This was my first time running the Chicago Half Marathon in the fall. I have done the ones in the spring a few times but always missed this one. This time last year I was running in Tokyo, Japan. Which is a place I highly recommend to runners, baseball fans, foodies, and everyone in general. The rich history, amazing cuisines, conveniently easy to navigate metro, and the friendly people made Japan a highlight of my travels. I can’t wait to go back and run a few of the marathons before I have a few beers at the baseball stadiums there.
My goal for this race was to beat my previous PR of 01:46:57 from the Rock N’ Roll half marathon in July. Which I beat by 32 seconds. Ultimately, my two goals are:
Finish a half marathon in an hour
Finish a marathon in 2 hours
Yes I know, that’s crazy and impossible. But for now, I’m just taking baby steps towards those goals. So far my time has improved with each race. I am aiming to qualify for Boston (a slightly more realistic goal) by finishing a marathon in 03:30:00 which means I should finish a half in half that time. I know, crazy right? But I am crazy. You have to be. The real crazy part is that I need to run 7:03 minutes per mile for 26.2 miles to qualify! I can barely do that for a 5 miler.
The weather was slightly cold but perfect for running. The body heats up pretty fast once you’re in motion. Plus, the cold is usually the last thing on your mind while you’re struggling to continuously push yourself to the finish line. In fact, I made a rookie mistake that morning. I bought a new brand of socks that I’ve never worn before just for race day. Experia socks. There’s nothing wrong with the socks, in fact, I really like their compression and comfort. But, and this is a big but, I didn’t test them out with my (slightly narrow) Adidas Adizero Adios 3 shoes. So, being as how the socks were slightly thicker than what I’m used to, my feet were tight in my shoes throughout the whole 13.1 miles.
For the most part, I had a good race that day. I maintained my pace close to 8:00 minutes per mile. By the time I reached mile 9 my body needed more energy and I had to lean forward and keep pushing myself to finish. I was getting very tired and didn’t see any of the energy gels they usually hand out. Again, another rookie mistake, I should’ve checked the map to see which mile station had them. But I did stay hydrated throughout the race with my Nathan hand bottle thing and that definitely made a difference because my legs didn’t get the usual cramps near the end.
Despite all the things that went against me (even the photographer’s picture of me!), I finished. And then I finished a pizza, and a beer, and another one after that. My next race is the UNO Carrera de los Muertos 5k on Saturday, October 27th and then the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k on Sunday, November 4th. I want to finish the 5k in 20 minutes and 15k in an hour. Yes, crazy but not impossible. Congrats to all the runners who participated in the marathon and a special thanks to all the volunteers and spectators, you guys have no idea how helpful it is to have people cheering you on while you’re out there pounding the pavement. I’ll be there running it next year!
Chicago Half Marathon 9.23.18 This was my first time running the Chicago Half Marathon in the fall. I have done the ones in the spring a few times but always missed this one.
