So yesterday I ran the Chicago Distance Classic for the 2nd time. This is a great 1/2 marathon for those of you who haven't run it before. I've been training for this race for the past 10 weeks and I've felt really good throughout most of my training. I even got my pace down from 9 min per mile (for marathon training) to about 8:15, seeing as it's half the distance. Going into the race I felt good. I had rested all day Saturday and stayed off my feet, for the most part. I made sure I was well-hydrated and I had a nice whole wheat pasta dinner the night before.
I was sick earlier this week and even stayed home from work for a day and a half on Tue/Wed. I had a sore throat, the sniffles and just felt crappy overall. I wasn't able to run much at all, but since I was supposed to be tapering this week anyway, I wasn't overly concerned. To make up for it, I went out on Thursday night and ran a quick 4 miles (under an 8 min pace) and then on Friday I did a 2.5 mile sprint on the treadmill.
I was faced with high temperatures and even higher humidity on race morning, but I've been no stranger to the heat lately during my training runs, so I wasn't too worried. I could tell from the moment we crossed the Start Line that I wasn't going to have a good race. You either have a good race or you don't.
I ran with my friend, CT, who had told me earlier that she wasn't going to run at my pace (she trains at 9:30) but luckily for me, she was having an amazing race and running much faster than her training pace. We ran together the whole time at a pace about 8:30-8:45 the whole race. Around mile 6 I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. My heart rate was an elevated 182, when it's normally 160-166 during long runs. We walked for a minute after we got some water and I tried to take a few deep breaths in hopes of lowering my heart rate. We continued on. Around Mile 10, I had some serious stomach issues and CT and I walked for a few minutes. There weren't many port-a-potties in sight and by the time I found one, my stomach had calmed down a bit so we started running again. Soon into the race, I noticed that my GPS and the mileage markers were not in sync. At mile marker 1, my GPS said 1.1 miles. At mile marker 6, my GPS was at 6.3. At mile 10, my watch read 10.6. This was a bit disheartening and I kept thinking that the mile markers were probably off, not the course. Well, we finished at 2:07, which is officially my slowest half marathon, to date. When we crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch and the total distance we ran was 13.95. That's right. A full .85 miles LONGER than the official 13.1 miles that is the half marathon distance.
The PR (Personal Record) I was shooting for was 1:50.....so coming in at 2:07 was disappointing, to say the least. It's hard to go for a PR in that heat, coupled with the fact that I was under the weather all week AND had stomach issues, to boot.
Well, I'll chalk this up to a Loss for me but a huge WIN for CT who kicked serious ass and kept me motivated during the whole race. This was her longest race yet. We even ran over the finish line together.....I'm so proud of her!
I love my distended belly as I still hadn't found a port-a-potty yet!
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