Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon

Today was my last race of the season, the Chicago Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon. The day started out at 4:30 am. I regret not eating a full banana before I left this morning. My boyfriend and I got downtown via our train system at 6 am. The race was not as strict as the other races I have done in the past. I liked that! There were no ropes for the corrals or people telling you you couldn't stand there or walk here. It was refreshing.




I started in corral 18. Immediately I ran into a friend, Colleen. The running community is such a small world. I decided to run with her and her friend Josh. They had about a 10 minute pace. We ran to each mile marker and then walked for 1 minute.


The beginning of the race was challenging. Chicago had a heat wave last week and the heat was still in the air.




I found myself trying to keep up with Colleen and Josh most of the first 1/2. At mile 8, I told them to go ahead of me. I walked for about 10 minutes dehydrated with my hands swelling.




I finally got the energy (thanks shot blocks) to start running again. I ended up catching back up to my friends. It was great. We were all motivating (kudos to Colleen) to keep each other going.


I finished with no injuries and in a decent time considering my lack of training and the heat. For now I am going to limit myself to running the 1/2 in Nashville every year and not running in Chicago in the middle of July!



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