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Staying warm pre-race |
This year, I'm a week out from my first marathon and confident in my ability to complete and compete in a variety of distances. I was in no condition to compete in this race this race this year, but I wanted to participate as part of my role as the director of ambassador outreach.
Lucky for me, my dad started getting active about a year ago. He started with walking, working his way up to walking a 5K about once a week at a forest preserve, moving indoors for the winter. I bought him a Garmin to track his heart rate and progress, and he added a run/walk combo in the past few months and agreed to complete the Fort2Base 3 Nautical Mile Race with me.


It. Was. Cold. I arrived at Rosalind Franklin around 6 a.m. and took a short shuttle ride over the the base, where I met my mom and dad. Thankfully, the base opened up a gym facility next to the start line because of the cold. We hung out there until about 7 a.m., then moved outside for some short speeches, the presentation of the flag and the national anthem.

We rested right before the massive hill on the course (Hero Hill), then tried to power through it to the top. We made it about 75 percent of the way there.
When we hit the 5K mark, my dad noticed he just hit a PR, but we still had to make it to the finish line. We booked it for the last quarter mile, despite my dad's heart rate reaching 110 percent of max. He may never run with me again ...
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Victorious post-run shot |
After we finished, we got out medals and loaded up on bars, snacks and drinks. I've never seen so many snacks! I tried a huge assortment of bars and snacks and found a new favorites.
I had to stick around for a while to take photos with the Chicago Running Bloggers as well as the staff and ambassadors, but the shuttle back was slow going.
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Lauren, Me, Sara and Maggie looking sexy! |
Price: For me, free
Pros: Unique setting, awesome post-race party, personalized bibs, medals for all finishers, unique crowd support from sailors, so much awesome food, plenty of toilets and water stations, lovely long-sleeve tech shirts in cool colors
Cons: Slow shuttle service, no on-site parking, not great for spectators
Would I do it again: Yes, every year! And I hope my dad will want to do it with me again, too.
3 comments:
how awesome! Way to go Kelly's Dad!
It's so wonderful that your dad runs with you! Getting my parents to run with me (or run in general) is my dream. Congrats to both of you!
-Irina
way to go, this looked like so much fun!
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