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.