My alarm went off at 5:30 the next morning. Why the hell am I up so early on a Sunday morning? Because some genius sitting in an office somewhere decided on a 6:30 start time. I had put my race number on the night before to snatch a few extra minutes of sleep. After a breakfast of Gatorade and a couple of granola bars, I “laced up” and went down to lobby to meet my friend, about 15 minutes after I woke up. We were feeling pretty lazy, so we decided to cab it to the start line, which was near Millennium Park. Unfortunately, many roads were already blocked off for the race, so our cabbie dropped us off two blocks away, where we joined a thousand other people groggily stumbling to the start line.



After a 10 minute walk, I split from my friend as my corral was a little farther back. It was really pleasant and cool morning in Chicago. The rising sun made for some beautiful views.






Me and a few thousand other idiots…

At exactly 6:30 the first runners were off. I was in one of the later corrals so I didn’t reach the start line until 6:50 or so.


Start line


Pre-race concert


The elite corral, quite possibly the only elite status I don’t want


And we’re off…





Dude, where’s my Dreamliner?


Boeing Headquarters

One of the best things about the Rock and Roll series are the concerts along the race route. There’s band every mile or so. It keeps me distracted, which keeps me running. The bands are pretty good, for the most part.





And also, they pay people to cheer for you. In Dallas, they brought in the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. I didn’t know if I should slow down and enjoy the view or haul alpha sierra sierra, as they were stationed close to the finish line.



The water stations look fun on TV, but in reality they are messy affair.



With views of the skyline and running along the river and Lake Michigan, Chicago probably had the most scenic route of all the races I’ve ran.




Chicago Board of Trade


Soldier Field

I was making pretty good time, for me at least, averaging about a just under 11 minutes a mile. Unfortunately, I began cramping up badly at mile 9, despite drinking as much water I could on the way and not touching alcohol along the night before. The only thing I could think of that caused the cramps was the weather, which was a lot more humid than what I’m used to in Dallas. So the last 4.1 miles took a good bit longer and were painful, but I powered through it.


So close, but yet so far.

Literally 10 feet from the finish line, my cramps got so bad that I could barely even walk. So I ended up hopping across the finish line, and collapsing in heap just after I crossed it. The medical staff dragged me over to the nearby medical tent and massaged my calves until I could finally walk without much pain. I didn’t quite finish the way I wanted, but I still got what I came for.


Medal

Since the traffic on Michigan Avenue was bad, I decided walk back to the hotel, making it back at around 11. I took a good long shower after I got back to my room and took a nice refreshing nap. I got up around 2 in the afternoon and grabbed a late lunch and pounded a few well deserved beers with my friend. We got back to the hotel at close to 4PM, and I grabbed my bags and checked out. I bade farewell to my friend who was staying another night.

Feeling incredibly lazy, I decided to take cab to O’Hare. It was a hair raising ride, as the driver was making that poor Prius do things that it was never meant to do, like doing 90 mph in the narrow HOV lane. I made it to the airport at about 5PM for my 6:30 flight. As expected, my upgrade did not clear as this was a peak hour elite heavy flight. I dozed off most of the way, despite my talkative seatmate. Not a thing in the world to report. I finally made it home around 9:30 that night and went to bed almost immediately.

I would spend the next few days grounded before I made it back out to the West Coast the next weekend. Thankfully, I was working from home the next week so I was able to rest up.

Coming up… So Cal and a FT first!