Chicago Half Marathon race report

mrbill · Sub-Chicago Joined: 09 May 2006 Posts: 84

After taking almost 6 weeks off due to a calf injury and a few weeks of physical therapy, I finally got back into my marathon training for Chicago 2006. I'm hoping to run Chicago on 12 weeks of training.....we'll see. This is my test of fitness for my marathon. Taper starts after today.
Chicago Half Marathon: I went in hoping for a sub 1:50, my PR was on my Birthday early May this year at Indy, 1:40:06.

I wasn' t sure what to expect as I have been feeling better, but some of my 5K and 10K times weren't quite up to my usual.

Beautiful morning, very sunny and about 58* or so at race start. Big crowd this year, 10,000 registered in record time.
I went out figuring around 8:11 per mile and was going to see how I did from there.

Mile 1: 8:01 and I'm feeling surprisingly good! I keep the pace going.
Mile 2: 7:40, uh-oh am I going to fast, I think. But I still feel great.
Mile 3: 7:47 , this is all on my GPS which I wore to help me pace myself. It is a little off, so my splits were actually a few seconds slower. I still feel great and decide I am going to go for it.
Mile 4: 7:44
Mile 5: 8:01 hmmm...what happende here? Must be the GPS.
Mile 6: 7:58
Mile 7: 7:47 pretty consistent. Still feeling strong.
Mile 8: 7:51 I stopped for a Gatorade.
Mile 9: 7:47 Wow, I can't believe this. The crowds are awesome and keep me going.
Mile 10: 7:47 I see a pattern here... I also see mrsbill cheering me on in the crowd. I love her...
Mile 11: 7:40 I want to start my kick, but I tell myself to wait 'one more mile'. (pun intended)
Mile 12: 7:47 Here I go, I am going to kick into the finish.
Mile 13:1: 7:19 Wow, I had a lot of gas left.
My official time was 1:43:13. Again, my GPS was off a little so my splits were slower than what's posted, but consistent.
I finished 894 out of 8981 finishers. Not bad for an old, fat guy

This was my test for the Marathon which I'm hoping to run sub 3:45.

Sorry this is long, but I had a great time out there. I sure hope I feel this good on October 22nd!

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