Chi Town Half Marathon: Ups and Downs

Oh hey there, friends.

Let’s talk some more about that lil’ half marathon, shall we?

Overall, I am pleased with the outcome. It could have gone better, but it also could have gone much worse. I’ll be thankful for hitting that middle ground.

And will be back to beat my 2010 half marathon time of 1:54 later this year. You can count on it.

Anyway, as my experience was filled with ups and downs, let’s just try and lay it out…

The weather on Sunday morning was wonderful. Even though there’s nothing I could have done, I was obsessively checking the weather every day last week. And it changed dramatically. Every day. There was still early morning rain, but at least the thunder and lightning supposedly in the forecast never happened. A little cooler than I prefer, but then again there was no rain during the race. Phew.

We got there early because I’m always scared of chaos, but the whole race was pretty organized and efficient. Except with the bathrooms- there weren’t nearly enough.

I almost missed the start of the race because the lines for the port-a-potties was so ridiculously long. And naturally, I got in the slowest moving line.

The race was smaller (about 1500 in the half marathon), but since it was on the path along the lake, this was ideal.

After shaking out the kinks in the first mile or so, I was doing SO well for the first half of the race. I felt good and realized I might be on pace to kick my PR in the butt (there were no clocks along the race path, just mile markers). 

Also, one thing that kept my pace up may have been the moaning man behind me. Around mile 3 or 4, he sounded like he was struggling. That or turning into the Hulk. Either way, I was scared and wanted to get away. Just in case.

At mile 6, I broke out the energy gel in attempts to keep up the energy level.

Pretty sure this was my mistake. My costly mistake.

I should have had more water at one of the stops. The first time I actually reached for a cup from the sidelines, it was gatorade and I immediately threw it down after gagging on the first sip. Gatorade grosses me out. So dehydration and the sudden increase in sugar in my system from the gel did not mix well. By mile 7, my stomach was cramping. Badly.

Stop and stretch. Run. Pain is still there. Repeat. Repeat again. Get frustrated. Motivation goes out the window.

My parents had posted up at around 8.5 miles. I spotted and ran straight towards them. There may have been tears as my mom scavages for water in her bag. I believe I cried ”It hurts and IT WON’T GO AWAY!!!!” Not sure if I explained that well, and may have freaked them out. Sorry…

This may have been a little dramatic. But at the time, I was SO ANGRY.See? Angry.

However, after getting water, I continued on and felt SO much better. The stitch went away and by the time my parents saw me at 10.5 miles, everything was all good.

I was giving a sad thumbs up to my mom to let her know I was feeling better. She was concerned- with the water ready.

See? Happy!

However, my pace was completely shot. I knew there was no way I’d break my time and was wondering if I’d even get in under 2 hours. It’s not fun trying to make up time without completely killing yourself in the process.

The 13th and last mile was also pretty ugly. Barely shufflin’. LMFAO would have been disappointed.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 1:58:46. Just as my happy song, “I’m Gonna Be” started playing.

Check out that disgusting arm band I've got on. I need a new one so bad. I feel gross just having it near me. Blech.

Perfect timing.

Annoyed that I screwed up the last half of the race. But relieved to keep it under 2 hours and still 7 minutes faster than the Go! St. Louis Half I did last spring.

And really- I can’t be that angry. Because it was my third official half marathon. And I’m proud of that.

About these ads