March Madness Half Marathon

This past weekend was what is affectionately referred to in the Chicago running circles as "The hilly half-marathon." Flatlanders that we are, we just don't get many hilly races, so this is the one chance that many of us get to stretch those hill climbing muscles.

Leading up to the race I was thinking that I had a shot at breaking 1:13, which would put me right in the PR range. The goal was to go out hard and try and bank some time early as the hills during the last 3 miles really make this a hard course to run hard late. When the gun went off, I was greeted with a pretty stiff head wind though and the first mile came in at a sluggish 5:42. I tried to bare down on the next two miles and it seemed to work as I clocked in a couple of sub 5:30 miles, but for some reason, I just didn't have it mentally this race. I continually found my mind drifting off during the race and usually as my mind would drift off, so would my splits. I was out there running, running pretty hard too, but I wasn't racing. I guess I'm just not in racing form yet.

That's not to say that I had a bad race. I did beat my time from last year by about 30 seconds and at no point did I feel like I was running over my head. The hills from miles 10-12 didn't really seem to bother me like they did last year and I was even able to run one of my faster splits on the last mile. As far as placement, I was completely by myself from about mile 1 through the end of the race. The winner came in about 5 minutes ahead of me (!) and the 3rd place guy was about 30 seconds behind me. It was pretty much a supported time trial.

It was great to meet up with so many friends before and after the race. Special thanks to Lisa V. (Leather) who went through the hassle of getting her bib transferred over to me so I could run this race. I truly appreciate it!

Here are the splits for the day:

1 - 5:42
2 - 5:26
3 - 5:28
4 - 5:40
5 - 5:38
6 - 5:43
7 - 5:49
8 - 5:40
9 - 5:25
10 - 5:49
11 - 5:47
12 - 5:49
13 - 5:32
13.19 - 1:00

Finish Time: 1:14:27