Chi-Town Half Marathon Race Report
1:36:30ish, 7:22/mile, 170 avg. HR
For the first 'season-starter,' I'll take it. I was a bit worried due to the lingering soreness/tightness in the hammy and knowing I'd spent all Fri/Sat sitting at the computer working on my paper ..not conducive to being loose and ready. Morning routines were all fine.
Juxt came by around 7 a.m. to pick me up (thanks, Juxt!!). Just as he pulls up, some snow flurries start

...but they stopped and we saw no more. Easy drive to the Chicago lakefront, park a mile away, and jog to the staging area for race pick-up (8:15 a.m. start). We then each went about our own warmups and exchanged a quick

before the start. Temp around 30 or so, and a rather stiff wind coming east off the lake ..more a nuisance than a hindrance. Course was essentially flat.
One oddity: It was a 10K and HM. Looking at the maps (and seeing the course set-up), we all started together and followed the same course. We looped back near the start at around mile 6, and they had signs for the 10K folks to turn and head to the finish while we ran a big loop further north. But: The young volunteers were telling the 10K folks to turn right away, half a mile into the race. I have NO idea how that all worked out. Later on, we were passing 10K'ers going the opposite direction, and they seemed to be a bit puzzled.
Anyway, given my training to date and rather uncooperative legs, it was a textbook race (that book being "Ned's Guide to HR Running"). I hung with the 1:35 pace group for the first 5 miles or so, but then slowly backed off when my HR got to 170/171. I ran the rest of the race solely by HR. We did a big turn at mile 9 and headed in for the final 4 miles, and I let my HR pick up as I slowly pushed the pace back to the finish:
mile 1: 7:15 ..158 HR
mile 2: 7:13 ..166
mile 3: 7:19 ..167
mile 4: 7:16 ..169
mile 5: 7:18 ..171
mile 6: 7:20 ..171
mile 7: 7:33 ..170
mile 8: 7:28 ..171
mile 9: 7:31 ..171
mile 10: 7:31 ..173
mile 11: 7:25 ..172
mile 12: 7:27 ..174
mile 13: 7:17 ..177
final .1: 6:31 .181
Haven't see race results yet (we scooted right out ..for me, I didn't want to miss Palm Sunday church). The hammy/butt weren't good. Any sort of inclines (just road overpasses) were painful. The beauty of the HR running, though, is my mind doesn't really think about anything, particularly not negative thoughts. I just hold the HR and keep going. My first HM last spring was early May at 1:35:22, so I'm probably about where I was at this time last year. It was great to spend some time with Juxt again as he gears up for Boston in three weeks.
gruecd - congrats on the 50K!
SFDuck - hope your daughter is back on her feet real soon!
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eta:
3rd of 30 in my age group. 89 of 1,063 overall.