That One Time in Chicago...

Chicago - "The Land of Adventure and Defeat"

I flew back from the wonderful city yesterday afternoon, and I'm just now getting a chance to get my thoughts down. First things first, I fell in love with Chicago. Maybe it was the mild weather (and yes, I know that that quickly changes in October) or it could have been the ravioli I had the first night. Whatever it was, I love "The Windy City." Here's how the adventure went:

(The Bean, obviously.)

Saturday

I arrived around 9 am. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to check into my hotel in late afternoon, so I was concerned about what to do and spending too much time on my feet (I mean, I did have to run 13.1 miles the next day, the legs needed to rest up.) But much to my surprise, they told me my room was ready…before 10am! What is this?? I literally giggled my way up to the 22nd floor, thank goodness no one else was in the elevator.

After about an hour or so of relaxing in my room, I went to get my race packet at Navy Pier. Walking back down the pier, I decided to brave my fear of heights and ride the carousel to get a good view of the skyline. Best use of $7.

I went back to my room to drop off my packet and then decided to hit the streets. I didn't have a plan of where I was going or what I was wanting to do, so I may have gotten lost of few times. The Map app on my iPhone is not very good, I learned. I found myself in the shopping area (naturally) and looked around a little bit until I realized that I probably needed to start finding food since my stomach was about to eat itself. I stopped at a little outdoor grille in Millennium Park to eat. I saw they had nachos, so I ordered those (obviously) because of my pre-race tradition. Funny thing is, that was the lowest part of my trip, because they were terrible. (Just to get the record straight, queso on tortilla chips does not constitute it as nachos. Never, just no.)

I found the very famous "Bean," on my way back to the hotel. It's funny how something so simple attracts so many people. I think I was more interested in the people than the sculpture itself. My adventure ended there because I needed to relax and rest. I did, however get takeout Italian for dinner (and yes, I got completely lost on my way there, even though it was a block and half away, I kid you not.) It's funny the number of times I got lost, but it apparently doesn't show on my face because twice I was asked for directions.

Sunday (aka "The Big Day")

 (Lululemon headband, Saucony Kinvara 5, GapFit, 

Swiftwick compression socks, Garmin Forerunner 10, 

Athleta sports bra, and Nuun drink tablets)

It started at 4 am, when I woke up. I had managed to fall asleep around 10, which still amazes me to this day. The shuttles started to leave at 4:15, so I knew I needed to get there at a reasonable time. And here comes a mistake, I did not eat breakfast…or anything for that matter. I wasn't too worried because I have been getting sick after crossing the finish line lately. We arrived at Jackson park around 5:20ish, an hour and 40 minutes until the start. Plenty of time to relax, stretch, and warm up. Everything felt almost (keyword there, guys) 100%. We lined up in order of our planned paces. I was in corral C because I signed up for the race pre-injuries. Honestly, about 10 minutes before the gun went off, I thought about sneaking to the back more, but my pride got the best of me.

Before I knew it, we were off. I decided to do my best with negative splits, so I tried to stick at an 8:00 pace in the beginning (I was ideally aiming for a pace between 7:50 and 8:00 because I knew I would PR then) and then go a little faster after each mile. My body did not like this because it wanted to go faster. Every time I would find myself creeping at a 7:35, I would slow down. Then at mile 2, the strangest and most frustrating thing happened…my legs turned into, what I can only describe as, lead. With my other two half marathons, that doesn't happen until around mile 9 or 10. But stinkin' mile 2!! I tried talking my legs out of it but they just got heavier and heavier. Then around mile 6 or 8 (it's all kind of a blur now) I started getting a weird pain in my left groin. It was awesome (note: sarcasm.)  I was devastated. All I could think about was how much time (and money) had gone into this race. I repeated "Do what I can do in this moment" over and over, and everything in me would say, "Okay, let's walk." Any pride that I took with me to the start line was completely gone. I dragged my body over the finish line at 1:57:32, 11 minutes slower than my PR, but 11 minutes faster than Meb's marathon PR ;). I placed 2117 out of 7834 overall, 639 out of 4294 females, and 91 out of 601 in my age group.

At the end of the day, what's done is done. Two text messages helped me get my chin up after the race. One was "At least you did it!" The other brought tears to my eyes.

(Thanks mum!)

Even though my performance was awful (in my opinion) the race itself was incredible. I've never had so many high-fives from strangers before. The signs were pretty great too, not as good as my first half, but still awesome. My favorite one, oddly enough, said, "Annie just peed in her pants. Smile if you did too." First, I thought it was hilarious that that was my name, second I smiled and then tried to straighten it as fast as I could. I also loved seeing all of the charities that people were running for. Everything from clean water in Africa, to cancer. It was also easily one of the most organized races I've ever run. All in all, I would LOVE to run this race again. A) because I loved it, B) because I want revenge.

The rest of Sunday was spent resting for a couple of hours and then I did more exploring around the river and Millennium Park. Don't ask how I mustered the energy to do so, because I couldn't tell you.

I did (almost) everything I went to Chicago to do. I crossed two items off of my photography bucket list (The Bean and Chicago River), I collected state number 38, I ran my second (out of three) half marathons for this year, and I did my resolution of going on a solo trip. I'm glad I took a risk and visited a completely new city by myself.

Oh! And here's my awesome medal!

(Isn't it pretty?)

Today's Run: 3.5 miles, 26:36, at a 7:36 pace. Don't ask, no idea how that happened two days after running a half marathon, but it can happen again if it would like.

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