The half marathon started an hour earlier than the 5K and since the course encompassed a lot of the downtown area we decided to drive down to Belmont and take the Red line down to the start. We got there just before 6 and headed to the Art Institute steps because there was a Half Fanatic picture meet up planned.
I got to meet a few half fanatics and then walked our way to the corrals. I was placed in corral 12, and there were 20 corrals this year. It started to rain when we were waiting in the corral, Rick was there with our umbrella so he stayed with me while we moved up to the start. Once we got to the start the rain stopped, which I was hoping was the last of it, since they said it was predicted a 30% chance of rain in the morning. No such luck, it started drizzling as we went north on Columbus towards Randolph. We took a right and ran on Lower Randolph so that shielded us from the rain. They split the half marathon and the 10K course at the end of Randolph, where we went left and the 10K runners took a right.
The crowd started to thin and it was easier to maneuver around the runners and now the big water puddles. The course took us up to Grand Ave and we made our way south via State street. The forecast of 30% chance of rain was pretty much wrong, it rained on an off throughout the course. The magnitude of the rain ranged from drizzling all the way to a deluge. Needless to say I was pretty much soaked throughout the entire run.
Our tour of the downtown area brought us down State street where we saw the Marina Towers and the Chicago Theater. The course also routed us through the Theater District, the Chicago River, looped us around at Des Plaines St and brought us back to the Loop are via Monroe Street. They brought us back to State street via Clark, Madison, LaSalle and Washington, where we saw a lot of Shops and the Harold Washington Library, where we took another turn going west on Van Buren until we hit Franklin and then Harrison Street to bring us back towards the lake.
We took a right on Michigan ave and ran south all the way down to 31st street, where we took a left heading east until we got to Martin Luther King Drive. We took a left and ran the Drive and looped back and ran the other direction of the Drive and took another left back onto 31st street and proceeded to the lake.
We crossed Lake Shore Drive overpass and took a left on Fort Dearborn Drive and make our way towards McCormick Place. As we exited the tunnel at McCormick Place they routed us to the pathway towards Soldier Field, just before we got to Soldier Field, they turned us to the left and we went on the off ramp of Lake Shore Drive, and we ran along the Southbound shoulder of Lake Shore Drive. This year they had a row of box trucks shielding us from the oncoming traffic, which made it feel safer.
We took the on ramp towards Roosevelt Road and once we got off Lake Shore Drive, you could see the finish at a distance on Columbus Drive.
I finished in 2hrs 51min and 55sec. So much better than my last half marathon back in the spring. Despite the rain, it was a good run overall. If my feet weren’t so soggy throughout the race I would have said that the rain felt good while I was running. I picked up my remix challenge medal and we decided not to stay since it started to rain hard again. This was my seventh year running the Rock n Roll, and this year was quite an experience. I already signed up for next year’s challenge, so I will be running it again next year, I wonder what the weather would be like next year!
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