WDWFAN9
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2001
- Messages
- 2,043
Great report Liz, you remember way more about the course than I do!!
The expo went smoothly Saturday, the usual vendors with the usual goods. The best part was that Jim and I registered for Nashville's Country Music half next April, we got $10 off the registration fee and free tshirts!!
It was easy to meet up with Liz and Patrick, and Susie and her DH Steve, and after a bit of a hike we had a great lunch at Portillo's. On the way back to the car Jim and I actually visited Millenium Park and got to see THE BEAN up close:
It was up early Sunday AM to head into Chicago and soon our WISH team found each other:
And this is Sallie (Salligator) the 3:30 pacer extraordinare:
The John Bingham team does a great job with their pacers, and Sallie is awesome.
The weather was beautiful and soon we were on our way. The course was new to me (it was used prior to my first CDC in 2006) and I personally did not like it as much. The last two years the course started north and wound its way through Chicago skyscrapers, this year the course headed south and was mostly in direct sunlight. I thought it was a little boring myself. Jim and I were with Liz up until about mile 4 when I realized we were a bit ahead of the pace I am comfortable with for the long haul, and about mile 5 we made a pit stop. Yes, there were plenty of port-a-potties this year!!
The view at the turnaround point was spectacular, and unfortunately Jim didn't get a good picture of it. This is one of the views a little farther down:
For a while we walked with Susie and Sandy:
The weather was much clearer than last year and the views were awesome. Only one small complaint, there was actually a pretty strong headwind as we went back north. Yikes!!
I don't know what it is about Chicago, but for some reason I've always gotten an ugly blister inspite of moleskin and body glide. This year was no exception. It really is puzzling because I don't do anything different in Chicago than I've done anyplace else
Actually, it is pretty annoying! Between the blister and not being as prepared as I could have been this turned out to be my second slowest finish ever....and I don't even really count the slowest finish as a true time because I did it in Columbus with Lily and my DS who was a student at OSU at the time, and I swear that Lily made us stop at EVERY mile marker and take MULTIPLE pictures. Anyway, it is always great to finish and get an awesome medal. This year's CDC is a little different from prior ones - it still has the traditional Penguin/courage to start on one side, but the other side has a big race logo and is very cool:
All in all it was so much fun to share this experience with fellow WISHers!
The expo went smoothly Saturday, the usual vendors with the usual goods. The best part was that Jim and I registered for Nashville's Country Music half next April, we got $10 off the registration fee and free tshirts!!
It was easy to meet up with Liz and Patrick, and Susie and her DH Steve, and after a bit of a hike we had a great lunch at Portillo's. On the way back to the car Jim and I actually visited Millenium Park and got to see THE BEAN up close:
It was up early Sunday AM to head into Chicago and soon our WISH team found each other:
And this is Sallie (Salligator) the 3:30 pacer extraordinare:
The John Bingham team does a great job with their pacers, and Sallie is awesome.
The weather was beautiful and soon we were on our way. The course was new to me (it was used prior to my first CDC in 2006) and I personally did not like it as much. The last two years the course started north and wound its way through Chicago skyscrapers, this year the course headed south and was mostly in direct sunlight. I thought it was a little boring myself. Jim and I were with Liz up until about mile 4 when I realized we were a bit ahead of the pace I am comfortable with for the long haul, and about mile 5 we made a pit stop. Yes, there were plenty of port-a-potties this year!!
The view at the turnaround point was spectacular, and unfortunately Jim didn't get a good picture of it. This is one of the views a little farther down:
For a while we walked with Susie and Sandy:
The weather was much clearer than last year and the views were awesome. Only one small complaint, there was actually a pretty strong headwind as we went back north. Yikes!!
I don't know what it is about Chicago, but for some reason I've always gotten an ugly blister inspite of moleskin and body glide. This year was no exception. It really is puzzling because I don't do anything different in Chicago than I've done anyplace else
Actually, it is pretty annoying! Between the blister and not being as prepared as I could have been this turned out to be my second slowest finish ever....and I don't even really count the slowest finish as a true time because I did it in Columbus with Lily and my DS who was a student at OSU at the time, and I swear that Lily made us stop at EVERY mile marker and take MULTIPLE pictures. Anyway, it is always great to finish and get an awesome medal. This year's CDC is a little different from prior ones - it still has the traditional Penguin/courage to start on one side, but the other side has a big race logo and is very cool:
All in all it was so much fun to share this experience with fellow WISHers!
