Splits...

For those who might be interested, here are my splits/paces from the marathon...

5K 30:42 (9:52)
10K 31:31 (10:08)
15K 31:07 (10:01)
20K 32:01 (10:18)
25K 33:17 (10:42)
30K 34:43 (11:10)
35K 37:45 (12:09)
40K 36:34 (11:46)
42.16K 15:37 (11:38)

Not so bad for a first attempt. You can totally see where I got bogged down between 30 and 35K though. It was all mental and once I fought through that I was ok agian.

Chicago Marathon!

ZoneTag Photo Sunday 6:21 pm 10/22/06 Chicago, Illinois
Originally uploaded by bentley79.

So here's the post you've all been waiting for! The marathon recap...

A final check of weather this morning convinced me to do layers, which was a good choice! I packed up my bag and got on the 5:40am train downtown. Why do races have to be so crazy early in the morning?? The train ride was a lot of fun as it was all runners eating their powerbars, drinking their gatorade, pinning their numbers on, and talking about running!

I made it down to grant park with plenty of time and waited around for my friend Zack. I never saw him, so just checked my gear and lined up between the 4:30 and 4:45 signs. That was a good move as you'll soon discover. The race started and I was across the starting line in a little over 7 minutes which I thought was pretty awesome. I was expecting like a 20 minute wait. All went well with the run itself and I was really feeling good pretty much the whole time. No cramps, no sharp pains or anything...about as good as you could expect.

The course itself was good, except for a crazy blast of wind on Addison and heading out to the United Center. It was great to see all of the neighborhoods and people lining the street cheering!

Around mile 18 I started feeling the distance a bit, but after a quick gel break I was feeling great again! My parents came down to Chinatown and it was a good boost to see them!

The final mile was just so awesome, running up Michigan, over Roosevelt, and down into grant park. It just felt so great to make it to that finish line. And my final time...4:43:17

So yes, in case anyone was still in doubt, I'm hooked on this Marathon thing now :)

ready to run!!

I just finished up my final training run of the year...a nice little quick 2-miler at pace and more importantly at temperature. This was my final check that what I'm choosing to wear on Sunday won't turn me into a popsicle :) The final verdict, a long sleeve nike+ shirt and shorts with my special $9 Target track pants over them to start the race, probably coming off around mile 2 or 3 depending on the weather. Oh, and most importantly dri fit gloves and a headband/earwarmer. Good luck to everyone running!!! Maybe I'll run into some of you at the expo tonight!

one week to go!

It's one week until the 22nd! And you know what that means??? Only seven more days to donate miles to the Northside for Cubs Care!

Yes, and it's also 7 days until I run 26.2 miles! I can't wait!!!

I had a nice 8 mile run at pace today and all feels good! Now just repeat twice and add in a few miles for good luck and that'll be next weekend's run! :)

Good luck to everyone else who is running!!!!

taper funness...

So the taper continues! It's been nice to start to get a little more free time in my life with some shorter runs this week. The mid-week long run was down to 8 miles and today was a beautiful 12 along the lakefront path on a rare 74 degree October day in Chicago! That'll probably be my last lakefront run until next spring. It's just so amazing to me that I can run 12 miles with almost no thought to it at all. Just about a year ago I decided to run the marathon this year. At that time running 3 miles was a stretch for me. I didn't run much over the winter and by the beginning of April, 5 was still a stretch. Now I can go out on a random sunday afternoon and knock out 12 without getting tired and with no pain at all. It's just so amazing what some training can do!!

Two weeks until the marathon!!

Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon...

So this morning was the 1/2 marathon! Besides having to get up at 4am to make it down to hyde park in time, the day couldn't have gone better! Traffic was super light getting there and I had some time to eat an odwalla bar and get some water before wandering over to gear check. There were about 14,000 runners, so it wasn't too big of a race and there were no lines for anything. About 20 minutes before start time, they closed off the roads and everyone lined up. I decided to stand around the 9 minute mile section because the last time I started with the 10s and everyone was really runnings 11s or 12s. Yes yes, you can say that I was doing the same thing to the 9s people, but you can't...read on...

The race started and I crossed the start line about four minutes into the race (nice compared to the 20+ I'll have to wait for the marathon in three weeks!). I was all ubicomp'ed out - the nike+ accelerometer on one foot, the RFID timing chip on the other, and an ipod with the nike+ antenna plugged into it. I still haven't found a good way to carry a phone, so that was left behind :) Although there were a ton of things I wanted to ZoneTag along the way. Anyway, I got moving and hit the little center button on my ipod to hear my pace. It was sub-9. I was like, ahhhhh too fast! But kept going anyway :) I didn't slow down much from that except for the water/gel breaks where I just walked through the water stop and started up again on the other side.

It was a beautiful run through the park and up along the lake. I was feeling so good I had time to appreciate the views of the skyline and the lake. 13.1 miles later with no complaints at all I made it to the finish. As you can see on the graph, I was pretty darn consistent!



Pace:
Mile 1: 9:14
Mile 2: 9:18
Mile 3: 9:21
Mile 4: 9:21
Mile 5: 9:21
Mile 6: 9:20
Mile 7: 9:23
Mile 8: 9:29
Mile 9: 9:08
Mile 10: 9:25
Mile 11: 9:36
Mile 12: 9:36
Mile 13: 9:29
.1 Mile 13.1: 9:15
Total time: 2:06:29

After the race they had some fruit and pretzels and gatorade. Pretty standard fare. Yes, they had bananas. I still can't believe that race in CA that didn't have bananas! After all that fun, Vertigo USA, a U2 cover band had a little concert. I thought they were much better at Run Hit Remix, but oh well, it's a free show :) All in all, a great run! I can't wait for the Marathon in three weeks!!!