Livin' La Half-Marathon Loca!

Today, the weather looked like this:



But I had a half-marathon! The Banco Popular Chicago Half-Marathon, to be exact. And, seeing as how this was supposed to be just another "tune-up run" before the big show (which is in less than a month, by the way), I and my three buddies decided that now was as good as any time to run a half! So I woke myself up at 4:30 AM, and headed out to meet the girls at Sheridan and Diversey.



You see, this race just had to be held in an area of Chicago where the public transport is shit, so taxis were necessary. I think I explained this yesterday...Anyway, the rain had been pretty steady since Friday night, and it wasn't showing any signs of letting up. After going farther South than I have EVER been in recent memory, we arrived at the start.

Still raining.

I avoided the big gear check area by going over to the CARA gear check. I'd brought dry clothes, my camera, iPod, mobile phone, etc. with me and was glad that they'd be hidden from the rain. We then moved over to our CES tent, conveniently located right next to the CARA tent. Awesome. Coach Mike was there, and so was Coach Jenny...and they'd brought food, shot blocks, plastic garbage bags, water, and gatorade. If you're wondering what the weather was like, I can report that it was pretty much the same:











So we waddled our way to the start. Amanda, Jen, Corey, and I positioned ourselves near the 2:20 finishing time pace group. I really wanted to treat this one just like another training run...just with more people, a bib, and special weather. Jen wanted to try for a 2:10 finishing time, so once we started "running" (I choose the quotation marks because we all know that unless you are winning the race, you start so far back that it's at least a few minutes until you actually cross the start line and begin to run...quotation mark free that is.

Amanda, Corey, and I kept a pretty consistent 10:25 pace for the first few miles. Corey seemed to think we were going too fast, but Joanie Garmin is no liar. Probably the biggest obstacle in the race was the puddles. I know this shouldn't matter when you're already soaked, but still...there's something about running through 3 inches of water that makes me go "eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww..." We avoided the first two aid stations, because the idea of biting it on some paper cups was somewhat less than appealing. You know, that whole marathon in less than a month thing again. The course itself was pretty cool because it brought us through Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance, which, if you've read Devil in the White City, is where all that shit went down. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh nothing like a little history on the run! Eventually we were on Lakeshore Drive...my joints hurt just thinking about it really! I think at this point, it became an "out-and-back" course for the last 7 ish miles. In fact, I don't even think we were at mile 5 exactly when we saw the leaders come through. They, of course, had less than half a mile to go. Bastards.

Around mile 6 I heard Livin' La Vida Loca. And then I heard it again once we'd turned around. Bastard D.J.

Corey had dropped back a little bit, but Amanda and I were maintaining a 10:30 and it felt pretty good. My right instep was beginning to ache a bit, and Amanda started getting blisters (mostly because, well, it was raining harder), but overall, we felt strong. Another amazing part of the race was the amount of spectators out watching us! It was really cool. Definitely made me want to volunteer for a race someday. Because truly, the weather just kept getting worse. Just like my water logged long run of about a month ago, I found the rain distracting and fun! So when the last 5K rolled around, Amanda and I just let loose and kicked it in for the end. At that point, Amanda had asked me what my finishing time was for the CDC. I told her that it was 2:19. We checked our watches, and just knew that we would finish ahead of that.

Don't ask me how, I'm not a magician. or a mathematician. It just happened.

And sure enough, we ran the end in to finish somewhere under 2:17. Official time to be posted later, of course.

And it was still raining. We slogged our way back to gear check where my once dry bag was now soaking wet. The good news was that Coach Jenny had bagels with peanut butter cut up for us, swedish fish, pretzels, etc. all waiting for us to consume them. I had a bagel with peanut butter when Corey joined us. She PR'd as well!






And then we decided to try and figure out how to get home. It was going to be a two hour wait for the next Metra train. Therefore we decided try and find a bus since finding a taxi would pretty much be impossible. So we waited in front of the Museum of Science and Industry, wrapped in plastic garbage bags (they had an insulating effect, don't mock me) for a few minutes. After a few phone calls and the wind once again making our teeth chatter, we decided to walk towards what we hoped would be a Green line station. You know, just a little tour of the South side to make our day complete. Apparently, Senator Obama's home is in Hyde Park. I nearly considered knocking on his door and guaranteeing my vote for a ride to the North side, but I digress...

We ended up at Stony Island (a street I'd heretofore heard of, but never seen) and found a bus. After a long bus ride, we hit up the Roosevelt Red line stop and made our way home. I don't think I've ever been so wet in my life. There were a few points in the race where I thought to myself "maybe I should do a tri...I'm swimming right now!!!"

Once I walked in the door, it was shower time. And for Marcy's benefit, here's a bathroom shot:



So yes, drowned rat would be an apt description of my state a few minutes ago, as well as the state of all my stuff, which is now carefully positioned around my bathroom, hopefully drying-off.



So I would give the race itself an A rating, because there were plenty of aid stations, good volunteers, awesome scenery, and fairly good administration. However, I would give the general location a big old D, due to extremely difficult travel in the city of Chicago. And as always, my CES crew was more than amazing.



So I'm home now, showered (and I soooooo did not want to get out of my nice, warm shower), and resting up with a nice warm cup of tea, trying to avert a possible ear infection and/or cold (the rain kept blowing in my ear, and then of course, there was the long walk home).

Thanks for the well-wishes!!! On to the 20 miler next weekend!