Sunday, April 29, 2012

Race Report

Yesterday's Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon and Half Marathon went really well. I had a goal time of 2:44 or less, to make my unofficial PR into an official one. That comes out to a 12:30/mile average pace.

Papa Runner ran the full yesterday, and our policiy is whoever is running farther gets priority. He got the good GPS watch, so I wasn't able to get all the good data to analyze. Instead, I wrote the time I needed for each mile on my hand and used a stopwatch to keep track of my splits.

I think I had negative splits for EVERY mile. Each mile was just a bit faster than the one before. By the time I reached the end, I had shaved almost three and a half minutes off my goal time. That makes this my best, most consistent race. It was AWESOME!

Final time: 2:40:36.
Papa Runner totally rocked his marathon, shaving 23 minutes off his previous PR. My dad ran the half yesterday and finished about 10 minutes ahead of me. I had some other friends in both the half and the full, and it looked like everyone had a good race with a lot of PRs set. One friend was running her first half marathon. I passed her as we entered the stadium, and we finished seconds apart.

The spectators at this race are always a lot of fun. I always like looking at the signs. Some good ones: You trained longer than Kim Kardashian's marriage. Run like you stole something. Worst Parade Ever! Don't Not Run. Don't stop, almost there (that's what she said.) A series of Chuck Norris jokes, ending with "But Chuck Norris never ran a marathon." Good luck, person I don't know. And of course, the Ryan Gosling poster featured above. Loved that one enough to make my own. (Image blatantly stolen and defiled with a Hey Girl Meme.)

There was a group dressed in full Pirate regalia passing out water, a group handing out mimosas and bacon (they were out of bacon when I went by, but you could smell the next batch on the grill), and one guy who had set up his own porta potty on his driveway. Lots of kids high fiving. A guy selling shortcut maps. A giant banana and Cookie Monster. Girl Scouts with baskets of Jelly Beans.

My new favorite slogan, seen on the back of a shirt: Never mess with a woman who runs 26.2 miles for fun!

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