A Chance to “Finish on the Fifty”, part two

The participant’s guide to the Soldier Field 10 said don’t check anything valuable.  The keys, wallet and cell phone would come along for the run.  But I don’t have one of those belts with compartments,such as this  and I’m NOT running with a fanny pack.  I do have a mesh photographer’s vest, so I wore that with the mesh shirt & shorts.  Overdressed?  I don’t know. The forecast called for rain.  That would cool me off.

There were clouds.  There was a breeze off Lake Michigan.  However, there was no rain.  I had on enough. 

All I had to do was wait with twelve thousand of my closest friends for the race to start.

The race started in segments.  The elite runners started first.  Then the blue corrals started in 90 second increments(?) The race officially started at 7am CST, and my corral started around 7:51.  The photo above is from green corral 15.  There's a starting line up there, trust me.

What were my goals?

            -12 minute miles

            -No back pain.  I wanted an upright stride.  Any lower back pain would’ve indicated that I was leaning too far forward.

            -Heart rate?  Meh.  I have a heart.  As long as it beat, I didn’t care about the metrics.

My 12 minute a mile goal was conservative.  I ended up running 10 ½ and 11 ½ minute miles.  If you were on the course, I was the person talking to myself, saying “Slow down, damnit”.

It was an interesting course.  After Soldier Field and the Museum Campus, we went under McCormick Place, and then onto part of Lake Shore Drive.  I’ve never biked the drive, but I can say I ran it.  Nice to be on smooth pavement.

On the way back there was enough dirt to run on to minimize the pounding.  As I write this, the day afterwards, I can say nothing feels too sore.

At the eighth mile, I remembered what I was going to do.  I was going to remember I paid FULL PRICE FOR THE ENTRY FEE, SO I’M GOING TO FINISH THIS THING!!!

At the ninth mile, well…one look at my watch, and screw the time metrics.  I started to speed up.  I began to imagine that I was growing claws on my feet.  When I rounded the final turn into Soldier Field, I started growling.

I don’t remember much after this. I can say that I didn’t bite anyone or knock them over, but I was possessed by a rather ursine manner.  Bears CAN run really fast.  I resisted the urge to run on all fours.  There is a time for experimentation, and a time to run on two feet.  I do know that I didn’t bother with waving at any camera or raising my arms.

I  made it to the fifty yard line.

A chance to "Finish on the Fifty", part one

The barber was surprised when I asked him to cut my hair short.  It was four days before the Soldier Field 10 mile race, and I wanted to get used to running with a cap on.  Even though I had tried running with a mesh cap, it was a sweaty experience.  I figured: less hair, less discomfort.  Besides slathering on the sunblock, I wanted to be prepared for a sunny day.

This was the only new thing I was going to try before a race.  Even though it was my first 10 miler, some things would remain the same:

1)    I’d go to bed early and get up early.  I’d have to.  The start time was at 7am CST, and I had a long train ride down to the South Loop.

2)    I’d take a long walk to the race site.  The Roosevelt and State L stop is a mile from Soldier Field, so the walk was part of the warm up process.

Actually, there was one other tweak to my training: no pasta the night before-just a vegetable salad with broccoli, etc, and nothing more solid to eat than a small cup of yogurt on the day of the race.  The last thing I wanted to do during the race was to dash off the course to use the can.  After all, running speeds up a lot of things-your heart rate, your breathing, and um…certain lower gastrointestinal functions.

Most of my training had consisted of weekend and weeknight runs of eight miles.  I did manage one 10 miler that took an hour and fifty-seven minutes.  Was that enough preparation for a 10 miler?  I say yes, with these rationalizations:

-  Almost all my running was on pavement.

-  The race course would include some stretches of dirt pathway, and ..

-oh yes!-the finish would be on the grass turf of Soldier Field. 

-And of course, running in a crowd tends to be a big motivator with me