Soldier Field 10 miler

1:17.33 (avg 7:45/ Mile) for 10 miles
and a 6 minute PR over the 2011 Soldier Field 10., my last race of 10 miles.

57 of 1614 AG (3.5%)
256 of 7167  Women (3.5%)
1204 of 12505 Overall (9.6%)
181 Avg HR, 192 Max HR

Three words to describe this race:  relaxed, controlled, joy.

With temps in the low 40's and the fact I had some of the coolest, boldest, loudest capri pants ever, I made the decision to channel my inner Rainbow Brite.

My goal for this race was simple. HAVE FUN. Another goal was to average less than 8 minutes a mile*.  I havent been doing any structured training while building up my mileage, (i'm just running all the miles) so pinpointing an exact time goal was a crap shoot.

*I also wanted to beat the time my Daad  predicted for me of 1:17:52 Needless to say I was doing complex math in my head at each mile to make sure I would!
L and I walked over to Soldier Field from our place and arrived around 6:30. I dropped my bag off, said our good byes, and we headed to our corrals.

Before the race started, there was a moment of silence for the Boston Marathon tragedy, there was also a ceremony to give an american flag flown over Soldier field to the family of a military member who lost his life in the war in Afghanistan  This soldier had run the Chicago marathon last year and was supposed to come back home in July. His family members ran the race today in his honor. I was in tears.
When the gun went off I realized very quickly I should have made a portopotty stop pre race. FUC%@*$!!! I tried to run through the feeling of having to go, but it was consuming my mind. The first aid station around mile 1.4 had portolets and no line. Less than 45 seconds later I was back in the race. Thats what I get for drinking too much coffee pre race & having a nervous bladder. Damn. 

Other than that snafu and adding 45 seconds to my time, the race went by as uneventful and wonderful as I possibly could have wanted. One foot in front of the other, control my breathing, drink water from my small bottle, and admire the view of the skyline from the south which I dont run down to most of the time due to it not having as many water fountains as the northern section of the trail.

The course was changed from previous years so that the 5 miles south on Lake Shore Drive had no vehicular traffic whizzing by. That was an awesome change!

Right after finishing on the 50 yard line of Soldier Field!

Oh mile 2... the first freaking time i've had to stop during a race in over 2.5 years.


The rest of the race felt controlled and relaxed. I could have kept this pace for many more miles and that excites me going into marathon training.


It was nice seeing Erica cheering at mile 9! Seeing a familiar face gave me a nice boost to kick it in to the finish :)

Inside of Soldier Field

I love that this race is a tribute to service men and women. It is because of them that we have the freedom to participate in events like this. And there is no other fitting place in Chicago to have this race than Soldier field  and on Memorial Day Weekend.

Service men and women handing out the medals

I love this race:

Starts in downtown Chicago outside of Soldier Field

Scenic course along the lake with beautiful views of the skyline on the return trip.

Extremely well organized. Start corrals each held a couple of minutes to ensure no congestion

Plenty of aid stations and a Cliff gel zone

Tribute to service men and women

A unique race distance of 10 miles

Finishing on the 50 yard line of Soldier Field

The AWESOME medal

Soul Asylum as post race entertainment

Sweet post race refresh bag with pop chips, Cliff bar..

Getting to spend time with friends  and the Chicago Running community!

The 10th Anniversary medal

Half of the brunch crew: Myself, and fellow Fleet Feet Cheer friends Vicky & Marla
Pre Race: -Cheese, Bread, Mortadella, Wine for dinner the night before - Cinnamon crumpet and too much damn coffee at 4am the morning of the race -No warmup. Dont feel this impacted me at all since we speed walked to the start less than 2 miles from our place. Race: -Temps: Low 40's, overcast, very little wind. Pretty much *perfect* running conditions. -Brought my small green bottle for water. I hate stopping at aid stations. -Took a vanilla gu at mile 4 -Nike tank -Nike crazy Capris -Swiftwick socks -Brooks Pure Cadence 2 shoes. I was super proud of L for doing this race for the first time. Especially after returning from Brasil and 17 hours of airports and flights the day before.

Final Thoughts:

Fleet Feet put on another stellar event and I cant wait for the 11th edition!

A day where you can have fun and enjoy every step is always a great day in my book.

I am so excited to begin marathon training in a few weeks :)

Next up: Chicago Women's Half on 6/23





- xaar