Race 15: The Chicago Quarter Marathon

Race: The Chicago Qaurter Marathon

Distance: Supposed to be: 6.55 Miles Actual: 7.12 Miles

Time: 1 Hour and 33 Seconds

Hooraaaay- the half way point and what an amazing way to mark it with an international race!

I flew out to Chicago to visit my sister and her boyfriend who recently moved over there and managed to convince them to sign up to the race with me.

I landed the night before at around 6pm in the evening (midnight UK time) and rather than hit the hay for an early night in preparation for the race the very next morning after a long day of international travel I did what every true athlete does before a race in Chicago* and went out for Gin, deep dish pizza and washed it down with some wine. I slept pretty well and managed to avoid the notorious USA jet lag which normally sees people waking up wide eyed and bushy tailed at 4am. Instead I woke up dry mouthed and dehydrated at around 6am. * might not be true

My sister prepared us a healthy breakfast of fresh fruit, yoghurt and some granola and we left the apartment to walk to the start of the race at around 8am. It was a beautiful clear day in Chicago and the sun was beating down on the city… it was going to be another hot race!

It took us a while to find the start of the race as I had no idea where I was going and my sister and her boyfriend had not long been living in the city so were still getting their bearings. Once located it was hard to mistake as anything else: lots of portaloos- a few windswept marquees and plenty of lycra clad americans. The best bits were the people handing out free Hi-Chew sweets- I was definitely riding a sugar high when we came to start the race promptly at 9:15!

It was a quick start to the race which had us initially racing along a rather wide sidewalk (check out my use of American) that runs along the main road through the centre of the city…. Thankfully we soon swerved off the road and joined the lakeside trail that runs a few metres from the waterfront. It is a busy and relatively flat tarmac path that thankfully my sister had pre warned me we would be sharing with cyclists! The runners had to run single file and if we ever wanted to overtake someone a cautionary glance over one's shoulder was definitely required before making any move to swerve out to your left to avoid potential collisions with a fast moving cyclist.

I started really fast- I was buzzing because of all the sugar and the excitement of running in another country in the sunshine. It was also nice to be able to wear my headphones without any fears of being disqualified. My music was playing LOUD and my feet were moving fast. The race was marked out clearly with mile markers (it was a out and back very flat race). Each mile marker also had a clock next to it so it was easy to keep tabs on pace. It started to get very warm just before the half way mark and I longed to see the turning point!

I managed a successful low five with my sisters boyfriend when i saw him running back the other way and was happy to reach the turning point myself a few minutes behind him. (He was running extremely quickly and appeared to be in the top 10!) I began to flag very soon after the turning point and thought to myself that the 4 mile marker was taking a mighty long time to reveal itself! This did not help moral. It later turned out that the mile marker for mile 4 was WAY out- .0.57 of a mile out infact! Ouch! My pace began to fall again as the temperature rose and regretfully I had to allow myself some time to walk (again! 2 races in a row--- what is happening here?)

The second half of the race was pretty torturous- I was slow, the temperature was hot and the windy city was failing to provide any kind of wind whatsoever to cool us runners down. Eventually (and with much relief on my part) the finish line was in sight- I somehow managed another sprint finish and crossed the line as the clock hit 1hour. I was not particularly happy with this time until it was confirmed that the race was over half a mile longer than it should have been meaning that I ran 7.12 miles in one hour, I’ll take that…

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the sudden burst of heat in Chicago- sunbathing, rosé drinking and BBQ-ing. Hooray to running on holidays- I could easily make a habit of this… (if only I had a bottomless bank account and an endless number of annual leave days to take….)

But yes- HERE WE ARE…. HALF WAY TO 30.