The day started out at 4:45 A.M. on Sunday. Lucky for me, but not so much for my hardworking dad, I was able to grab a ride from him to McCormick Place since he was on his way to work that morning. Once at the hotel, I met my friends who spent the night. We took awhile to joke about how early it was and attempt to eek out a few more minutes of charge on our cell phones until we had to catch the trolley to Grant Park. Once there, we were met with this sight
and with the goal in mind.
We had about an hour and half to kill since wave 2 started at 9:15. Within that time, we also located the bathrooms and had some cute group shots taken by spectators.
Three of us deliberately placed ourselves in the last corral of the entire race. This worked out well for our pacing but not so much for the waiting around business. By the time we crossed the start line, it was about 10:00, however, Corral K is where the magic happens :-)
Just about 19,000 people ahead of us, but who cares, look where we get to run!! LOVE my city!!!! Race time begins and we manage to keep ourselves entertained with lovely conversation despite losing battery power to our phones. My friend and I mentioned that the energy was amazing. Music was playing at mile markers and starting at mile 3, people where cheering like crazy! The last mile, our trio decided to split up and finish at our best. I came in just over an hour for 5 miles having NEVER run 5 miles in my life.. I'd say I did pretty good. After the race, we decided to meet up at the infamous banana stands for a celebratory banana and beer!
I was inspired by others posts about what they did to honor those affected. My goal was to sprint a mile. I came in at 10:02 which is my fastest mile run! I'm insisting on 11:00 mile averages for 5k races. Let's see what happens on May 11th.
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