Race Report: Chicago Half Marathon

This Sunday I ran the Chicago Half Marathon with a time of 2:26:26. Overall this felt like a really good race, I ran the first 5-6 miles much faster than I've been training lately, and my pace was better than my recent long runs. I still see room for improvement (you know, when I'm not training for a full marathon...) but I was very pleased with the results. The weather was perfect, cool, breezy, and a bit sunny. The race course was also great--most of the race was on Lakeshore Drive, the volunteers were great, and there were plenty of spectators lining the course. And I love having my name on my bib, plenty of people out there encouraging me by name!

Rant time: Unfortunately, I was almost late to the start. We bought tickets for a race shuttle, still requiring us to wake up at 4:30 to get there for 5:30. (Tim is so awesome, by the way, for doing this.) They didn't send enough shuttle buses the first time around, so we waited for the next round. Well...the next round didn't come for at least another forty five minutes. We boarded and from the chatter on the bus radio is was clear there was chaos, none of the drivers knew what was going on and how to get us to the race because of the race street closures. So our driver parked about a half mile out and said "Want to get out here?" At this point we got out because goodness knows if we ever would have gotten there otherwise. I got the start just on time, with no time to warm up or stretch. I was a little angry, but at least I didn't miss the start. I do wish that the shuttle service was more organized, not only because we paid for it, but because the race organizers encouraged taking the shuttles and public transportation, and they provided the service, you'd think the service would get you to the start on time. Rant over, I hope they work out these kinks for next year. Because otherwise, it was a great race. 

Made it to the start line.

Finisher!

At the beginning of this year I never dreamed I would be training for a marathon, let alone run 2 half marathons in the process! And thanks again to Tim for getting up at 4:30am to cheer me on. He's a good egg, huh?