Lise's Half Marathon Report

[Lise]

Hellllooooo Team Estrogen! Can I tell you one more time how wonderful it is to have found this community? I laugh, I cry, and we hang on every word of each others' race reports. You inspire me, encourage me, and I love being part of this.

OK. Here's the story!

The Banco Popular 1/2 Marathon. http://www.chicagohalfmarathon.com/Home.286.0.html

Second year I've done it, and they make a big deal of returning competitors. I got a blue bib instead of a white one for the 1st timers, and my race shirt has "Welcome Back Club Member" on the side. The expo was decent, diminished only by my committment to spend no money, at which I succeeded. My chiro had a booth there, and worked on my elbow for free, which was really sweet.

Got up bright and early to a beautiful day. I felt pretty congested, as I have for a few days, but I told myself, "it's just allergies", used some decongestant snout spray, and took off. Traffic as we approached the race was surprisingly awful, probably because they had a record number of participants (10,000 runners!). I managed to find a parking space, hop on a shuttle bus, scuttle across the very wet grass for a few blocks, and convince the gear check kids to just take my danged backpack because "THE RACE IS ABOUT TO START!" No problem finding my running pal Jamie. I just stood by gear check and screamed "JAMIE!" She found me. When you line up at the back of the pack, you've got some extra time before you start running. Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat the Bloks and drink the water I'd planned, but I knew there was a water station coming pretty soon.

And we're off! It's amazing to me how easy it feels to run in a race compared to training. The day was sunny and clear, not too warm, probably low 70s when we started. The race course started at the Museum of Science and Industry, and ran through part of the University of Chicago campus, where I was an undergrad from '78-'82. Never in a billion years did I dream that I'd turn into an athlete.

At mile 4, I saw a miniature dachshund puppy! That really made me smile. We turned to run up Lake Shore Drive, which was completely closed to traffic from 31st-67th streets. I love my city. It was so gorgeous, the sparkling lake on the east, the beautifully landscaped medians. There was a wide variety of bands playing along the course, ranging from rock to Chinese drummers, to Mexican mariachis, to my favorite, the Hawaiian music complete with hula dancing 10 year old! Ate some Gu at about 45 min and 1.5 hr, drank lots at every water station. I wore the shirt I've had made, honoring my dad. It's plain white on the front, with a picture of my dad on the back. After eating my first Gu, I looked down, and noticed that I had a solid line of chocolate Gu dripped right down the middle of my shirt, with a spot of Gu over the left breast for artistic effect. Jamie said, "Don't worry. It looks like a nosebleed." We laughed about "Oh, yeah, when you run as fast as I do, your nose just spontaneously bleeds." I told her to give me some more Gu to glob up under my nose. Last year neither of us ate anything on the course, and we finished much more strongly this year.

Around mile 8, Jamie started wanting to walk some, and I started encouraging (nagging) her to run more. I mean, c'mon! I'm 21 years older than she is! We did pretty well until about 1.5 miles from the finish line, when she got downright cantankerous. I thought, "well, I'm not ditching her, so I'd better try to do this without yelling at her, either!" Then the perfect thing happened. The girl next to Jamie started saying, "I can't do this", and Jamie started encouraging her! Before I knew it, we'd all picked up the pace, and were encouraging each other. Sprinted across the finish line with big smiles on our faces (we'll see what the pictures show!) Jamie's husband was there cheering for us. We did it three minutes faster than last year.

We iced down our legs, strolled through the feed zone, took some pictures, and headed back north for breakfast. I ate a Maya bar for some protein. And yes, I had yogurt with my french toast! (does bacon count as protein? )

Came home and got in an ice cold bath. The moment of sitting down is tough, but it really does feel good after a few seconds. Slept for an hour, and woke up with the symptoms of a full-blown cold. Ugh. I'm going to hit the hay early tonight.

Final time: 2:46. I'll post pix as soon as I've got them.

