Only now I found the time to take a moment to write about this inaugural half marathon right here, almost at my backyard. Not really on my backyard but what is a couple of miles right?
It was on Labor Day, September 1st. I celebrated that day by by getting up very early, around at 4:30 a.m. to go out and run a half marathon. This was one of the first marathon that i was actually running by myself since my running partner Mark decided to run a 10miles race instead of this race. This was also the first time Pat actually got up early to go with me and watch me race. I was really happy about that! Wow!
This was a brand new half marathon in the Illinois suburb of Oak Brook (a couple of miles from my neighborhood Westchester). The day started very warm (thanks to the weather channel I was prepared for it) when I left the house I made sure that I have my sunglasses, my hat and plenty of sunscreen. I was glad Pat took care of this last item since i always forget it. The weather was really great, around 65 degrees at the start, which by the way was supposed to be 7 am, and going up to 90 degrees by mid-day. Pretty humid, too. Not a big deal really, after running Chicago marathon the year before at a temperature of almost 104 degree. Well, I was excited that Pat would be there to take pictures and cheer for me... well not quite... he ended up staying with me for an half hour and went back home to eat his breakfast.. way to go...and I was thinking that someone would be there to give me some encouragement!
Since I got there about 5:30am I found parking immediately. As a matter of fact parking space were plentiful, with volunteers asking for donations to go toward the Ronald McDonald House. There was a mass of people trying to register for the race, and get their time chips. So I had to wait on a big line to get my own. For some reason, the race directors decided to hand out the timing chips that morning. OK, I thought, not a bad thing. Then I saw the lines. There were three sets of lines. One was for the limited amount of port-a-johns, one was for the chip pick-up, and one was for people who decided to register that day and/or pick up their race packets that day.
While waiting on line to get my timing chips I met with a lot of people from my running club, including, to my surprise, Mark. He decided at the last minute not to run the 10 miles race but race the Oakbrook instead. I was so happy to see him. Marc and I have been running partner for at least 5 years and always race together.
We finally got our chips and move on to the start line and positioned ourselves at 9:00 minutes per mile mark. My goal was to finish in 1:50 and was determined to reach it.. well, everything can change once the race begin.
Finally the gun went off and we were on our way. The course itself was rather hilly, but not bad at all with some very pretty wooded areas. I started with my pace being extremely good. I was having a good day. however it was hard to keep track of time due to the fact that I never saw the first three mile markers. I kept going, seeing a few mile markers here and there. Around mile 9 I started feeling the heat and the hilly course. Marc and I kept a good pace until mile 11 when the heat was really intense and we starting loosing track of time. On the whole, I finished with an 8:45 overall pace, 15th in my age group. Great race considering the hills and the hot weather.
So, another race under my belt, and I now facing with another mid week of 8 and 10 miles and a 20 mile run on Sunday.
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