Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Was PLAGUED with stomach issues for the last few weeks trying to train for the Chicago Marathon in October. It's been hot and humid and I was starting to freak out about making it through this race without a serious potty issue. DH always does a tsp of metamucil for a couple of days before a race and he swears by it, so I got fiber religion and started taking it every day. GOOD NEWS: Stomach was tip top for the race.

So enough about that. AFA the 1/2 Marathon, I really didn't even want to do it. I had to taper my Marathon training, miss an 8 mile pace run, and shorten my long run from 17 mi to 13.1 to do this race. But from DH experience last year, I knew I should try for a corral, and nothing I've done so far gave me that qual...so it was a trade off. Whatever run fitness I lose from truncating my training this week will be outweighed by avoiding the cluster of a "gen pop" Marathon start with 45,000 of my closest friends.

So a 1/2 mary it was. Last year was a 1:52ish effort. First corral for the Marathon is at 1:49:59 and faster, so I was reasonably certain I could make it (with no scary potty issues). Other than that, I had no plan! I thought about running it at Marathon Pace, but that was a bit too slow, so I settled on the idea of running it at 8 minute miles. Frankly I've been struggling to run much faster than that on my tempo runs and have only been able to go faster for a few minutes in the middle...so I was really thinking 8's were going to be a struggle.

So our wave goes off...started in corral 3. It was never really crowded and since most folks were running about the same speed or close, it felt a lot easier than last year starting in the scrum of corral 12. I just let myself go, got over the 1/2 mile heavy breathing and got into a groove. First mile 7:38, wow, ok. Feel good, so let's just go with it. Cardio wise felt great, held 7:45ish for the first 6 miles, set a PR for 10k and 10 miles. Legs started hurting early, but I realized it didn't slow me down, which put me in a great frame of mind for the finish. Got a stomach cramp about 4-6 miles, but again, it didn't slow me down. More good juju.

Had some negative pace booty early on with a hygiene challenged guy who was running my pace and kept ending up in front of me. How rude! Finally dropped him on a "hill." Sheesh. Had a major girl crush on an awesome chick who I would pass on the water stops (she walked them) and then she would pass me on the run...she finally left me after about mile 9, but I remain devoted to her...she was in awesome shape and had amazing running form.

I had given myself permission to slow to 8's if/when I got tired...but at mile 8 I was holding well below 8 m/m pace, so I decided to try to maintain through the finish. At mile 10 I felt so good, I decided to pick up the pace a bit...it went ok, but the end is a lot of rolling hills and I slowed back down for miles 11 and 12.

The wheels fell off at mile 13 but I held on (hey it's only one mile). It was probably my slowest mile but not a disaster at all...guess that speed up at mile 10 wasn't so smart after all.

Overall I am extremely pleased. I PR'ed by 10 minutes! I made corral C for the Marathon. I held a pretty steady pace for the entire race. I feel pretty good this morning...which I hope means my legs are getting stronger from all the running.

Not much. I did better on pre race nutrition that previously, and while I wish I had more of a plan, I am happy with how this race was executed. Even though I am comfortable with running, I am not that experienced, especially with longer races, so I am still learning how I like to approach them and what realistic paces are for me.

I had a bit of a mental melt down coming around the last corner because I realized I was not going to finish in under 1:40, and I was really bummed because I wanted to make that corral for the Chicago Marathon. Except there is no 1:40 cutoff. Only 1:35 or 1:45. So if I am going to go into a race "armed" with information, I need to make sure the information is correct. Haha.

Beer. Music. Sit on a bag of ice (take THAT piriformis). Train. Brunch. Street Festival. Urban people watching from the front yard. Burrito dinner. Early bedtime. Heaven.


I think I have a faster 1/2 Mary in me...but it would mean a lot of running (with a lot of quality). Meh. One thing all this running has proven to me without a shadow of a doubt. I am happier training for triathlon.


If over 2/3 of your participants are women, you should offer a women fitted t-shirt. I am not tiny and the XS is quite roomy on me. Either that or offer 20 bucks off if you forego the t-shirt. There's too much crap in our landfills to be giving crappy swag away...it just gets thrown away if it is ugly or doesn't fit. This is a decent race to do city sightseeing and the only 1/2 marathon in Chicago that is not on the lake front in its entirety...but I don't know if I would do it again. I'd rather spend the money on triathlons...