North Shore Half Marathon

Right after finishing my first half marathon back in 2011, I told CP that I was so happy that I was never going to have to do another half. Well, a friend of mine signed up for a half earlier this year and I decided to also sign up because what's 3.1 more miles the weekend after running a 10 mile race? (LOL) I chalk it up to FOMO which is a silly reason to sign up for a long race, but I did it anyway.

The last time I ran a half I trained with a local Fleet Feet store in CT; this time I ran by myself because I didn't have a set time or day on the weekend that I would run. Last time I also had plantar fasciitis basically the entire time I trained; this time I was relatively pain-free in my heels. Of course it is also a move across the country, two kids, and 8 years later so things have changed slightly. Ha ha.

Stupidly, I stayed up too late the night before watching the Netflix move "Always Be My Maybe" with Ali Wong and Randall Park (which is awesome by the way- even CP liked it). Going to bed after 11pm the night before a half marathon where you have to be there at 6am isn't the best of ideas. But up I was to drive to the half. This time I decided that I would chug my Spark water bottle 45 minutes before the race started so that I would have two chances to go to the bathroom before the race started. I met up with my two friends who were in a faster corral and we hung out for a bit before they left for their corral. I peed one last time and got in my corral.

I started the race and felt pretty good. I didn't have to pee and it was cool enough that I felt good. I ended up peeing twice during the race and stopped at every water station to make sure that I had enough hydration. The first part of the course was through neighborhoods which was fine, but a lot of residents were coming and going throughout the race and at times would try to get through traffic which was annoying. I got really annoyed around mile 6 because the mile marker was clearly in the wrong place (far after we actually had hit mile 6) and it messed with my head. Around this time I heard from a nearby runner that "Heartbreak Hill" was coming up- a steep decline, turn the corner and then head right back up for a steep incline- so I took advantage of of the decline and let my legs go knowing that I was going to walk up that incline!

I felt pretty good until I hit mile 10. The third week of running 10 miles and only a week after running the Soldier Field 10 miler, my legs were begging to be done with the race. This part was mentally tough too- a very long out and back where you could see mile marker 11 but knew that you were still early in mile 9 so that you had a long way to go to just get back to the same place on the road. Plus, no shade. 

My friend who finished earlier, his wife, and his kids were there at the finish line and that gave me a boost to run a little faster towards the finish line. I will say that I definitely do NOT need to do another half marathon. I was bummed that I didn't get a PR but I am 8 years older so I probably shouldn't have expected one. :-)

Nike+ Splits

Mile 1- 10:21

Mile 2- 10:48

Mile 3- 11:00

Mile 4- 11:52

Mile 5- 11:07

Mile 6- 11:15

Mile 7- 11:07

Mile 8- 11:45

Mile 9- 11:54

Mile 10- 12:38

Mile 11- 11:36

Mile 12- 12:32

Mile 13- 12:25

Official Race Times

5k- 33:54   10:55 pace

10K- 1:14:11  11:57 pace

15K- 1:48:00    11:36 pace

Final time- 2:34:13

Pace- 11:46/mile

The rest of the day I was pretty tired but the worst was getting up the next morning to get on an early morning flight to Las Vegas for work- middle seat for three hours. I definitely hobbled around in meetings all day, finally feeling better after a long night of sleep that night.

Soldier Field 10 Miler

Oh boy am I behind in my blogging! Let's dig into what I have been doing the past month+ with a few posts.

First up- the Soldier Field 10 miler! I have always wanted to do this race because it ends on the 50 yard line of Soldier Field. You all know that I am an Eagles fan, but getting to finish on the 50 yard line of an NFL stadium is super cool so I went for it. For Mother's Day this year I asked CP for one thing- the okay to sign up for this race and the half marathon the following weekend and the weekend time I would need to train for the races. Thankfully, he agreed.

I was really good to keeping to a good 3 day a week running schedule. After finishing the 10k in the snow, I set out to add mileage every week by following a half marathon training plan...so the weekend before this race, I ran 10 miles since the two 10 milers would be the longest runs before the half.

Friday night I took the train to my parent's house downtown and slept over at their place (they were in MI) so that I wouldn't have to get up hours earlier to get downtown. I brought a bagel, Spark, and all of my stuff. Saturday morning I woke up bright and early, ate my toasted bagel with butter, and dressed for the day. It had been scheduled to POUR RAIN all week so it was nice to see that the forecast had changed to sunny- but it was also going to be HOT.

I took a Lyft to Soldier Field and arrived about 50 minutes before the race was to begin. About 30 minutes before the race I chugged my water bottle filled with Spark for some caffeine and used the bathroom. I knew that I had to get into the corral at least 15 minutes before the race started. I stretched a bit and then watched as the Color Guard came out, a charity spokesperson talked for a few minutes, and then the elite and earlier corrals went off. The whole time I am thinking that I should run back to the bathroom to pee, but decided not to (I should have known better).

Needless to say, when my corral finally started the race, I really had to pee. My first chance to use a port-a-potty was not until about 2.5 miles in so I had an uncomfortable start to the race and then had to sit waiting at the port-a-potty for a bit. 

The race had us start out going south along the lake and turn around halfway to head back to the stadium. The first 7 or so miles weren't so bad. It wasn't too hot out and I was feeling pretty good. Around mile 8 I was just SO HOT with the sun beating down on me and my legs felt like lead. I definitely started walking more than usual and it shows in my pace.

Nike+ Splits

Mile 1- 10:12

Mile 2- 11:03

Mile 3- 10:48

Mile 4- 11:28

Mile 5- 11:35

Mile 6- 12:01

Mile 7- 11:30

Mile 8- 12:37

Mile 9- 12:45

Mile 10- 11:56 

(The Nike+ App automatically pauses when you stop moving so it didn't register my bathroom stop and thought that I finished faster than I did. Without the bathroom stop I would have finished in 1:58:18)

Official times

5k- 37:20 (damn bathroom stop!)   12:01 pace

10k- 1:14:09  11:56 pace

15K- 1:53:59    12:14 pace

Finish time- 2:01:42

Average pace- 12:11

My goal going in was to finish in less than 2 hours so I *almost* made it. My body certainly wasn't used to the hotter weather as we have had a nice, cool spring so far so all of my training runs were in cooler weather. I believe that this is my first 10 miler so currently, this is my PR.