This will be my first time running this race. Honestly I was looking past this race as the Dopey Challenge weekend was coming up next. So for my flat runner, I laid out my 10 year Disneyland Half Marathon legacy runner shirt before going to sleep.
Course map
Flat runner
Saturday 1/4
Race day packet pick-up started at 6 am. I wanted to make sure that I got a parking spot in the Arlington Heights Sports Park parking lot, so I left early enough that I arrived at about 5:30 am. For some reason only one side of the gate was opened from Cleveland Ave so cars had to take turns entering or exiting. It wasn't a problem that early, but eventually someone stopped by and opened the other gate.
I relaxed a bit in my car until it got closer to 6 am before I left the warm car to go pick up my race packet. The weather was cold enough that I wore my gloves as it was close to breaking into the 30's. The packet pick-up process was well organized. They had computers set up for you to look up your bib number. After getting my bib, I moved on to the next booth to get my long sleeve race shirt. I used one of the portapotties before heading back to my car to get my stuff ready for the race.
Bib look-up
Packet pick-up
Long sleeve race shirt
Back of shirt
Before heading to the start line, I met up with my fellow Half Fanatics next to the gear check booth for the obligatory pre-race photo. It was just your usual suspects!
Half Fanatics
Start line
The race started on time at 6:30 am. The first mile was a fast downhill mile down Victoria Ave. That was followed by a right turn on Adams St as the course zigzagged its way over to the California Citrus State Historic Park. There was a bit of a climb going through here, but fortunately most of the small hills were followed by a small downhill. As I made it back to Dufferin Ave, I bumped into my buddy Dexter. I paused for the usual selfie with him before continuing on.
Dexter!
The next couple of miles were run through the citrus groves. It was nice, but there was a bunch of gravel. The pair of shoes that I wore were definitely not designed for off-road running. Once I had reached the turnaround at the intersection of Irving St and Monroe St, most of the climbing was over. I thought I had enough in the tank to run a sub 1:50, but I started to peter out at mile 10. The right foot and IT band were both starting to feel achy. By mile 12 I knew that I would miss that goal, so I took the foot off the pedal and coasted to the finish line.
Finish line
Finish: 1:52:47
Click here for my Garmin data.
Lately I have been weaning myself off of sugary sports drinks as well as electrolyte tablets. I think if I'm in good shape, I don't need those items in races or distances shorter than a marathon. This race was proof of that as I only carried water in my handheld bottle. The SiS energy supplement and the small sample of Sports Beans was more than enough to get me through a half marathon.
After collecting my beautiful finisher medal, I made my way down the finisher chute. Before I got to the usual post race items, I came across a Raising Cane's table where they were passing out lemonade and unsweetened iced tea. I went with the tea. My friend and I jokingly asked if they had any chicken fingers. :)
Finisher medal
Raising Cane's lemonade and iced tea
Post race goodies
After trading race stories with a few of my friends at the finish line, I walked back to my car to drop off some stuff to free up my hands, but more importantly to get my jacket. I then walked back to about the mile 13 marker to cheer on the finishers as well as to watch some of my friends finish their race.
Latino Heat and Andrea
Natalie
Coconutboy
Eviltwin
I hung out with my friends for a bit longer as a couple of them ran well enough to earn age group awards. It took a while for them to find the booth where the awards were being passed out. The awards were hats. My friends weren't too happy with the award as it didn't have the date or even the year on it.
After I parted ways with my friends, I stopped in the Chick-fil-A along my route home to eat breakfast. After finding an open booth, I ordered the 4 Chick-n-Minis meal with hash browns and a small coffee while using their mobile app. Instead of the Chick-n-Minis, they brought out a Chicken Biscuit. Since it was pretty much the same thing, I didn't bother pointing it out to them that the order was incorrect. After I was done eating, I got a refill of the coffee before driving home.
Breakfast
When I got home and took off my shoes, I noticed that my left shoe had picked up a rather large pebble. That's one of the minor flaws with this soon-to-be-retired pair of shoes.
Large pebble
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