Soldier field race report (Halfway Homie)

The morning started slow with none of the normal pre-race stuff, ok, maybe everything except your smiling happy faces. I guess I was totally spoilt with so many tri-club people at Galena that soldier field was a bit of a let down. I didn’t see or recognize anyone before the race – if you were there count your lucky stars that you didn’t see me before the race, I was likely to give you a hug (which admittedly is better than a post-race hug), I felt a little sad an lonely.

The run itself 10 miles, the first 2 miles were barely bearable, not helped by the fact that I needed a P break from the moment I started, at mile 2 the opportunity presented itself, I figure 4 minutes or so of standing in line is worth it.

By mile 3 I was getting into the running, but by mile 6 I started feeling the pain so I slowed down a little. There is definitely no better way to make sure that you see someone you know than to start walking. So in order to see someone I did, a minute later Becky ran by. I speeded up to keep pace with her and we had a little chat which was fantastic.

The race was very well organized, there were no major path narrowing – I’d hear last year there was a point that everyone had to go through a narrow tunnel, looks like they figured it out. The run south was mostly on lake shore drive and side roads, coming back to Soldier Field was all on the lake front path – there was only one cyclist that decided to cycle through the crowd… I guess there will always be one :)

I was running behind one lady, clearly in pain, I couldn’t run behind her for too long as I could feel her pain, decided to publicly announce my fondness of bodyglide – please tell your newby friends for the greater good of humankind :) Bodyglide rocks.

At the end of the race, loads of stuff going on, for the first time I went to the message / stretching area, where a very nice guy – Rob – stretched me. Thanks Rob!

Saw a couple more people at the end – good show. Came home and decided to climb the stairs, just to see if I could actually make it, and yes I did… “Sand ladder here I come” was the thought that went through my head as I climbed the 5 steps.

Every time I saw the SF 10 t-shirts, I thought of San Francisco and the dreaded clock from hell, guess I have 28 days to recover.

See all y’all at tri-shark, I’m looking forward to hanging out with loads of tri-club people, now I’m of to find some chocolate milk, food and possibly see Shrek 3. (Hopefully I’ll stay awake.