2 mile jog to the start at Grant Park from my hotel.
I signed up for this race on a whim when I heard about my conference in Chicago. I thought I would maybe train for it but thinking was as far as I got. To be completely honest I just haven't had the desire to train for anything this Summer...which has been completely fine with me. I told my parents the night before that I wasn't racing and was planning to finish in around 45 minutes. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that even running that 7:30 pace in the humid air sounded daunting.
Anywho I got to the start of the race and scoped out my surroundings. There were a bazzilion people with pace group/waves starting at 7:00 and going up to 15:00. They announced before the gun went off that there would be prizes for the top 3 men/women and after only 2 women were in front of me the first mile I decided to make a major surge and go for the win! I'm being completely sarcastic...basically this was my worst 10k time ever but lucky for me it was a race not a time trial. :-)
At the turn around point on the Lake Front path the closest female was a good 30 seconds behind me so I knew if I could just hang on to my 6:30 pace I would get the win. I hung on by the string of a thread and soaked in all of the cheering of the runners going out. Out and back courses are great! Everyone made me feel completely awesome and they even had a tape for me to break at the finish line. Apparently I just need to move to Chicago. It was a lot of fun! I'm still taking autograph/photo op appointments so just PM me for an appointment.
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