Training week 7

Week 7 was a good week.  I only ran 3 days due to the last run of the week being the Chicago Rock N Roll 1/2 marathon.  I did get a bike in (8miles) in the early morning hours which was pleasant, because I didn't feel as hot biking as I was running.  I unfortunately wasn't able to get my swim in, because our indoor pool ,I swim laps at, had a swim meet going on Thursday-Sunday.  I let it go and just focused on the race and figure I'll get back in the pool this week.  Although my mileage running wasn't high (20) this past week I feel during the week before a race I keep it lower mileage so that I can kick it for the race. So here is the race recap.

This was my first time participating in the Rock N' Roll Chicago 1/2 marathon.  Me and the coach (aka hubby) went to the expo on Saturday.  I was pretty impressed with the expo.  Hubby thought it was pretty crowded and they should've given expo booths more room.  Brooks was the official sponsor along with XSports at this expo so Brooks' booth was HUGE.  They had a whole backyard carnival theme going on- ski ball, ring toss, etc.  Everyone was a winner- I came away with some kid friendly blue Brooks sunglasses :).

I liked this saying- I do power through with trusty Ipod

They had some great back drops throughout the expo and hence I had to take pictures of them- no I'm not trying to advertise for competitor.com. After the expo I read for about 1 1/2hours while hubby ran 9 miles on the lake front.  Then we headed to sister in-laws for the day/night.  We truly appreciate having someone that lives in Chi-town so we can fix our spaghetti dinner in a home and not deal with hotel fees and making reservations at an Italian restaurant.  

Morning of- I felt good and was ready to get started.  Race started at 6:30 a.m. and runners were placed based on time/finishing prediction in gates (the gates/corals were somewhat a joke, because I was in gate 10 and there were people in my gate that had gate marker 20 on their race bib).  OH Well- moving on.  They staged the gates opening about every 1-2 minutes after the elite runners started.  So didn't take me too long to start.

There is good old me at about mile 6.  I felt pretty good now, but about mile 7 forward I was realizing that my PR of 1:58 and even getting under 2:00 hours would likely not happen.  I don't feel bad about my race though because strangely this is one of the hardest run races I've ran.  If that makes sense.  The route was good, but I could've skipped the close quarters at the beginning of the race and the running under buildings and in the hot streets until about mile 4.  It was so hot even at mile 1- the sweat was just pouring off me.  I stayed hydrated throughout the race and ended up doing 2 Gu's to help keep up my energy level.  

Following the race I picked up goodies to refuel- they had plenty!  Couple of chocolate milks, water, Popsicle, and jamba juice strawberry/banana smoothie and I felt pretty good. I don't know that I would do this race again mid training for Chicago Marathon, because the week before the race I step down and the week after is a recovery week due to my legs and overall body being physically drained.  So with those two weeks of step down I feel like I'm a tad bit behind on the high mileage runs, but no worries I will get them in!

So for anyone who can brave the heat I would highly recommend the Chicago 1/2 marathon.  It was well organized, nice goody bag/swag, fun expo and of course great course to run!

I thought this back drop was great for me to remember because I will "journey on" with my training.

Here is the official time info from the race. Again not my best, and actually my slowest 1/2 marathon race time, but I really feel good about my effort, hopefully I can build on this race in prep for October.

Participant Detail

Finished In:

02:03:04

Age: 35 | Gender: F

• Overall: 3501 out of 14881
 
• Division: 195 out of 1347
 
• Gender: 1333 out of 8998

• 5 Km
• 10 Km
• 10 Mile

• 28:43
• 58:08
• 1:34:17

• Pace
• Chip Time
• Clock Time

• 9:24
• 02:03:04
• 02:10:24