Chicago Half Marathon 2010

September 12th, 2010, 2 friends and I ran the Chicago Half Marathon. What an awesome race it was. The Chicago Half was very well organized, lots of entertainment, the perfect amount of water stops, ideal weather and a whole lot of fun.

Because the Scotiabank Full Marathon is only 2 weeks away, I decided I wasn't going to push too hard. I decided that I was going to run with my bestie and enjoy the experience. And enjoy I did. I felt great the whole way. I made sure that everytime I saw a photo op I took it. I made sure I drank at every water stop. I made sure I stuck to my 10 and 1's. And I ended up with a 10 min personal best!! Yahoo!!!! My time was 2:24:37!

My friend, who has not done much training since April, ran with me the whole way until the 12th mile. At this point she was feeling tired and her feet were hurting, she asked me to go and when I looked at my watch and figured out that I could make my goal time which was 2:25. I would have actually been happy with anything below 2:30.

Last Tuesday our clinic had a talk by an accomplished marathon runner. He talked about race prep and tips for race day. What stood out for me was he said no to look at your watch at the finish line, he said to make sure that you take advantage of the photo-op and put your arms up and smile! So I remembered going through the finish line and I got a great photo out of it! Definitely great advice!

Chicago is an awesome city and I completely enjoyed myself. I know 3 of my running friends are running the Chicago Full Marathon on October 10th.. I am excited for them as I know they will enjoy it as much as I did.

Other highlights of the trip included the spectacular hotel The Palmer House, The Navy Pier, the real deep dish pizza, the shopping, and we even got $25.00 Rush tickets to Billy Elliot the musical. Billy Elliot was an incredible show, possible the best I have ever seen and the seats were awesome!

I hope to one day go back to Chicago and visit again. There is so much to do. Could I be back for the Full? Any thing's possible!