Chicago Lakefront 50K
as the 8:30am starting time drew near, i was waiting in line to use the porta-john. last year, i was a bit over hydrated and made three stops along the way which was a big waste of time. after my turn, i hustled over to the bag drop area to leave some spare clothes and my water bottle filled with defizzed cola. glancing over towards the start, the runners already assembled were off and running.
after a bit of a panicky, jackrabbit start i settled into a comfortable pace and began to click off the miles. the course is simple, three laps along the chicago lakefront initially headed north then south. without fail, the wind was from the north with temps in the low forties. while i was wearing sunglasses, there was no sun to be found on this day. heading north into the wind was more work but after turning southbound the tail wind nudged me along.
as i finished the first lap i also downed my first gel chased with a bit of water. a quick thank you to the aid station staff and i headed north again. the second lap was as uneventful as the first. i simply clicked off the miles at a steady, but aggressive pace and downed gel with water.
rolling into the start/finish area to finish my second lap i downed my fifth energy gel with water and grabbed my water bottle filled with cola on my way back onto the course. temperatures hadn’t warmed much, if at all. i had a cushion of time “in the bank” to meet my goal of finishing in less than four hours. however, things didn’t quite work out that way.
heading north on the third lap, my feet and calves began to cramp. i did what i could to run relaxed and not dwell on the pain. i rolled through 26.2 miles in a low 3:18, which would be my fifth fastest marathon; if only i was running a marathon. with less than five miles to run, i still had four minutes “in the bank” for a sub-four and told myself to hold on.
time was moving very slowly. without looking at my watch, i knew i was losing time. with a little more than two miles to go i could still do enough math to know if i’d muster 8:30 per mile for the remaining distance i’d be in under four hours. that’s about the same time that my legs began to rebel more severely. each step hurt and i was covering less and less ground with each stride. two fellow competitors sped by and i had nothing left to give chase. a quarter mile away from the finish, my watch read 4:00:00. damn.
knowing my primary goal was unattainable, my focus shifted to getting to the finish line faster than i had the previous year; which was my personal best time for the distance. after one last little hill i crossed the finish line forty one seconds faster than before. i briefly congratulated one of the runners who passed me in the final miles, collected my gear and walked back to my car. i must have looked rather pitiful as i shuffled along. while my calves and feet were seizing up on me, a woman in a passing car rolled down the window and asked if she could drive me to my car. i politely declined and shared that i didn’t have much further to go.
after easing myself into the passenger side of the car, i started the engine and turned on the heat. for the next hour or so my feet, calves and shins took turns seizing and slowly releasing. i even yelped once or twice. as i gradually warmed back up, the cramping eased and i slowly returned to normal.
Finish: 4:02:21
Overall: 11th/178
Age group: 2nd/28
Mile Split Elapsed 1 7:19 7:19 2 7:19 14:38 3 7:27 22:05 4 7:26 29:31 5 7:29 37:00 6 7:21 44:21 7 7:20 51:41 8 7:18 58:59 9 7:18 1:06:17 10 7:16 1:13:33 11 7:27 1:21:00 12 7:29 1:28:29 13 7:33 1:36:02 14 7:32 1:43:34 15 7:32 1:51:06 16 7:34 1:58:40 17 7:24 2:06:04 18 7:30 2:13:34 19 7:26 2:21:00 20 7:25 2:28:25 21 7:46 2:36:11 22 7:45 2:43:56 23 7:52 2:51:48 24 8:10 2:59:58 25 8:15 3:08:13 26 8:34 3:16:47 27 8:19 3:25:06 28 8:31 3:33:37 29 8:30 3:42:07 30 9:35 3:51:42 31 9:53 4:01:35 31.1 0:52 4:02:27