This was going to be one of those quick expensive trips. Fly in on Saturday, leave on Sunday. I was unable to find any cheap tickets into Chicago so I almost decided not to run this race. But it's Chicago. It's a fun interesting city to visit. The next time I come here, I'm going to have to start exploring other places besides the downtown area. I ended up taking an early Southwest flight out of LAX.
After landing in Midway, I took the orange line train to Roosevelt. Then caught the R22 bus down to the Cermak-Chinatown train station. Apparently they were working on renovating parts of the red line, so the free bus service was provided in the meantime. Good thing I checked everything out before I flew out. I then walked over to the McCormick Place. I was sweating like a mad man since it was super humid and I was carrying my bag with me.
Chinatown, maybe I'll eat here next time
It was a relief to finally make it inside the air conditioned McCormick Place. I was having to constantly wipe the sweat off of my forehead. At the Health & Fitness expo, we got to scan our bib at the each of the Rock 'n' Roll Connect kiosks for a chance to win prizes from Maui Jim, CEP and Garmin. Well that's one way to get us to stop by some of these booths. I stopped by the Disney booth to check out the medals for the Disneyland Half Marathon. I can honestly say that I was not impressed with the medals or the lanyards. On my way out of the expo, I bumped into a couple of my runner friends. It was a quick hi and goodbye as we all had places to go.
Not really ready to rock a half marathon in the heat
Upcoming Disney medals
Dumbo Double Dare
I dreaded the walk back to the bus stop at Chinatown. Again I was drenched in sweat. After being dropped off at the train station, I took the red line into the Loop and got off at Monroe. On my way over to the Silversmith Hotel on Wabash, I stopped by a Target to pick up some snacks and drinks. When I tried to check in, I was notified that they had overbooked and that they did not have a room for me. They were going to put me up in another nearby hotel, the Wyndham Blake on Dearborn Street. They gave me $10 for cab fare. Instead of waiting for the cab, I just decided to walk it. So I ended up making $10 for my troubles. It was a nice and pretty modern hotel. The shower kind of sucked but I didn't really care. I went through the Vitamin water and bag of beef jerky as I was pretty hungry and thirsty.
I love beef jerky
After going through my expo "haul" and relaxing a bit, I went out to pick up dinner. I stopped by Epic Burger just a couple of blocks away. I ordered an Epic Burger with a fried egg and bacon. I took it back to my room to eat only to noticed that they had forgotten the bacon. I guess health wise that was a good thing. It was decent but far from epic. :)
I laid out my race gear before going to sleep. I brought the only pink shirt that I had and my breast cancer awareness shoes in honor of my friend who was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer. :(
Sunday
I woke up, got ready, and walked the few blocks over to the starting area. I checked my bag then grabbed a banana and water before heading over to the Buckingham Fountain for the pre-race Maniacs/Fanatics photo. Too bad the fountain wasn't turned on that early in the morning. I think from now on I'm going to skip the pre-race photos unless I'm wearing the Maniac colors or meeting a friend there. I'm just not involved enough with this group. The introvert in me wants to go back to being an anonymous runner. Anyways, I made it over to my corral and waited for the race to start. It was so humid that I was sweating just standing there.
I ended up starting at the back of the 1:45 pace group. It was pretty crowded at the start, but I made sure not to zig zag knowing full well that my left leg was still very weak. The stride was starting to feel normal but I still had no power from my left leg. The pace for the first two miles felt ok, but it was too humid for my taste. I made a conscious effort not to accelerate. It was fun running through the downtown area. When you've run so many marathons, you start thinking of a half marathon as only a half. But only when you've become so out of shape do you realize just how tough 13.1 miles can be. My legs began shutting down right before I got to the 10k mark. I tried to keep it together and take the S-caps every 30 minutes. But I was just unable to overcome the lack of fitness. The cramps just kept getting worse and worse until I approached the mile 12 marker and the legs stopped working. I walked all of the final mile or so just trying not to end up a statue or falling over. It hurt a lot walking with every single muscle spazzing out of control. It was also quite embarrassing to be walking so slowly towards the finish line with thousands of people watching and cheering.
1: 8:21
2-3: 18:04 (9:02)
4: 10:27
5-6: 20:17 (10:09)
7: 10:27
8: 11:03
9: 11:21
10: 11:54
11: 11:00
12: 14:11
13: 19:16
13.1: 2:16
Finish: 2:28:38
I picked up my medal, a cold wet towel, Gatorade, water, and some Jamba Juice and headed over to gear check to pick up my bag. The cold Jamba Juice was really good. I walked back to my hotel, relaxed, showered, packed, and was ready to kill some time before heading to the airport for my evening flight home.
I checked out and went out to hit a few touristy spots. Originally I was then going to watch a movie at the movie theater near the Navy Pier, but my friends invited me to go celebrate with them. How can I say no to friends and some post-race beers? :)
Buckingham Fountain
Cloud Gate
It was pretty dang hot, so I walked over to a nearby bar, The Gage, to cool down while I waited for my friends to get cleaned up. I sat at the bar and had a couple of beers before my friends showed up. We ate lunch here and shared our race experience.
Revolution Anti-Hero IPA
Goose Island Matilda
Chicken and biscuits
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
My friends wanted to watch the soccer game at another bar, so we walked over to a bar called The Bar Below. But first we made a stop by Garrett Popcorn Shop for my friends to pick up some snacks. It smelled pretty good during the race when we ran by. When we made it to the bar, I ordered a Sweet Dreams Martini, but I probably should've ordered food instead. The drink was very sweet and I ended up with a stomach ache for the rest of the day. After the first half of the soccer game was over, my friends decided to move to another bar. We went to Kasey's Tavern to catch the second half of the game. It was also pretty close to my friend's hotel as eventually we all had to head to the airport. They opted to cab it and I took the train.
Sweet Dreams Martini... too sweet
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