Part 1: Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon Chicago

Well....I survived my very first half marathon this weekend!!!  And I LOVED every single second of it!!!

Here's a little play by play.

After work Friday, me and my severely over packed carry on headed up to Wichita.  I realize I was only going to be gone Saturday night, and I really just needed an outfit to put on before the flight Saturday, something to run in Sunday, and something to wear home after.  However....this girl prefers to have options.  So I packed 3 pairs of running shorts, three different running tops, 4 sports bras, 3 pairs of running socks, 4 pairs of underwear, 1 pair of jeans (not counting the ones i wore there), 1 pair of capri's, three regular shirts, two pairs of running shoes, a rain jacket, a fleece jacket, and a pullover.  It was ALL VERY necessary I swear :)  Anywho....we woke up at 5am Saturday morning to catch our flight out of Wichita (Yuck yuck yuck!!)  Luckily we had no issues with any of our flights!!  We arrived in chicago around 930am..... and decided to brave out the public transportation known as the L train instead of busting out 40 bucks for a cab.  We surprisingly made it to the right spot with out anyone stabbing us, robbing us, or just plain scaring us!  We stayed at the Hilton on Michagin Ave.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Next up was the Race Expo.  Holy over-whelming batman.  People everyone...(i do not do well in large crowds, it makes me an angry violent elf) and tons of vendors!  We got our t-shirts, and swag bags and braved our way thru the crowds checking out all the free samples.  Lots of protein bars (which i think taste like pure dog doo), recovery drinks, qdoba(one of these things is not like the others), merchandise, group excercising, and buff people.  I'd have to say my favorite sample was the snickers new marathon bars (well their new to me at least!).  YUM-O!! Lots of protein, and not bad calories...i'm sold.

I would if they sell these in bulk at sam's.  Hmmmm.  Anyways.  Moral of the story, we got our race info without a glich and were now officially ready to run the damn thing....all we had to do was show up.  Ok fast forward to dinner.  Cheesecake factory...peanut butter cheesecake....pure heaven.  I also got to pick the brain of Stephanie (her mother works with my MIL and her and her mother were there for the race as well).  This was going to be her 4th 1/2 so so was def. more experienced then me.  I needed to know lots of valuable information....am i going to die?  will i have to poop in the middle of the race?  should i wake up 2 hours early (4am) to eat something to ensure that i don't poop in the middle of the race? Ipod or no ipod? Sunglasses?  are you sure i'm not going to die?  She was very helpful, but i still felt umprepared.  Back to the hotel...freak out a little....trick myself into sleeping until my alarm goes off at 5am.  Jump right out of bed when the alarm goes offs to check the weather (it rained a lot Saturday and there was a 63% chance of rain all morning Sunday).  It was dry...there is a God.  Now we just have to get our butts to the starting line!!

Me, Kim (MIL), Stephanie, and Sonia

I was in corral 21.  They put you in corral's according to your predicted finish time.  On the registration I put 2:30 hours.....I figured that was do able.  While waiting for our turn I started talking to a tall red head.  This was like her 5th race....her PR is 1:32. Um...what are you doing in my corral you crazy speedy ginger?   She said she hadn't trained at all for this race so she put a longer time.  So your fast, run races with out training, and skinny?? Gingers really are soul-less.  (Southpark reference for all of you slow folks).  Next thing I know i'm running.... with 15, 258 other people.  That's a lot of people....running...in the same direction....on small streets.  So that makes about 8,026 people that I wanted to push, shove and/or trip (the other 7,000 people were behind me or already almost done!).  Did i mention I hate large crowds? 

(I'm totally splitting this in to two parts.  Not because it's a super awesome long story....but because i have nothing else to blog about so i need to spread it out, make it count!  Plus i'm waiting for the actual race photo's to be uploaded so you can see how awesome i look when i am a few feet away from death.)