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!!!