Morning: 4.2 slow miles - ate too much for breakfast. I was really worried about the state of my gut. However, I woke up early enough where the food didn't have an effect on the race.
We drove into Chicago just barely making the expo to pick up my packet at Navy Pier. It was a very nice expo, lots of vendors, and lots of free stuff (like free training singles). After the expo we drove over to the Congress Hotel which is right across from Grant Park where the race starts and finishes. The Congress set us up with reservations at Chicago's premier Italian Steakhouse. Jen and I both rated Italian Village a 10 out 10 for service and taste!
I woke up to perfect temps of 58-62 degrees with little to no wind and sunny skies. I figured the winner would be running low 23's today. The field was stacked. Abdi Abdaramm was present along with many other fine elites. Plus the BoA does a Club Elite race where the winning team takes home 20 grand, so the field was very stacked. The Club Elites had their own tent and bathrooms. I unfortunately, had to use a tree in the open like the other 150 elite runners. It's very odd to see a bunch of grown men defecating on almost every tree in sight.
They announced the race to be the largest ever assembled field for an 8K in the world topping something like 35,000 runners.
The course is pancake flat with a few bridge rises over some of the waterways. Otherwise, the only factor is the winds gps confusing buildings and swirling winds. The winds were very mild in terms of Chicago winds. They don't call it the Windy City for nothing. Because the buildings mess with the gps my avg. split pace was all out of whack the whole race. I think my watch figured it all out around mile 4, but I'm not certain. Nonetheless, I'll go by what the Garmin gave me for splits when recapping the race.
The race stated at 8:30 sharp for wave 1. Since I was in wave one with the elites my time would be gun time, so I started right next to Abdi and the rest of the best runners in the world. I figured so what if my first .1 is a little faster than I wanted. Plus the start was almost 5 lanes in width, which pretty much gave plenty of room for everyone to get a clean start.
My first mile felt like I was running an all out 200 meter dash and my breathing was very labored, but I told myself KEEP THE PEDAL DOWN, DON'T LOOSE FOCUS MID RACE, YOUR ENDURANCE WILL MAINTAIN YOUR SPEED, KEEP THE WEIGHT FORWARD, KEEP THE SHOULDERS RELAXED. I pretty much had one or all of those thoughts going throughout the race. My goal was to finish with a super hard kick and hopefully find myself in the 26's. The mile split on the Garmin shows 5:02 only 12 seconds off my post collegiate PR mile Pr. I actually never looked at my 1st mile split because I decided not to look at the watch knowing it would be much faster than I really wanted.
My 2nd mile split was crazy low for me and I still don't believe is accurate, but it was slightly downhill for a 4:48. Yet, a lot of runners were still pulling away from me. I was really redlining it here.
My 3rd mile is way off for a split of 4:18 - Yeah right! It started to thin out a little in this mile, but I always had 2 or 3 other runners around me. The 4th place female came up alongside me and she and I were battling it out for a good 1/2 mile before I finally put a strong press on her. From about 3.75 miles in I would only be passed by 1 runner as I hunted down victims of the fast early pace.
My 4th mile was a hard mile! I was focusing on passing as many people as I could hunt down. It was really a lot of fun, each person I passed gave me more fuel for the fire. Again I believe this split is off - going 4:58. I remember my legs burned really bad through this mile. The crowd was so loud, people were really into the race. The spectators were awesome, except for the unfortunate event that happened in the 5th mile.
My 5th mile came by the Congress Hotel were Jen had missed me come by because another elite runner seconds ahead of me was cut off by a spectator sending him crashing into the curb as they tangled legs. He got up limping and had to stop apparently because his hip was either broken, out of place, or both. Race staff quickly swarmed the area and put up barricades, but the damage was already done. I must admit the BoA did an amazing job running this race, extremely well organized 10 out of 10 in my opinion, but even with all the barricades there is no way to control the size of the crowd. The course was wall to wall spectators with a predicted amount of 60+ thousand watching the race.
This last mile I really focused on increasing the effort and I just let the legs fly. My breathing was extremely heavy and the legs burned more than I've felt in 10 years. Not since my college days have I felt such a burn. We had to climb a bridge overpass and then turn toward the finish. My Garmin read 5:21 - off again. The last .36 reads 5:01. I rate my kick an 8.75 out of 10, not quite to my standards yet. I'm making improvements though. I did pass 1 or 2 in that final 300 meter stretch. My final time on the Garmin reads 26:15 and gun time was 26:18. Nonetheless, it was my 3rd PR in 8 days and it was a MONSTER PR (2:42). The time actually ties one of my best times from my sophomore year in college. Last year I was running college freshman year times, this year I'm running college sophomore times.
The race effort was everything I could give. It was my best effort and I have no doubts about it, which is a great feeling! Now I have one big tempo workout and some smaller marathon pace workouts to fine tune the legs.
For anyone looking for an awesome race the BoA will not disappoint. It has to be one of the best road races in the world.
Cool down 8.3 along Lake Michigan at a good clip for the last 5 miles all under 7 min miles down to 6:30 per mile. It's amazing how easy 6:30 feels after running that kind of race.
Spent the rest of the day with Jen and Jameson touring the city. We visited the Science and Industry Museum, which was absolutely awesome! | 