Rock n Roll Chicago Weekend!
A week has come and gone since my amazing Rock n Roll Chicago weekend began. I've had time to reflect on my races and how much fun it really was.
I arrived in Chicago on Friday morning. I woke up at 3am (yikes!) to make my 7:15am flight and then got to spend most of the day with my family in Chicago. My sister and I arrived at the Rock n Roll expo right when it opened at noon on Friday and walked right up to get our packets. We were running both the 5k and the half marathon (Remix Challenge!) and easily got our bibs within a few minutes of walking into the expo.
Silly me forgot to take any pictures of Friday, but I assure you that we had a blast! I met so many fun people and got to see some cool products. And I bought some sweet new Injinji socks! Friday was probably the hottest day and I was nervous about the heat for race day. I was compulsively checking the weather report on my phone and it looked good for Saturday with a question of rain on Sunday.
Come Saturday morning we had a 5:30am wakeup call, got up, ate some breakfast and we were on our way! It was a breeze to get to our reserved parking and we had about an hour to kill before the 5k race.
The weather was absolutely perfect! I honestly don't know the exact temperature, but I'm pretty sure it was in the high 60s. In July. In Chicago. WHAT IS THIS FANTASY LAND?!
We were in a lower corral which I assumed meant we wouldn't be starting for at least 30 mins after the initial start time. To my surprise we were off and running within 5 minutes of the gun going off.
Our plan was for this race to be a shake out run for Sunday. We wanted to take it nice and slow, somewhere in the low 11:00s.
Mile 1 was somewhere near 10:50 and I told Rachel we could stand to slow down a little bit and save our legs. We were both wrapped up in the excitement and crowd that we might be pushing a little too much.
Mile 2 was even faster, but I let the scenery get to me! We were running right along the lakefront after all!
Once again I said hey! Slow down sister! And believe it or not our last mile was in the 9:50s. So much for saving our legs. Rachel blamed me for speeding up, but I swear I was just trying to keep up with her!
Saturday ended with us collecting our medals, heading home, and relaxing the rest of the day. I got to catch up with some family and off to bed we went!
Sunday started bright and early with another 5am wakeup call. We decided to leave a little bit later on Sunday since we ended up having so much time before the race on Saturday, but I really wish we didn't. We (stupidly) hadn't anticipated how much more traffic and how many more people would be down where we parked. We ended up parking and having 10 minutes before the official start of the race at 6:30am.
We were in a later corral again and my experience of Philly last year had me thinking that we had an hour before we crossed the start line. So we took our time with our pre-race ritual, but everything started a whole lot faster than we thought. We ended up crossing the start line within 25 minutes of the official start time! Crazy!
We spent the first couple of miles dodging people and telling ourselves to slow down a little bit. We knew we had a long race ahead of us, but our legs felt so good!
It was amazing to run through Chicago seeing my favorite iconic places like the Sears Tower, the Chicago Theater, and running over the River. Our plan was to try to run 6 at a good pace, see where the next water station was and then maybe walk a little bit after the water station if we needed to. We kept checking in with each other and the general consensus was we felt pretty good.
I arrived in Chicago on Friday morning. I woke up at 3am (yikes!) to make my 7:15am flight and then got to spend most of the day with my family in Chicago. My sister and I arrived at the Rock n Roll expo right when it opened at noon on Friday and walked right up to get our packets. We were running both the 5k and the half marathon (Remix Challenge!) and easily got our bibs within a few minutes of walking into the expo.
Silly me forgot to take any pictures of Friday, but I assure you that we had a blast! I met so many fun people and got to see some cool products. And I bought some sweet new Injinji socks! Friday was probably the hottest day and I was nervous about the heat for race day. I was compulsively checking the weather report on my phone and it looked good for Saturday with a question of rain on Sunday.
Come Saturday morning we had a 5:30am wakeup call, got up, ate some breakfast and we were on our way! It was a breeze to get to our reserved parking and we had about an hour to kill before the 5k race.
The weather was absolutely perfect! I honestly don't know the exact temperature, but I'm pretty sure it was in the high 60s. In July. In Chicago. WHAT IS THIS FANTASY LAND?!
We were in a lower corral which I assumed meant we wouldn't be starting for at least 30 mins after the initial start time. To my surprise we were off and running within 5 minutes of the gun going off.
Our plan was for this race to be a shake out run for Sunday. We wanted to take it nice and slow, somewhere in the low 11:00s.
Mile 1 was somewhere near 10:50 and I told Rachel we could stand to slow down a little bit and save our legs. We were both wrapped up in the excitement and crowd that we might be pushing a little too much.
Mile 2 was even faster, but I let the scenery get to me! We were running right along the lakefront after all!
Once again I said hey! Slow down sister! And believe it or not our last mile was in the 9:50s. So much for saving our legs. Rachel blamed me for speeding up, but I swear I was just trying to keep up with her!
Saturday ended with us collecting our medals, heading home, and relaxing the rest of the day. I got to catch up with some family and off to bed we went!
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| 1 down, 1 to go! |
Sunday started bright and early with another 5am wakeup call. We decided to leave a little bit later on Sunday since we ended up having so much time before the race on Saturday, but I really wish we didn't. We (stupidly) hadn't anticipated how much more traffic and how many more people would be down where we parked. We ended up parking and having 10 minutes before the official start of the race at 6:30am.
We were in a later corral again and my experience of Philly last year had me thinking that we had an hour before we crossed the start line. So we took our time with our pre-race ritual, but everything started a whole lot faster than we thought. We ended up crossing the start line within 25 minutes of the official start time! Crazy!
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| Twinning |
We spent the first couple of miles dodging people and telling ourselves to slow down a little bit. We knew we had a long race ahead of us, but our legs felt so good!
It was amazing to run through Chicago seeing my favorite iconic places like the Sears Tower, the Chicago Theater, and running over the River. Our plan was to try to run 6 at a good pace, see where the next water station was and then maybe walk a little bit after the water station if we needed to. We kept checking in with each other and the general consensus was we felt pretty good.
Mile 8 came and went and we were still going. It was starting to get a little bit sunnier and warmer. My legs definitely were getting heavy. We decided to walk a little bit and the rest is history. We ran a little, walked a little for the rest of the race. We cheered on other runners. Around mile 9 there was an out and back section of the course and I spent that mile high-fiving everyone I could. It was awesome!
We made it to the finish line and I could not have been happier. 16.2 (official) miles in the bag (though according to my watch the half marathon was 13.5 miles...) Unfortunately Rachel was feeling a little sick so we weren't able to meet up with fellow BibRave Pros. Hopefully next time!
So there it is! Half marathon #5 in the books! I can't believe it. On to the next one!
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