Race Report: C4Miles 2010

So I signed up for a half marathon, yes kind of crazy.  I have never run more than 5 miles at one time in my life.  Never ever!  I was buzzing from the adrenaline of finishing my first race when I signed up.  A couple days after signing up and deciding on a training plan, I realized how hard this would really be. 

I decided I needed some extra motivation to help push me to keep up the training.    So not even a week after siging up for the half marathon, I registered for a 4 mile race the following weekend. 

The race was really nice.  It was along the lake on the north side of Chicago.  There were only a few hundred people in the race so it was more spacious than Wrigley.  I ended up running the race pretty much on my own.  There were people in front and behind me, but it was just me, where in Wrigley there were people on all sides.  Running along the lake was really beautiful, the scenery helped make the time move. 

 

I had my Garmin Forerunner, which tells me how far and how fast I run, and the mileage for the course was kind of off which was frusterating.  When I reached the half way point I had already run 2.04 miles or so, and at the finish line I had run 4.11 miles. 

I ended up picking up my speed too early at the end because I thought I was closer to the end than I was.  The course could have been correct with me just zig zagging to much.  I guess it is a good lesson to learn for the Half, the Garmin is helpful, but the course markers are LAW.

My Half instigator, Jody joined me for the race and after finishing a good 10 minutes before me, cheered me on for the last hundred yards or so.  She urged me to pick it up, but I didn't have much left to give.  My official time was 35:32 (11:23 min pace), but my Garmin said 45:31 but 4.11 miles so 11:05 pace, which is 2 seconds faster than my pace at Wrigley! 

It was nice to finish strong and it took me a good five minutes to recover at the end.  That is what I thought I should feel like at the end of a race.