Honestly, these pictures are nothing short of embarrassing. The first, my backside. Who really wants a picture taken from behind? You can see here my totally (not) awesome running skills. I was not born a runner. In the second picture, I’m preparing to cut off that biker so that I can give my kids high 5’s. He wasn’t particularly happy, and I hope my kids didn’t hear the choice words he had for me. When I was talking to my Grandma about my race, she mentioned that I probably am good at running because of keeping up with my kids. No, I reminded her, it’s running AWAY from my kids that keeps me going. In all seriousness, I’m not a born runner. I’d like to improve my form, but right now it’s mostly about maintaining my waistline and my sanity. SO, I decided to do my first half-marathon at the beginning of June.
It was on the south-side of Chicago, along the lake. The night before, we stayed in a hotel and (early, early) that morning I met up with a good friend to bus down to the race. It was an incredibly hot day (at least for those of us that live in the upper-midwest and have been training 50-60 degree weather). By the time I hit about mid-race, they announced that timing was turned off; the race was still on, but to take it S L O W. It was in the upper 80’s and HUMID. At about mile 12.5, the Chicago PD was cruising the streets and announcing that the race was cancelled, everyone should walk and cool down. I was ALMOST THERE and my legs started to tighten up as I slowed to a walk. So, I took it back up to a light jog and finished the race. It didn’t “count” and I honestly don’t know what kind of time I made, but I FINISHED. It was a really hard race, WAY harder than my triathlon that I did last year, I think mostly due to the heat. Several racers were taken to the hospital; I read later that someone died. I felt great finishing the race, but wasn’t so hot on the drive home. Thinking it was just heat stroke, but it wasn’t fun. I’d do it again in a heartbeat though, in fact, I’d like to do one in the early fall if anyone’s game.
One more funny memory from this race, no pictures other than these. I’m too cheap to pay over $40 for one 5x7 taken by event photographers. My family was only able to be at one part of the course, not at the finish line…and Jake accidentally only got a short video rather than a picture. My friend finished WAY before me, and we didn’t think about pictures. When we finished the race, we cooled off a bit and ate some pizza, then headed to a beach house to clean up a little and then meet up with our families. The hotels near the race were either really scary (Chicago-SOUTH SIDE) or really expensive (downtown Chicago); so we were too far from our hotel to shower after the race.
