Nervous. That about sums up my feelings for this race. I went into the day knowing very well the level of competition that would be attending and was completely ok with the fact that I would probably come in about 40th. This race was in Oak Park, IL and is the only race I know of that has a seperate start for the women and for the men. So when I say I was ok with coming in 40th, I meant 40 WOMEN kicking my butt!! 🙂 Anyway, I woke up at about 5:45 on race day still not knowing what I wanted to wear, what shoes I was going to wear, what the weather would be like etc. I had my usual breakfast of cereal and stopped at Starbucks on the way. At exactly 2 hours out I ate my PBJ and drank a little water. I have to admit – driving through downtown Chicago wasn’t a terrible way to start my morning 🙂 Since the weather was 40ish and windy I decided to go with my Adidas RC racing flats, running tank, spandex, and arm warmers for the race. I arrived on time (which if you know me, this is a huge feat) and went in to get my race packet. The atmosphere was unreal – there were lots of racing teams and coaches hanging around and even though this race has a LOT of runners, it still had the feeling of being very competitive. I saw tons of ladies that just looked fast and it was really nice to see that lots of people were out doing warm ups and strides pre-race. Ryan and Melisa got there right as I was going out for my warm up and thankfully Melisa offered to watch my stuff for me. I turn on my Garmin wait for it to find a sattellite. FAIL. I did my whole warm up without my Garmin even working – annoyed the crap out of me. So I literally stood around until it finally locked on and I knew I’d be good for the race. I got probably a 2 mile warmup – it should have been more, but I was running around frantically trying to find my gloves (another fail.) and going to the restroom. So finally they call everyone to come over to the starting line – I join a couple other ladies for some strides and hop in line. I notice that there are 2 starting lines (kind of like a corral) so I went behind the 2nd one knowing I don’t like to go out fast and the spot ahead was probably reserved for elites. Then they announce that anyone with a 21 5k or under needs to be up in the front – so I shoot a quick glance over to my coach, Ryan. He gives me the “get your butt up there” look and I move up. So if I wasn’t nervous before, I surely was now! There are tons of professional photogs up there taking pictures of everyone and people with video cameras – it was bit overwhelming. Like I said before – there were some really fast girls (winning time was 17:40) running so I can see why it was like that.
So we’re off and I let people pass me as I try and settle into my pace. The lady that was lined up right next to me seemed like someone who had ran quite a few races in her time and I figured she would keep a pretty even pace. So I followed her. Mile 1 went pretty quickly and I remembered thinking how I should feel a bit more tired but my split was 6:43 which was where I was supposed to be. 2nd mile I think my Garmin must have been bouncing around because I kept seeing low 6:00 paces so I slowed down a little knowing I can’t keep that througout the race. Mile 3 we turn… right into the wind. I didn’t realize it was windy but once I felt it, I knew that I should have pushed harder on mile 2 to make up the longer time it was going to take me to run mile 3. The final turn towards the finish I was 18 something and man did the finish look closer than it really was – turns out it was a good half mile to the finish line haha. So I thought I was going to PR until I realized the finish was much further away. Nonetheless I picked up my pace and tried to make the best of the finish. I heard my name announced as I crossed the finish line and was handed a rose. Every woman that crosses gets a rose, so I thought that was pretty cool. Disappointed in my time and at myself for not pushing harder I went and found Melisa to wait for Ryan’s race to begin. All-in-all I think I’d like to do the race again next year as it was ran really smoothly and you could tell it was a pretty important race for the Chicago area.
Time:Â Â Â Â Â Â 21:08 (6:49 pace)
AG:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 5/55
Overall:Â Â Â Â 34/456
Race That's Good For Life - The Start
Getting started
Getting closer to the finish!
Finally Done!! And I was not thinking and stopped at the 1st mat.. oops!!
Coming into Chicago pre-race
After Ryan’s race I drove 90 hurried back to Bloomington to run the CCHS Saints Alive 5k. One of my friends helped put it all together so I wanted to come out and support everyone – and it was 80 degrees so I decided to run 🙂 Those 45 mph winds were something else tho….
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