This race is basically a warm up race for the Chicago Marathon, so I did not do any tapering before this event. So I already had 37 miles on my legs from the week. The day before my right knee was sore and concerned me. I did not feel it at all on Sunday morning. The race started out really good. I was hanging about in the middle of the 1:30 and 1:35 pacers. I had placed my eye on the 1:30 pace team as a target. Later I was to find out this was foolish. I was running 7min/mi through mile 6 I believe. At this point I had lost sight of the 1:30 pace card. I thought maybe because we were heading into the wind that he did not want to hold the sign up, I don't know. I was going along pretty good when it started to get really loud behind me. I looked back and the 1:35 pace group had caught me. They were stretched out from curb to curb. All of a sudden they started yelling, "On your left" and "On your right". They cut through us like butter. Were they trying to catch up with where they were supposed to be pacing or was I fading really fast? I kept up as best I could. At mile 9 I was about 1.5 minutes behind them. This was wierd because I was with a group of stragglers from what was left over from the 1:35 pace group. There was about 15 of us. Last year in this race I remembered running with a lot more people. I was having some troubles with being dehydrated and just plain tired at about mile 10. The wind was now at my back but the sun was in my face. It was getting pretty warm. At one water station I noticed I had 6 cups of water in my hands. I am not sure how much actually made it into my mouth. Mile 11 brought us back to the museum and the cheering crowds. This really was a pickup for me. I got my legs back and was moving pretty well again. The rest of the race went well and I felt pretty strong. This is a big change from last year where I bonked at 11.5 and had everyone passing me as we got to the finish. This year only one or two people passed me in the last mile. I was very happy with that. I tried to drop the hammer in the last mile and immediately felt a cramp come on in my left leg. So I forgot that idea.

Overall I am very happy with the results of this race. I finished in the top 5% which is pretty cool, since a year ago I had not considered myself a runner and this is only my second season. I also beat last year's time by 6 minutes.

Run faster.

Drank a ton of water and walked around.


The heat.


Fun run!