My 10th half marathon: a flash mob dance, ice, chafing and my second almost PR of 2012

I ran my 10th half marathon on Saturday, the F3 half marathon on the lakefront. 10th!!

Before I get to my race report, though, I gotta say, what a race. This is a newer, grassroots race put on by the folks at Universal Sole, a really cool running store on the north side. The organizers capped the race at 1,200, which is small for a Chicago half marathon. It was so great to run a race where it wasn't overcrowded. On an icy, windy January day, you're only getting folks who run hardcore throughout the winter -- my kinda people. Even during the race, at waterstops runners grabbed cups, gulped the liquid, and actually made a point to throw away their cups rather than toss them on the ground for volunteers to pick up. A great, great, great race vibe and kudos to the mysterious Kimberley who arrangds the race and whom I've never met. Yet.

Race morning began early because Baby C and little toddler man were both up by 6:30 a.m. The race didn't start until 10, which is super late for a race start and super late for me to start running -- I am a happy early morning runner. So I got to play with the kids, which was great since I'd been in southern California the previous three days for work. (I had the best sunrise on-the-beach run Thursday morning -- I was so happy I could have skipped my entire run!)

I did my usual glass of water and half english muffin breakfast. But I goofed in that I should have eaten more. More on that later.

At 8:50 a.m. my husband announced he needed to shower. I was all pre-race crazed, like, what? He showered quickly, no doubt seeing the crazed look in my eye, haha, but of course I was all manic driving to the race anyway. I got to the parking lot, texted friends and did a short sprint to find them. Some guy pulled into the parking spot next to me and hit my car, what the hell, and my first thought was "no time to swap insurance info!" Fortunately no damage. I glared at him and moved on.

The weather looked deceptively nice, really sunny and sparkly. But there was a sharp northwest wind that chilled me right away. I hoped my long-sleeve top and thin windbreaker would be enough for 13.1 miles.

We had about 20 minutes to kill before the race started, so we stood near a tent out of the wind a bit, and shivered and chatted. Suddenly a big group of runners right by us broke out into a flash mob dance, like on Modern Family for those who love that show (me!!). It was so funny. Man, they had obviously been practicing.

On to the race. I kind of had two races, by looking at my splits, which tell the story: 1:08 the first half of the race, 1:01 the second (!). The first half of the race we ran south. I'd guess at least 60 percent of that course was on crushed gravel topped with some mix of ice and snow. It was treacherous.Even the start line was icy and awful. In fact, the first mile and a half was ice, or some mixture of snow, ice, mud and slash. I think my first mile was at least an 11 minute-mile.I lost my friends immediately, I was so busy trying to navigate the messy terrain.

I caught up with one friend around mile 3 or so, and she said our other friends were up ahead. I kept telling myself, and her, that I was just going to try and run a good race but not really race. She laughed at me and told me to keep moving. Which I did. Darn running friends who know me well.

I was tired. And dehydrated. And already hungry because I hadn't eaten enough. Kind of a bad sign at mile 3 of a 13.1 mile race. Oh, and chafing in many uncomfortable spots, ouch -- forgot to use the BodyGlide again. Fortunately I had lots of sport beans which I really just suspect are overpriced jelly beans since they taste just like candy jelly beans. So I snacked here and there. When I got to about mile 4-5, there was ice again, lots of it. Man, I had to keep telling myself to spaz down and just run for the conditions. I had caught up to my other friends and passed them and was running about 10 to slightly  below 10 minute-mile. Better. Until I hit that ice over and over.


My friends caught up to me and I got all competitive. My other competitive friend, Margaret, immediately said "You're not slowing down, we're speeding up." I haven't run with Margaret for very long but man, she's got me pegged. We all ran together for awhile and navigated more ice. Geez. I was sick of it already.

Finally we got to the turnaround point and headed back north, on mostly ice-free concrete, yay! Except that it was straight into a sharp, bitter northwest wind. It was exhausting. I'm like, why am I running this? I wondered what pushes me to stick with running, to run races when they're hard and tiring, and came up empty. I don't know why running agrees with me so much, but I felt so grateful that I found it and it's changed my life. Do I normally think about this stuff in races? No. I didn't have enough time to locate my stupid iPod so I had to kill the time thinking about something, haha.

I chugged along, keeping up with another pink Saucony-jacket clad woman I know, Kristan. I know she had just PRed at a half last weekend, 2:12, so I know she's my pace and I should keep up with her. Plus she appears to be a lot younger than me and I want to prove that I'm not such an old lady after all, as I stare down my 44th birthday awaiting me in March. We stayed neck and neck (is that the correct phrase? Too sleep to Google it) for miles. Later she told me she had the same goal, to keep up with me. Love it!

I got to mile 12 and damn it, realized I could PR (my best time was 2:09:22, set in October 2011 in Libertyville). Why doesn't this stuff dawn on me earlier in the race? I booked that last mile and crossed the finish line in 2:11. I had to wait a day before official results were posted. 2:09:25. I missed my PR by three seconds. Holy crap. But what I was really excited about was that great negative split -- the first half of the race was so slow because of ice, but the second half was on pavement and it was 95 percent clear, and I ran 1:01, which is fantastic for me.

This is my second near-miss PR for 2012. The other race I've run this year, a 5K on NY's day, I missed my 27:01 PR by 8 seconds because I had to stop and tie my shoes. Twice. So close! OBVIOUSLY I need to run another cold weather half -- I run well in cold weather. I'm gonna look for something in March! :) I'm open to suggestions, running friends!