2010 Naperville Half Marathon (aka Why Chicago is Out)

The Naperville Half Marathon was last Sunday. I had been really, really, really looking forward to it. My training has had some real "downs" this year, but things seemed to be improving. I was able to bump up my miles to almost 55 mpw the preceding week, the temps had dropped down to bearable and I felt a comeback was in the works. I really needed a good race. It has been a full year (almost - Chicago 2009) since I have had a solid race. To go into Chicago 2010, I needed a strong race. I knew a PR was likely out of the question. That was okay. I just needed a strong showing.

I was going with my friend, M, who is traditionally a short distance runner. She trained to run her first half marathon in August. She did great, but it was a humid sweatfest that day and she knew she had more in her. So she suggested we hit the Naperville Half. We decided it would be cheaper and more accessible than the Chicago Half. We looked at the web site elevation map and it looked pretty flat too. Cool.

The week leading up to the race was pretty good and I hoped to keep my mileage up. Unfortunately, I got up on Thursday and I was super crampy and had lots of lower back pain. So I took the day off and rested. By Friday I felt great. Saturday, I ran 10 easy and felt terrific. I headed to Naperville and met up with zrun and his DS, which was a real highlight.

Got back to the hotel and met up with M and her daughter. We were excited and raring to go. I got a good night of sleep and woke up excited and ready to run! It was warmer than I would have liked (mid 60s at start), but I hoped it wouldn't be too much of a problem. M's husband dropped us off at the start. It was a little crazy because there were 600+ runners and only 7 or 8 porta potties. M and I did a warm up (which resulted in very wet shoes) and ended up having to pee behind the main park building since the line for the porta potties was crazy.

It was pull-tab timing, so we lined up close to the front. It was a crazy start - about .2 was on grass. The gun went off! We hoped to run around 8s for the first 5K and then pick it up. Goal was to be closer to 1:40 than 1:45 (for reference, my PR is 1:36:5x). Well, we went out a little fast. First mile was 7:40. We slowed a little bit and it was already really hot. The sun was out and there was very little shade on the course. And it wasn't flat, folks. It was definitely "rolling" and the first 3 miles were the worst. This is a more accurate elevation map:

M wanted me to run with her, but by mile 4.5 I was really feeling the heat and knew I could not keep the pace going. I let her go ahead of me and the wheels quickly came off. I started having all sorts of GI issues and actually had to stop THREE times before mile 6. Gah. Then it was just hang on and finish. I felt like crap physically. Mentally, I was frustrated and felt completely dejected. The remaining part of the course was on trail loops. I passed mile 9 and volunteers were directing us to go right to mile 10, or left for mile 12. I was so tempted to turn left and end the misery. But I decided to keep going and finish this thing, no matter how long it took.

Boy did I regret that by mile 10. I kept thinking if I saw M's DH or DD on the course, I would quit. If I had ANY idea where the heck I was, I would have cut off the course and DNF-ed. Yeah, it really sucked. I decided out there that Chicago was out. A crappy half marathon is bad enough - I am not going to subject myself to this type of misery for 4 (or more) hours. Plus, I had such a great race and positive experience at Chicago last year. I didn't want to ruin it with a death march.

M and I around mile 4.

I struggled through the last miles and around 12.8 saw M running back toward me. She had a great race and was excited. I could also tell she was ready to haul it in with me, but I was dying and had to stop and walk for a bit just before mile 13. Yeah, I was hurting THAT bad. But once I turned back onto the grass, I ran as hard as I could and brought it in to a *blazing* 1:56:xx finish. Gah.

I felt like death after the finish, but met up with M and her fam. M had a 5 minute PR and ended up getting 2nd in our AG, so we waited around for awards. It was awesome and she was SO excited. It was so great getting to do it with her - I just wish I could have run the entire race with her. One of these days when I get back to "normal," I will.

Since then, I have started to discover some of the reasons why I have been falling apart lately. That is for a different post, however. For now, training is on hold and Chicago is officially out.