I definitely have some fitness in me right now, but today just wasn't the day to show it.
Chicago in early September can be a crap shoot with the weather. For this year's Chicago Half Marathon it was, 70 degrees, which isn't a deal breaker at all... BUT it was also a very drippy 90% humidity (per weather.com). Ugh. And dripping it was... I had probably blown through all of my prior day's hydration on the warm up run alone.
If there's one thing that I hate more than a crappy windy race, it's a drippy humid race. We actually kinda had both today though, as there was a headwind for half of the run. The out and back provided some help in the late miles, though you wouldn't notice it in my splits.
Running wise, I didn't feel all that terrible. My splits were very steady in the early going, as I jammed through about 5-6 miles with Scott Laumann. I averaged about 5:43 through mile 7, like clock work and spot on with PR pace. In spite the weather, I was still gunning for sub 1:15.
The Chicago Half is notorious for mismarking the course though, in the later miles. So once again, I'm not sure if the course was long -or just very poorly marked. Regardless, I apparently ran a "6:06" in the 8th mile and a 6:01 in the 12th mile. I seriously doubt that I ran that slow in both of those miles... especially the 8th mile. I'm not sure where I would've gained that lost time either. I think that got into my head a little, once I saw both of those splits. Anyway, I definitely slowed down a touch in the last 5 miles so it's a moot point. I went from those low-5:40's to a low-5:50's, then choked a 5:57 in mile 13.
Ultimately, the humidity took over and I sagged. Scott gradually pulled away from me in the 6th mile and left me with little motivation, aside from a road kill in the 9th mile. (SL had a great race btw, going just under 1:15 - he picked it up a lot after mile 6 then faded a little, but not nearly as badly as I did). He had a couple guys to chase. I only wound up chasing 1 of them. The motivation eventually caved once again as I just gut it out to finish the race and not trade placements. Oh well.
I'm a little bummed, because this was the first time in a few years that I've been in decent shape for a half marathon and I didn't get the chance to show it off. More importantly though, I didn't wear myself out and it was a solid run in what will be a big boy week of marathon training.
Split Recap:
1- 5:38.8
2- 5:46.9
3- 5:45.9
4- 5:44.4
5- 5:40.3
6- 5:46.9
7- 5:43.2
8- 6:06.1
9- 5:51.7
10- 5:50.6
11- 5:50.1
12- 6:01.9
13- 5:57.5
.1- 0:38.6
Total- 1:16:22.9, Avg- 5:49.6 / 3rd AG, 15th O'All
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