time = 1:48:42 (1:48:40 official results)
pace = 8:14 (8:18 official results)
placed 15th in my age group (40-44) out of 288
placed 171th in women out of 2440
placed 532 overall out of 4043
why do they call it a "mini marathon" when it's really a HALF marathon? i've been wondering this for awhile now. still... no one can tell me the answer so if you know please let ME know. k? thanks...
the sunrise was set for 6:48am today so needless to say (but i'm gonna say it anyway) it was dark out when we left the house at 5:30am.
i'm not really nervous when i have races. i was for my first few 5Ks and then for my first half but not really anymore. i'm more worried about not pooping myself as well as pacing myself. there were so many people and the energy was great!
lots of fun already. as the sun came up i ran into my friend jeni and shortly after that megan arrived. we decided to do one last bathroom break before we began and apparently EVERYONE AND THEIR MOM had the same idea. we were in the bathroom line when the national anthem played. we got to our corral just in time and then they announced that they were going to start 10 minutes late. we were crammed like sardines! i really intended to PR at today's race and i'm sad to report that i did no such thing. as you can clearly see from my splits:
we were running really strong for the first few miles but it was long incline after long incline and i lost megan on the 27th street bridge at about mile 5.3 because she needed to sit down. after that it was all downhill from there (and i don't mean logistically). *sigh*
we started to lose the 1:45 pacers near mile 5 because of the long incline on clybourn st. (all the inclines were long... did i mention that? let me say it a couple more times... REALLY LONG. only 1 REAL hill but LOTS of gradual inclines). so by the time we got to 27th both of us were losing momentum. right after we parted ways tho'... i really just slowed down more each mile. lame...
national ave. and 35th street were pretty flat so i spent that time trying to move my ass to no avail. thankfully state street is a beautiful and welcome downhill right past miller brewery. i stretched out my legs with longer strides, and tried to gain some lost speed/time there. i managed to maintain the momentum for awhile after it leveled out, but still i knew that i wasn't going to finish in the time i was hoping for. my legs were really tired although my foot felt pretty good with very little pain. it was more just an annoying ache than actual pain.
next came hawley road which was the only incline that i'd consider an actual hill. i actually walked a few steps here. once i got up to the top tho' i started running again and felt pretty good. another downhill came just before we got back to the stadium area. it was wonderful to get a chance to stretch my legs again.
when there's only one mile left we all got to run on the outer edge of the baseball diamond in miller park. that was pretty cool because they put everyone's image on the jumbotron and there were so many people cheering us on from in there.
this was a really great race. the sun was shining the whole time and the temperature was perfect! there was a bit of a headwind but i'm thinking i wouldn't have even noticed it if i had been running a training run instead of a race.
as i sit here with really fatigued legs i am really happy with this race. i'd probably do it again next year. it was well planned and wonderfully organized. the food at the end was awesome and it just seemed to go on and on... table after table of goodies. the police were awesome blocking off all the streets and the volunteers were supportive and positive. i had a really great time today.
all photos by therd
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