Rock and Roll Chicago Half Marathon Race Report

I survived the Rock and Roll Chicago Half Marathon on August 2nd and I'll leave it until the end to let you know if I PR'd or not. We got down to Chicago Saturday morning and headed right to the Expo. Just as we got there they were announcing that Ryan Hall would be speaking in 5 minutes. I said to Dave, "Ryan Hall, way cool, we have to go" Dave said "Who is Ryan Hall?" We hightailed it over there and grabbed a seat. John "The Penguin" Bingham was there introducing him. Celebrity sightings everywhere! Ryan gave a great 30 minute talk about preparing for the race, pre race jitters, going out too fast, nutrition, etc. It's funny he was talking about 4:28 miles!! I can only imagine. After that we did a bit of shopping and then headed to the hotel to check in. Had an early dinner of my traditional spaghetti and meatballs and then off to bed early.

Up early and walked over to the starting area. Here is what I was thinking at this point:

Then Dave left me and went to start getting in position to get some pictures. I went and found my corral and began the long wait. It was a wave start so I had a 30 minute wait until it was my time to go. We were off and I of course start off too fast. My Garmin was messed up from the buildings so I couldn't tell what my pace was. I hit the first mile at about 11:00. Then the second one about 12:00, a bit better. Dave saw me here, but almost missed me. Here is the funniest portion of the race, caught on tape:

I felt good through out the whole race. It was crowded once we left downtown and hit the lakefront trails. I was concentrating on keeping track of my mile splits in my head. I was trying to keep under 12:30 miles. So what was Dave doing while I was running. Well we know he hit up a Starbucks, but what else:

Right about mile 12 was when I started to feel it. I dug in and kept pushing and before I knew it I was at the finish line. I crossed the line at 2:42:57. A 4 minute PR! Woo Hoo! I was tired and hot, but was immediately handed an ice cold wet towel. Best thing ever. I got my cool medal. Some water and a popsicle-what a great idea. I found Dave and he taped this. I was still winded:

It was a great race. I'll post some more videos and pictures in the next post.

So for now,

Adding to the Adventure Book