[Thistle]

awesome job Lise you ROCK

[Tri Girl]

Yay Lise!!! I loved, loved, loved your race report. Kinda felt like I was there with you! You ran an excellent time, and sounds like you felt much better this year than last. All that, and your body held off long enough for you to finish before it became rebellious and got sick (thanks, bod!). I'm so proud of you!
Way to go!!!!! Now, take it easy for a few days and kick that cold out of your body.
Congrats!!!

[annie]

Woo-hoo, Lise!!! Sounds like you had an awesome day all around. A good run, good running partner and a beautiful course. Congrats !!!!

annie

[tprevost]

You ROCK Lise!!! Great Job!!!!!!!!

Trac'

[colby]

10,000 runners!! My marathon only estimates 3,000+, the Half Marathon I did in May had less than 1,300 (in researching that, I discovered next year's is on my birthday... hmm ), and the HM I'm doing on the 15th only had 500 total last year. I can only IMAGINE the crowd dynamic with that many people. Wow.

You guys did great! Yet another running angel appears to brighten someone's day Beautiful day, great run, great scenery, what more could you ask for. Congrats to both of you!

[Bikingmomof3]

A race well run. Your race report was well written, I felt as though I was there. I am glad it went so well. Now rest, feel better and post the pics when you can. Again, congratulations, you ROCK!

[Running Mommy]

Hey colby try the NYC marathon with 30,000 ++!!! Now THAT is a marathon!
Ok, sorry for the hijack!
YAY LISE!!! You ROCK!
Sorry I didn't get to the phone in time this morning. I had to stop and dig it out of my camelback and I JUST missed you! Then I had to figure out where the area code was coming from!! At first I thought it might be Nanci...
Call me when you have time. I'd call you but I never know when your or taking a nap between work. I wouldn't want to wake up sleeping beauty!!

[colby]

Hey colby try the NYC marathon with 30,000 ++!!! Now THAT is a marathon!
Ok, sorry for the hijack!

30k people ... I guess that makes it extremely unlikely for you to come in last, and extremely likely for you to find someone to run with It would be fun to be a Boston qualifier and actually go through with it. That must be an amazing experience. I would love to see one of those HUGE events for myself.

[Lise]

Hey guys, the Chicago Marathon (end of October) closes registration at 40,000 people. Last year it filled up so quickly that they had to close it in *June*. Crazy, huh? 40,000 official runners, an unknown number of "Marathon Pirates", who jump in and run it unofficially, and over a million spectators. It really is something else to run with that many people. Slow as I was in the marathon last year, I think there were 900+ women in my age group who finished after me.

I'm up with sore hips and knees, hunger, and thunder. Well, I don't have the thunder myself. And the sore hips, knees, and hunger would've gotten me up anyway. I *had* asked to have Sunday & Monday off, but was in turn scheduled so horrendously later in the week (two 24 hour shifts with a 12 hour day off in between ) that I wheedled a schedule switch with another midwife. So in 5 hours I'm s'posed to be up and at 'em to go to the clinic. Needless to say, I will not be riding my bike to work today!

Back to bed, perhaps to sleep.

[Veronica]

Congratulations Lise! Sounds like you had a great run.

V.

[Selkie]

Love your race report, Lise. Half-marathons were my favorite distance!! Quite an achievement and it sounds like you not only did well, but enjoyed it. Is the T-shirt nice? Do some nice, gentle yoga--make sure you take a walk today, too--and your muscles will be feeling just fine.

[kaybee]

Woo hoo! Congratulations Lise! Got get a massage, girl, you earned it!

KB

[KnottedYet]

Congratulations, Lise!

And good job with the artistic gu placement... did you get the gu out of your shirt?

[KSH]

WOW!!!!

Great job Lise!

Yea, I tell you what, when I encourage someone else, it makes me work harder... sounds like that worked great for your friend.

OH! And doesn't it make you feel *good* to know that you keep up with and even keep going longer... than someonen 21 years younger than you? Cool!