Race: Rock’n’Roll Chicago HM

Goals:

A: Beat Walker’s PR (< 1:28:32)

B: Sub 90

C: PR (< 1:31:10)

Training:

This race served two purposes. First, I’m training for the Chicago marathon and I wanted a tune-up race to see where my fitness stood. Second, I needed a sub 90 HM to qualify for the B corral at the marathon. I’m 11 weeks out from the marathon. I’ve been averaging 60-70 mpw for this cycle. Hitting 2 workouts per week, plus a long run and a medium long run.

Pre-race:

Flew up to Chicago on Saturday. There was a heat wave in DFW this weekend with a high around 115F/46C. I was happy to get the hell out. Hit the expo and then met /u/PrairieFirePhoenix for tacos and beers. We met this cute girl that wouldn’t stop flirting with us. After lunch I went back to my hotel room, did some yoga and hit the hay.

Race day:

Race started at 6:30am. Had my usual pre-race breakfast and a cup of black coffee. Put on my Poodle Boyz singlet for its race debut and walked over to the start. The forecast was 70F/21C with a chance of rain and fair amount of wind.

Side rant: Let me start by saying this race sucks, and I don’t recommend running it unless you have to. The start of the race was a mess. Even though I was seeded to corral A they don’t actually police it, so corral A was full of people that didn’t belong there. It was so full, that by the time I got there it was closed and I had to go to corral B and wait. My original game plan was to go out with the 1:30 pace group, but they left with corral A, so now I was stuck doing this race solo. Also, there’s a concurrent 10k race that starts at the same time as the HM. The 10k racers split off at mile 1, and then meet up again with the HM two miles out from the finish line. There are a thousand turns including a hairpin turn at mile 9. GPS was useless for much of the race due to the tall buildings, as well as the fact that a few miles of the course is run under the L tracks or through tunnels.

The horn goes off for my corral and I’m off. There’s a headwind, but it feels kinda good coming from the Texas heat. The 10k racers split off and the herd thins out quite a bit. At mile 2 the skies open up and it starts pouring. My shoes and socks are completely waterlogged for the remainder of the race. Hit the 5k split in 20:43 (6:41/mile). The next few miles were uneventful. On and off rain, running solo and trying to pace myself appropriately. Hit the 10k split in 41:46 (6:44/mile). From here, it’s straight south down a stretch of Michigan avenue, then that annoying hairpin turn on wet pavement. Slowed down a bit and grabbed some water. Hit the 10 mile mark at 1:07:35 (6:45/mile). Shortly thereafter we meet up with the 10k racers again. The issue is these people started at the same time as me and they’re at mile 4 of a 10k. So they’re walking. SLOWLY. Often 5 people across and taking up the majority of the road. We go through a long tunnel and it's really dark in there. I'm convinced I'm going to run into someone or trip on a pothole. The plus side is I was able to channel that rage into a strong finish. Took mile 13 in 6:20. The DJ is playing 'Breakdown' by Tom Petty, which seems like a terrible choice when I'm trying to hold it together for a finishing kick. Chip time: 1:28:26. 10th AG. PR’d by 2:44.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1720160829/overview

Photo near the finish: https://i.imgur.com/YLKEWQU.png

What’s next:

Hit my A goal and I’m thrilled with the PR. In retrospect, not being able to run with the pace group was a blessing because I would have been too conservative. I want to give a shout out to CTB for his training advice and letting me steal some of his workouts. Daniel’s VDOT tables tell me my finish time is equivalent to a 3:04 marathon. That’s essentially in line with my goal of going sub 3:05 at Chicago this fall. I still have 11 weeks of training to go, so we’ll see what happens. I'm also registered to run the Houston HM in late January where I hope to ride this wave of fitness to another PR. I'd love to break 1:25, but time will tell. Thanks for reading!