Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I'd been asked a few times what pace I was going to run and I honestly wasn't sure. My training has been kind of all over the place the past few weeks and since I figured this couldn't be an A race anymore and I'll be doing the marathon in Denver in October anyway, I would just run this the best I could and hope for low 8's. In reality I also know there's no point in me planning a pace for a half marathon or shorter. My body knows what it can run and I generally find if I stop worrying about it and just let my body figure it out, I'll run stronger than I thought I could. I'll also pace more consistently than I could if I were over-thinking it. So I headed out at a pace that felt good and was surprised when I realized I was almost at PR pace.

After having an extra .4 miles on my Garmin for the marathon in April and being told it was because I don't cut in close on the corners, I really tried to be careful with that this time. But by mile 1 my Garmin and the course mile markers were already off. Throughout the race there was a difference of anything from six seconds to a minute fifteen difference in what my Garmin marked off as a mile and what the course said was a mile. My Garmin reports the race as 13.33 mile, but I also lost signal in the Mccormick Place tunnel and may have lost it in a couple other places. So instead I ran with a general guesstimate of where I was based on course clock time and when my wave took off.

I didn't feel like I needed much nutrition for this race for some reason so I only took fluids at three aid stations and I only did a couple sips for each one. I never felt dehydrated or low on fuel though, and it helped me maintain stride and pace, so I may see about cutting back on the aid stations in other half marathons and see if that continues to work.

About halfway through mile 12 a girl ran up next to me and said, "I've been running behind you and you've been strong." Then she stuck right by my side until the finish. SHE was really strong and she was pushing me. The last 100 meters I wanted to puke or collapse or something because it hurt so bad and she kept quietly saying: "Come on. Keep going." I don't know if I would've finished so strong if we hadn't been running together. Once we crossed the finish line we introduced ourselves, said it was great to run together, and she said, "It's always nice to make friends" and then she was gone in the crowd.

I knew by mile 9 that I was very close to a PR, but I couldn't tell how close. I set my original PR at this race and thought it would be awesome to break it today at the next generation of the race. I really tried to push the last few miles, even picking it up to a 7:30 pace for my last mile, but the clock said I was coming in at 1:42:15 while I was still running down the last 100 meters so I figured it was gone by that point and I was about 30 seconds slower. I was shocked to find out I was actually only six seconds off.

Not much based on where I was with training and life in general going into the race. I paced very evenly throughout (staying between a 7:48-7:50 pace most of the time) and I almost beat my PR. I'd obviously try to find that six seconds somewhere, but otherwise I think I this race went really well.

Got my finishing chute food and then sat on the curb and made friends with whoever sat next to me until Laura finished and then she and I went out to eat at Wishbone, our favorite post-race restaurant for breakfast in the city.


Training, life. Even still I almost ran a PR. Can't complain.


I've done another Country Music/Rock and Roll half marathon and they are very well done. I would definitely recommend them for veterans and first timers alike. I thought as an inaugural race this went very well. I would suggest they loosen up their policy about making everyone pick up their own packet though, especially if they are going to continue to hold the expo in the middle of the city with $20 parking to get to it. For people coming from the suburbs, it was a 3-4 hour trip on top of race day.