my corral and talking about things happening in the running community from the “Mad Pooper” in Colorado to the lady that got caught stealing a bib at Disneyland.

Around 8:30 they released the 3^rd wave which I was in and it wasn’t too long until they released us to the streets of Chicago!

Mile 0-5

Keeping an eye on my GPS to make sure that I wasn’t running too fast in the beginning, and sure enough, the adrenaline of the start always makes me start off too quick and when I looked at my watch it indicated that I was doing a 9:30 pace, so I slowed down and paced myself.

I first saw Rick at Grand and State by Rock Bottom Restaurant.  Felt really good through this section, here we saw the Chicago Theater, State street shops, the Chicago Board of Trade building in the Loop, went through River North where we passed the 50’s McDonalds on our way to Lincoln Park.

Mile 5-10

I was keeping in pace with my projected time as I passed by Lincoln Park Zoo.  Another favorite part of the course was passing by the Brookdale Senior Living Center, if you look up to your right at the building, on the second floor you see a bunch of senior citizens waving at you.  How can you not wave back!

I entered my old neighborhood of Lakeview where we turned on Addison and then again at Broadway to head south on the course.  From Addison if you look past the train station you can see part of Wrigley Field.  On Broadway we passed through Boystown where they had a lot of people out cheering.  There were two stages one with the ROTC (Righteously Outrageous Twirling Corps) and on the other was bearded drag queens.

We made our way down past Park West, Lincoln Park and Old Town Triangle where we ran down the tree lined neighborhood on Sedgewick just before we entered Old Town.

Mile 10-15

Right when we turned on North Ave, I saw Rick again and gave him a happy wave and headed towards Old Town and running down Wells Street.  Here we passed the Walter Peyton College Prep on or way to River North.  Just before we got to Merchandise Mart we took a right on Hubbard Street and then left on Orleans and again crossed the Chicago river with the Merchandise Mart on the left of us.

We arrived back at the Loop and turned right onto Monroe, where I saw Rick again!  Still feeling good and still under the projected pace!  When we got the half way mark I was pumped, feeling good and was below my projected goal.  This was where the first message board was set up, so I crossed the mat that should have triggered my messages, but when I got to the screen there were no messages for me.  Oh well, I waited a couple of refreshes until I left and thought the second one should have my messages.

Once we got on Adams Street it was a straight shot going west of the City where we passed by the United Center and Malcom X College. During this stretch there was an area called the Charity Block Party where all the charity groups were there cheering us on.   At mile 15 we were turned and headed back towards the loop.

Mile 15-20

Heading back towards the city you see the towering Sears Tower (Willis) which is the focal point of the race so you know where you are going.  We turned right and headed south on Halsted right at the south part of Greektown and made our way to Taylor Street.

There is one strip of Taylor Street that goes through a tree lined neighborhood which is one of my favorite places to run through during this course.  But unfortunately about a mile before this it started to go downhill.  I must have had a bad reaction to the Gatorade because I started having stomach problems, so I slowed down my pace and started walking and periodically jogged.  Nothing helped so I texted Rick to see if he could get me a Sprite and I would meet him at Chinatown.

Here we went through Little Italy, University Village and Pilsen.  Pilsen is always a treat, they played a lot Mexican music and dancing.  The weird thing was that Selena came on my playlist when I entered the neighborhood, and when I left they were playing the same song when I was leaving it!  The only thing I didn’t like about the neighborhood was the cooking smell, it was so good, and I was hungry!

Mile 20-25

At mile 20 we turned back onto Halsted and made our way towards Chinatown.  By this time, I was walking the majority of the time because my hip started hurting awhile back.  Seeing the Lion dancers and the entry arch was a relief because I knew that just around the corner Rick will be there with my Sprite, and sure enough he was!

When I exited Chinatown it was the march of pain, and it was getting hot.  A fire crew brought out their misting truck and that was a nice addition to the course.  We went south on Wentworth Ave until we crossed the Dan Ryan Expressway and headed back East.  I was so happy to see Michigan Ave. because I knew this was the last stretch.

Mile 25-End

Just before turning onto Roosevelt Road I saw Rick for the last time on the route and that is where the second message board was located.  Again my name did not show up, and it didn’t refresh at all, so there must have been something wrong with the system.  Didn’t linger there too long because I knew that my time was already shot.  My friend Mel was working the last medical tent and I saw her as I approached it.  She came out and grabbed my arm and encouraged me to run and finish, I took a quick photo with her and off I went.  I was determined to at least run through the finish and I did.  I painfully finished the race in 6hrs 40min 27sec.

I was so glad and relieved that I finished and in an upright position.  There were a lot of medical emergencies that I saw throughout and at the end of the race.  I hope that they are all okay and I am happy that I didn’t need any medical attention at the end.

This was my third time running the Chicago Marathon and I am happy that I did it, and I am still sore from it.  I am not sure if I will be running this again, but at this moment I am saying no.  But you know me, I may change my mind!