It was a beautiful day for a PR, but it didn't happen for me. I PRed by exactly 1 second.


Side note: How awesome is Jenny? She chauffeured me around, encouraged me, took photos, held my gear and waited for me to finish. What a friend. Plus, she's still hobbling around in a walking boot, so we got VIP parking ... also known as handicap parking.
We met up with some blogging buddies before the race, then hung around waiting to get moving. I realized a little too late there were no pacers, but I've got my trusty Garmin to keep me on pace. I was hoping for a 1:50 finish, which would be a six-minute PR, so I needed to hit 8:34 every mile to get there.
We started running through a parking lot, then turned around and swung back through grass and onto my beloved Busse Woods path around mile two. Look at how strong and relaxed I look there at mile two:





I finished in 1:56:12, 17th in my age group. That means I was one second faster than the HeatBreaker Indoor half and a little less than a minute faster than my first half marathon.

However, for a small race, the post-race food and expo was fantastic. I stocked up on running fuel and fruit, as well as tried some new bar things.
I wanted to love this race, but I can't help but wonder what would have happened if there were bathrooms on the course. Could I have made a quick stop and PRed? Everything else was in my favor, from the weather to the familiar-to-me course. So now I have a chip on my shoulder and something to prove.
Time: 1:56:12
Pros: Familiar course, great swag of Nike shorts, local race supporting my running community, a good amount of food and fuel available on site, perfect weather, cute medal, post-race egg hunt, nice photo opportunities for the whole family with the Easter bunny and this random PowerBar chick
Cons: No bathrooms open on the course. No port-o-potties on the course. It could have used more water stations, too, since it was in the 60s by the time we finished. Also, parking would have been dicey without Jenny's handicap spot.
Would I race this again: No. There are so many other races that I feel like I could rock. And now I have a bad taste in my mouth with this, too.
23 comments:
Great layout. Good substance. I'll be back!
Ok, assuming you ran an 8:40 mile for 11, 12, and 13 you would have been 2mins and 10 secs faster.Lets say you make a pitstop, I think it might have taken 2:10 or longer to get it out of your system, and you would probably at best came in with the same clock time. If you are looking for maybe another race that you can PR at look into Palos. THis will be my 4th time running it, they have potties. Pretty flat. I will post the my garmin from it.
Well, I enjoyed seeing you and enjoyed meeting Jenny :)
Thanks! It was great seeing you too.
Oh Kelly. I have been in that spot way too many times. You'll get it!
Have you tried using blocks instead of gels? I think gels are harder on the stomach. Also, for the half, have you tried not using any fuels other than sports drink? I only use gels for full marathons. An idea!
I haven't tried just sports drink, but I definitely need to try something new.
Sorry to hear that the race turned sour. It's horrible to run and not be able to find a bathroom. You handled it in stride, although what half marathon race doesn't plan for port-a-potties at each aid station? I don't think I've seen that...ever? in a long time?
I feel you. The same thing happened to me during my first marathon. My legs were totally fine but my stomach was not.
Did you do anything different as far as eating on race day? Or maybe the day before?
Also, have you tried using chews? For me, that's all I can use since my stomach is super sensitive.
You'll get your PR soon enough! Maybe ZOOMA and get an extra medal! :)
I feel you. The same thing happened to me during my first marathon. My legs were totally fine but my stomach was not.
Did you do anything different as far as eating on race day? Or maybe the day before?
Also, have you tried using chews? For me, that's all I can use since my stomach is super sensitive.
You'll get your PR soon enough! Maybe ZOOMA and get an extra medal! :)
Oh man! You were so freakin' close! I am sorry you had stomach issues! Did you finally have to go when you stopped? Holding it in for so long hurts :(
Are you planning another HM or waiting until after the HIM?
Oh man, major bummer! I'm sorry there were no accessible bathrooms on the course, that seems like a major oversight.
I definitely prefer chews and beans over gels. I don't really like the consistency of gels. Plus I like to consume my fuel slowly, and it's much easier to eat one chew or bean at a time. Not so easy to consume a little bit of a gel and stick it back in your pocket.
There was a bank of port-o-potties at the start/finish and that was it.
Sad.
Thanks for all the fueling suggestions, I'll have to give another strategy a try.
Kelly, a PR is a PR- even if it's only one second. So pat yourself on the back and work on your nutrition strategy. And keep the PRs coming!! Well done :) PS- Sassy arm warmers!
Thanks, at least I looked cute!
Hi Kelly,
As the race directors we wanted to reach out to you and say congratulations on your race and PR! Being fellow local runners, we love putting this race on to try and raise funds for our charities. With us both working full time jobs and putting this on as a way to give back to the community, sometimes it is hard to anticipate every possible situation, so having posts such as yours really helps us make changes and improvements.
We are sorry to hear the bathroom situation as we had confirmed with the forest preserve on Friday that all restroom buildings would be unlocked. We had a few male runners comment to us that they used the restrooms along the course, so we are unsure on why both restrooms were not unlocked. We tried to get in touch with the forest preserve race morning to verify that all restrooms would be unlocked, but they were unresponsive to our calls. We plan on calling them tomorrow to get this resolved for following years.
Hopefully we will do a better job with the egg hunt too as we are sorry to hear you didn't receive any chocolate! We filled all 7000 eggs with a 50/50 split of chocolate vs non-chocolate candy in hopes of pleasing all runners, but as you saw it was quite crazy with all the runners frantically grabbing eggs. We have a few ideas on how to make this better!
Thank you again for coming out to our race and for your blog post. We plan to send an email out soon to get feedback from runners in hopes of making the race grow and improve!
Fellow runners,
Ryan and Jacqui
Sorry your stomach had different plans for you. I agree: less gel, try chews.
I too had to pee which caused me to cramp from holding it...I was curious about the porta pottie situation but didn't want to lose one second to peeing. I made that mistake in chicago and it added a good 10 minutes to my finish! Bah! Great seeing you!
I'm glad to hear it's something you're aware of and working on, Jacqui. The first bathroom I came to (which was the first one on the nort side of Higgins) I tried both the men's and women's side. The next two I came to, volunteers just said they were unlocked (and I watched a volunteer try the women's side). I could have cried when I tried the doors and they were locked. It was at that moment that I could feel my PR slipping away.
I just did a training run today where I ran into OMG I NEED A BATHROOM problem.. So I can understand your frustration with a race course not having any. Ugh. Oh well, there will be other races, you WILL snag that PR!
So frustrating to be so close but yet so far. But now you know you can blow your current PR out of the water soon!
Also, did both your gels have caffeine in them? Sometimes too much caffeine combined with running fast makes my GI system go bonkers.
Congrats on the 1 second PR- hey and it's still so early in the season, I'm sure you've got some more PRs in those legs. It seemed like you've definitely gotten much stronger, which is something to celebrate. Don't be so hard on yourself! Figure out your fueling strategy and I'm sure next time will go even better!
No bathrooms on a half course is CRIMINAL!
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