I had ideas in my head that I could break 2 hours for this race. I trained pretty hard (for me) and got in plenty of hill work. Plus I did this race last year so I knew what to expect.
It was cold this year with a temp of 23 and a wind chill of 10. It looked like the sun wanted to come out, but it remained mostly overcast. Last year was 80 and humid. Gotta love living in No. IL.
Started back where I thought I should be. No signs for expected pace. Took 22 seconds to get to the start line (no chip timing) and I was off. There were roughly 1100 runners and it was crowded the first 2-3 miles. I was keeping a just under 9:00 pace and it felt fine. Warmed up and even started sweating. Took my first gel at arounf mile 4. Pretty happy with my pace on the uphill sections. Another gel just past 9 miles before I started the long run up "10 mile hill". This went much better than last year and I ran up the next hill after fairly comfortably.
At mile 11, I checked my Garmin. I knew I was 22 seconds off official time so I started to push the pace. After the last uphill section I started really pushing, along wth a few others. Turned the corner into the finish area and was sprinting. Saw the clock turn to 2 hours so I let up and breezed through the finish.

Last year's time was 2:05:44 so I smashed my PR. I need to even out my pace and maybe push the hills a bit. I should not need to sprint to make 2 hours.
Now, my Garmin read 1:59:48, so in my mind, I broke 2 hours. But officially, I am at 2:00:10.

I was sweating pretty good even with the cool temps. Found my wife and walked some and tried to get out of the wind. Went inside to get my pretzel and then packed up and went home.


Cold start and I still need to get better at hills. Also need to learn to pace better. I tend to hold back from the start because I think I will not have enough at the end. Clearly I am getting to be a better runner so that is no longer true.


Well run race with a cost of $50. If they did chip timing, I'd happily pay a bit more. The weather is always a surprise.