We had a relatively late night at my cousin's engagement party seeing I had ridden almost 4 hours and then driven 3 hours home... I think we got home around 10:15pm and I was asleep with my stuff set out by 11pm.
I had to get up at 5am for the Chicago Women's 1/2 Marathon to get downtown. I decided to drive since I had to make up the last 2 hours of the ride I didn't finish in Madison the day before and was planning on heading out to Swedish Days after that to try and meet up with some Max girls who were going out there earlier.
I was a total amateur on the parking and just decided to park at the Millenium Garages. $30. I could have just parked and plugged a meter a few blocks away since I was going to be done by 9am. I guess I paid for the convenience...
So, I got down there around 5:45am and walked to the start. After a quick stop at the port-a-potty and then a water, I just sat on the curb until people really started lining up.
I started in the 11:00 minute mile group since that was my race plan... I was supposed to do the following:
Miles 1-2: 11:00min/mile
Miles 3-5: 10:30min/mile
Miles 6-9: 10:00min/mile
Miles 10-11: 9:30min/mile
Miles 12-13: 9min/mile
+walk for one minute after every mile and through every aid station
I thought this was an ambitious plan, but figured I could do it since I have been running faster. I guess I started a bit too fast; I have to check my Garmin and upload. It's weird because I have the lap pace on my watch and it was in the 11 minute range (some seconds higher and some longer), but when it auto-lapped at the first mile, I had run a 9:30ish mile (I don't remember exactly) and despite watching the watch again for the second mile, I think it was close to the same: both on the watch and in result.
Between miles 2-3 I felt awful and I can only chalk it up to being dehydrated and it being so hot (it was event alert "red"- extreme caution). It was the first time in my life that I really, truly thought of turning around and DNF'ing (did not finish). I stopped and looked back and thought, "The startline is so close, you can just turn around and end this", but then I thought "How are you ever going to finish an Ironman if you can't fight through a 13.1 mile run?!" So, I basically threw the race plan out the window as far as paces and just ran until I needed walk recovery and then ran again. I drank at every water station and wished I had brought a goo or drank some CarboPro that morning.... At mile 9-10, I even tried a Gu (mocha with caffiene) for the first time in my life. This is NOT recommended but since I was almost done, I said, "What the heck?!" The main problem with this was that there wasn't water for another mile and taking those without water is generally really difficult (is it just me?!).
At the end of the day, I finished in 2:27:10 which is over and 11min/mile. The plan was to finish in 2:15 or sooner. Oh well. I finished.
After the run, I ate some of the treats and had some water and sat for a few minutes. I was ahead of my estimated schedule to get to Burlington, IL for Swedish Days but I didn't want to sit too long knowing I was going to have to sit in the car for an hour to get there. I left the $30 parking lot and headed out there on I90.
On the way, I stopped at the the overpass to wash my face, use the toilet and change into a clean top and fix my ponytail. I got a Starbucks and two soft tacos at 10am. It sounds gross, but they were delish! I knew I needed some food since I was going to ride for 2+ hours when I got there.
I got to Central High School at about 11am and went to sign up/in. The lady at the tent said that registration closed at 9:30am. I was a bit freaked, but I said that I had a friend who asked about me coming around now when she got there at 7am and she got the thumbs up. The lady called to another guy who knew exactly who I was and said I was okay! He took me to a table to show me a route since the first sag area was closing around 1pm and he wanted to make sure I got somewhere with food. This was good because after he gave me the map, I decided to ride the 62 mi course backwards to see if I could run into Marni, Monica, Julie and Christa. It was pretty hilarious that all the other riders I'd pass gave me quizzical looks since I was the only person "riding the wrong direction". Anyway, I figured that I'd get to the open sag/food stop this way in any case. It was somewhat difficult to keep reading the map and checking the ground markings in the opposite direction, but it all worked out.
After about 15 miles, I rode right by Marni and yelled her name. She and Christa were riding together. They had already put in 30-40 miles so they weren't going too fast. I turned around and caught up with them. I had been looking for Monica, since I saw a photo post of her on Facebook and knew what top she was wearing. We all stopped at the next stop sign and caught up as a group. I had already ridden almost an hour solo, so I was in a good position to take a goo and ride back with them. Even if I had to make up a 1/2 hour solo at the end, it was worth doing the same route to ride and chat with people I knew!
There really weren't many hills and they weren't more than 3-5% which was a welcome change from yesterday, but I still needed to ride with more intensity (zone 4 for 40 minutes), so I would often slow down and wait for them all to pass me and use the motivation to catch up to the lead rider (generally Marni) and hit my zone 4. I still need to upload my Garmin information, but I did at least 25 minutes of zone 4 (I hope!). On some of the flats I was hitting 23mph and the easy rolling downhills almost 30. I was feeling good and could have kept riding had they had more to do.
We got back to the high school and I had about 5-10 minutes more to ride and just called it a day. Had an icecream, a watermelon slice and some water and hit the road. They went to Culver's for lunch, but since I had already had the tacos, I felt okay and wanted to get home sooner rather than later. They had done 68 miles so they were starving that at point!
An Epsom salt bath was calling my name!!!
Post-ride group picture
Me Marni Monica Julie Christa
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