I've never run this far in my life. My longest training run was 10ish miles and that was 2 weeks ago. I knew this was going to be tough for me. The first 8 miles went very well. I had a little bit of cramping around mile 3, but it wasn't too bad and I was able to run through it and keep up my speed. At mile 8 I started mentally wishing the finish line was around the corner. After mile 8 or 9 I probably slowed to about a 9:30 Pace. I don't use any sort of pacing watch so I am guessing based on the split times they were shouting at each mile. Mile 12-13 was absolutely bad. I had run up until mile 12 and mile 12 my body was just spent. I had to run/walk on and off the last mile. Luckily the last .2 miles I finished with a run...I toughed it out, but I was hurting and exhausted. I probably had a 15 minute last mile...which is a bummer knowing I could have had a 1:50ish time for a half marathon. Despite that last mile I was happy with my result. I was shooting to be under 2 hours and I wanted to have an average pace underneath 9 minutes/mile. Mission accomplished.

Not walk the last mile.

Immediately hit the grass as soon as I got out of the way of the finish line and chugged some water. I felt like a zombie at the end of that race. I had to sit there for 5-10 minutes until I got my bearings again.


I wasn't going to write a race report. But I am hoping someone else from the Illinois area or the hosting tri group are on these forms and can answer this question. WHY wasn't their an ambulance sitting waiting at the finish line? There were 2,000 runners and no ambulance at the finish? That seems like a big oversight unless there was an ambulance that had to take someone to the hospital before I finished. About 20 minutes after I finished a man stopped breathing as soon as he crossed the line. CPR was given/AED and he was brought back to life. BUT it took 5+ minutes for an ambulance/trained paramedic to get there. Additionally, he sat motionless on the ground for 30-45 seconds while the announcer called for medics from the medic tent which was 100 feet away. I just thought it would be kind of standard procedure for a race of this size to have trained medics sitting at the finish waiting to respond to a situation just like this. Thank God he was able to be brought back and I hope he is in stable condition. Anyway, I was just hoping someone from that race has an answer because it seems like an oversight, unless like I said, there was an ambulance who had to take someone else before him.