roxymama
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- Feb 26, 2015
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Rock n Roll Chicago 10k, part of the Remix Challenge, 7/17 race recap:
This is as close to a smile as I'll get at 5 in the morning. Had to get a shot of my flower for my momma. Completed her breast cancer treatment and undergoing so many "am I okay now" tests. Had to borrow a little strength from her and plus it's cute and sparkly
I was kind of a nervous wreck this morning. My stomach was not totally happy with me and I just get weird waking up so early anyways. Think I stopped "just in case" in the bathroom at least 10+ times. Which is funny cause as soon as race was over I don't think I even thought about finding a bathroom for hours. It's all mental.
But back to, ummmm, lovelier topics. The weather was so good again!!! Huzzah!
Felt literally the same as day before but cloudier and less sunny. Forecast called for rain but after when we would be done (was our guess.)
We got to our corral area and took a walk past the speedy people to grab a start line pic. My money was on guy wearing #4 because he lapped us like three times as we walked up there. I actually got to run with him for .1 second as he blistered past me around my mile 5, haha.
So we got into our corral and here was our view as we inched closer.
Id say they were going off every 2 min, then every one min, then like 30 sec apart. They wanted our corral to jump together...hahaha NOPE!
And we were off. I was lone-wolfing this one. So didn't know hubby's progress until the end. I had a strategy A) run like how I felt the day before B) don't go as slow as long-run training pace (11:15) but don't like sprint...just a good effort C) run by feel and ignore my watch if I could D) if I had any gas left try to speed up at last few miles or mile or whatever my body could muster. E) PR maybe?
And here's our course:
Stats are from my Garmin post race:
Started feeling good. Legs weren't too tired. Held back a little bit from "racing". Started almost identical to 5k's course.
Mile 1: 10:27
I missed the actual clock at mile 1.
Second mile legs still were feeling good. Path narrowed a bit here as we were now officially on the lake front trail and spent a lot of time either totally by myself or coming up on new clumps of people to pass. I think I got passed quite a bit during the start and was now chomping on some people.
Mile 2: 10:36. So a tad slower but legs felt good still.
Mile 3: I think I was with two superwoman almost this whole mile. Like they literally were wearing capes. Haha. Wish I had a pic of them. but my favorite visual of the race was in this mile. We ran around the shedd aquarium and felt like we were running right into the lake!
Pic courtesy of Mr. Roxy. This segment made the whole race worth it! Mile three ended in a series of gradual uphills as we continued through more of a tree lined section of the trail. Had more curves to it as well so I tried my best run straight through them like a good tangent runner instead of winding with them. It was open enough that I wasn't cutting anyone off. Must have worked cause my final gps was 6.25 miles.
Mile 3: 10:32 pretty much being a metronome at this point. I passed the superwomen.
Somewhere between mile 3 and 4 I saw course cutting! There was a break in the trees and big sidewalk filled with bike racks and on the other side was more 10k runners clearly coming back from the turnaround farther down. Two young blond women in braids that had been in front of me for awhile started slowing up and the one yanked the other over and they were giggling maniacally. And then I saw them cut the course! They gained almost two miles.
Unless they got caught...but they looked home free.
Weirdly enough...this was the moment in the race I decided right then and there that I would relish the distance from that point to where they ended up, really enjoy it and embrace it. That it isn't about the end time on the clock but about earning the distance. And I think it mentally got me down to the turnaround in better shape than had I not seen that!
No idea 5k split. They had a mat at 3.8 which was the real turnaround point and it said 39:46.
Mile 4: 10:49
I forgot to talk about aid stations or bands!
Stay tuned for that and my last stretch to the finish
Tbc
This is as close to a smile as I'll get at 5 in the morning. Had to get a shot of my flower for my momma. Completed her breast cancer treatment and undergoing so many "am I okay now" tests. Had to borrow a little strength from her and plus it's cute and sparkly
I was kind of a nervous wreck this morning. My stomach was not totally happy with me and I just get weird waking up so early anyways. Think I stopped "just in case" in the bathroom at least 10+ times. Which is funny cause as soon as race was over I don't think I even thought about finding a bathroom for hours. It's all mental.
But back to, ummmm, lovelier topics. The weather was so good again!!! Huzzah!
Felt literally the same as day before but cloudier and less sunny. Forecast called for rain but after when we would be done (was our guess.)
We got to our corral area and took a walk past the speedy people to grab a start line pic. My money was on guy wearing #4 because he lapped us like three times as we walked up there. I actually got to run with him for .1 second as he blistered past me around my mile 5, haha.
So we got into our corral and here was our view as we inched closer.
Id say they were going off every 2 min, then every one min, then like 30 sec apart. They wanted our corral to jump together...hahaha NOPE!
And we were off. I was lone-wolfing this one. So didn't know hubby's progress until the end. I had a strategy A) run like how I felt the day before B) don't go as slow as long-run training pace (11:15) but don't like sprint...just a good effort C) run by feel and ignore my watch if I could D) if I had any gas left try to speed up at last few miles or mile or whatever my body could muster. E) PR maybe?
And here's our course:
Stats are from my Garmin post race:
Started feeling good. Legs weren't too tired. Held back a little bit from "racing". Started almost identical to 5k's course.
Mile 1: 10:27
I missed the actual clock at mile 1.
Second mile legs still were feeling good. Path narrowed a bit here as we were now officially on the lake front trail and spent a lot of time either totally by myself or coming up on new clumps of people to pass. I think I got passed quite a bit during the start and was now chomping on some people.
Mile 2: 10:36. So a tad slower but legs felt good still.
Mile 3: I think I was with two superwoman almost this whole mile. Like they literally were wearing capes. Haha. Wish I had a pic of them. but my favorite visual of the race was in this mile. We ran around the shedd aquarium and felt like we were running right into the lake!
Pic courtesy of Mr. Roxy. This segment made the whole race worth it! Mile three ended in a series of gradual uphills as we continued through more of a tree lined section of the trail. Had more curves to it as well so I tried my best run straight through them like a good tangent runner instead of winding with them. It was open enough that I wasn't cutting anyone off. Must have worked cause my final gps was 6.25 miles.
Mile 3: 10:32 pretty much being a metronome at this point. I passed the superwomen.
Somewhere between mile 3 and 4 I saw course cutting! There was a break in the trees and big sidewalk filled with bike racks and on the other side was more 10k runners clearly coming back from the turnaround farther down. Two young blond women in braids that had been in front of me for awhile started slowing up and the one yanked the other over and they were giggling maniacally. And then I saw them cut the course! They gained almost two miles.
Unless they got caught...but they looked home free.
Weirdly enough...this was the moment in the race I decided right then and there that I would relish the distance from that point to where they ended up, really enjoy it and embrace it. That it isn't about the end time on the clock but about earning the distance. And I think it mentally got me down to the turnaround in better shape than had I not seen that!
No idea 5k split. They had a mat at 3.8 which was the real turnaround point and it said 39:46.
Mile 4: 10:49
I forgot to talk about aid stations or bands!
Stay tuned for that and my last stretch to the finish
Tbc
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I can see how the course cutters could give you a boost. Like it's showing one extreme of doing races (not caring about what you really accomplished) and could help you realize why you are doing the race to begin with! I too, cannot understand the mindset of paying that much money for race and then CUT? It's not like they are going to win an award or money anyway!
