Rock N’ Roll 1/2 Marathon Recap

I work up at about 4:15, which was completely unnecessary since I live just a few blocks from the starting line. I took my time getting my stuff together and headed over to the course about 5:15.

The weather was perfect as I walked around to check out everything happening. I made an attempt to find Cubicle Dad, but didn’t have any luck. I never saw Al Roker either! As it got closer to the start time I walked to my corral. I was placed in corral 10, and there were some serious looking runners warming up in there. I saw a pacer walking around with a 1:30 pace sign… Yeeeah I’m gonna be lucky to get half way at that point.

I made the decision to not start in my corral and go to the middle of the pack. I went off with corral 20 and a 2:30 pacer (I should note that my goal time was 2:45) I figured if I could keep the 2:30 group in my sights I would be in great shape. The first few miles flew by. I think it was because of the music and amazing crowd support as we ran through the loop. At one point the side was full of firefighters cheering us on, and out side Old St. Patricks Church they had a “rouge” Irish band with irish dancers. I was trying to keep my pace while looking at everything and I guess I was doing a good job cause before I knew it I was at the half way point!

WOW I feel great! I checked my Sportband and saw that I hit half way at 1:10. HELL YEAH! I’m going to own this race! as we headed south I was still feeling good. It wasn’t until we turned north on the lake path that I really started to get tired. There was no breeze that last stretch. And the sun was bouncing off the lake just cooking all the runners. I hadn’t walked the whole race and I didn’t plan on starting at mile 10!

I chugged along, until the last aid station where I walked through the stations and gulped some water, grabbed a gel was handed an ice old sponge. I was still hot but I felt a lot better and was back on my way! The only other snag was the run around the Shedd Aquarium, it was a bit of a bottle neck situation and I was forced to walk there but only for a minute. 

Once I passed the Shedd I glanced at my time again and saw that I was going to beat my goal time! I picked up the pace a little and hit the finish line at 2:40!!

WHOOOOOO!

It felt great! I grabbed my medal, and every beverage in sight. After getting my finisher picture taken I walked around for a minute had another drink and went home so spend 20 mins in an ice bath! Nike+ and Adidas miCoach both told me I burned around 2,000 calories during the run. So I treated my self to a cheese burger… and it was awesome!

I looked up my official results this morning…

Chip Time 2:40:49

Overall Place14088 / 18555

Gender Place 5783 / 6798

Division Place 1097 / 1253

Age Grade 36.8%

Pace12:16

6 Mile1:10:55

10 Mile1:58:39

Congratulations to all of yesterdays runners and thanks to all of the volunteers and staff that worked to put this all together.