August 1, 2010 at 6:30 am was the start of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon. This was my first Rock ‘n’ Roll race, and the course was flat. I thought it would be a good time to try and break the two hour mark, so I signed up earlier in the year to make sure I got in before it sold out.

A hotel room was booked, vacation days signed up for, groceries purchased, suitcases packed, and finally the car was loaded up. First stop, after the requisite quick coffee drive by, was the Health and Fitness Expo at McCormick Place in Chicago.

I picked up my bib and SWAG bag and then wandered around the hall for awhile.

Brooks apparently is a large sponsor and had all sorts of attractions… see the Jesus Lizard and racing pictures. There were plenty of samples available, so I carbo loaded right at the show with energy bars from the major manufacturers. After seeing everything we wanted to see we took off for the next stop. The Chicago Art Institute.

First though we needed some real food, so walked a couple blocks, went down the stairs, and under the bridge to the Billy Goat Tavern.. home of the Cheezeborger. Hopefully some of you will remember the Saturday Night Live skits (Beluschi) that were created from a visit to this restaurant. “Cheezeborger – Cheezeborger – Cheezborger! No fries! Cheeps! No Pepsi. . . Coke!” Well it was an interesting place, the food passable,(having the double cheese burger of course! – one of use having a double double…) glad we went to see, may or may not ever go back. There are just to many places to eat on the trips we make to “double up” to often unless it is something we rate “outstanding”. (Maggianos Italian).

Bellies full, we walked back to the art museum where we spent hours wandering the halls looking at paintings, lots of paintings. Old painting, new paintings, great paintings and those that left you scratching your head. Finally we headed to the hotel for the night, stopping first at… Maggianos for some pasta.

Saturday we visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Started in 1972 (?) as a small greenhouse it has grown into a major garden. A very nice place, and certainly glad we went. We were not sure beforehand what it would be, or how long to plan on being there… thinking we may be done in a hour or two and then go do something else. As it ended up we spent the entire day there. We finished the day with the tram ride that circles the gardens. The driver/tour guide was either a) a hoot, or b) annoying…. done in a very folksy style it was more comedy than informational. For me anyway it was cute at first but would have liked a little more substance, history, facts, etc to be presented.

A early dinner at McCormick and Schmicks and then off to the hotel. We had to get up at 4 am to get ready and make the drive to downtown Chicago to be ready for a 6:30 am start time. We are early risers, but 4 is early!

We made it in good time, the traffic was very light, and got into a parking garage with no problems. A couple block walk to the venue and we were ready for race time.

On our way, behind a white picket fence was the celebrity pen. A couple people who I did not know were there stretching and being covered by cameras. Still don’t know who they were, but one was “The Bachelor – Jake” one was… aw heck who cares anyway, we are here for a race not a show.

The course opened about 6 am, and it filled quickly. There were 29 corrals, one of the picture’s in the album shows them stretching far into the distance. Based on earlier half marathon times I submitted I was in corral #8. At 6:30 the horn sounded and the first group was off. Each corral started about a minute apart, so it was about 10 minutes into the race when I crossed the start line. The first couple miles went according to plan. The only issue being the Garmin was showing me as running a lot further than the course was marked. Much later, after the race and back home, I loaded the gps track into Google Earth and zoomed in on the course. It appears the tall building played havoc with the Garmin since the track was all over the place even doubling back on itself, no wonder it showed me running 14 plus miles. This also then affected the pace it was showing… not that I use it for much of anything normally.

I passed by the photography team just before the six mile mark, things were still going pretty good at that point, but shortly after that it started to be a struggle.

Excuse List for Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon:

a) I walked miles the day before at the Botanic Gardens

b) I was on my feet for hours, and walked miles on Friday at the Art Institute.

c) It was hot, reaching 80 degrees by the end of the race.

d) I dropped my headband in the porta pot before the race and sweat kept running down into my eyes.

e) It has been so hot recently my weekly mileage dropped way off, into the teens, instead of in the 30-40 mile range.

f) The sun was in my eyes

g) I didn’t have any coffee before the race

h) My right shoe was loose

i) My left show was tight and had a hot spot

j) My heart rate monitor strap was loose and kept sliding down around my belly.

k) something else

l) whine

m) whine

So I ended up running the slowest half I have ever run, by 15 minutes… ouch.

I don’t want to, but I always add the statistics… so here goes.

The six mile time was still pretty close at 1:04 which would be 2:08 plus another 11 for the final 1.1 miles, so 2:20 isn’t far off…. but then I guess 2:28 isn’t that much more than 2:20… very flawed runner logic…

I have to say, this outfit seems pretty efficient. They had the results posted in hours, with 18,000 plus finishers. Some other races I have run it takes days, for only several hundred runners! They also set up a nice finishers certificate which you can download and print out. I think saving it as a pdf is good enough for me.

To make the aching legs feel a little bit better they have a fairly decent finishers medal also.

Still, it was fun and I enjoyed it, once I cooled off a little bit. After getting the finisher medal and some water we headed back to the hotel where I took an ice bath to help the legs on the drive back home. Glad I did since the drive ended up over six hours. There was construction on I-94 that held us up quite a while until we stopped for some supper and took the back roads for awhile until we were past the mess.

Finally back home, unpacked, and went to bed… and that is the end of the 2010 Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon.

Pictures of the expo and race!

Until the sun sets over Lake Michigan in Chicago . . . .

George