Race Day Confession

Today, I ran the Rock n Roll Chicago Half Marathon. It was my 3rd half marathon. The course was beautiful! It was a great way to see the city. My training had a little bit of a set back about 6 weeks ago when I tripped on a hickory nut and fell during a training run. I sprained my left ankle and scraped up my right knee pretty bad, and worse, had to take a couple weeks off from running.

The race started off great. I was running just over a 12 minute pace at the 3 mile mark. I was feeling really good about my run so far. Usually, the first 3 miles are my least favorite, but I felt awesome and was making great time. And I must have not been paying much attention, because the next thing I know I was literally being picked up off the ground by a really nice man behind me.


My fall was caused by a place in the road that was broken up and my over confidence and lack of attention to the road in front of me. I reinjured my ankle and scraped up my knee again. UGH! I spent about 10 minutes sitting on the sidewalk in tears hoping I could at least finish the race, but it seemed unlikely since I still had 10 miles to go.


After feeling sorry for myself for a while, I got up and hobbled a few minutes. I decided to test my ankle and see if I could run. I was able to run - most likely because I had my brace on my ankle which minimized the swelling. I was able to finish the race…just a little bit slower than I’d hoped.


Mark always does a great job finding a tall place to stand and cheer for me. I was afraid he would see my knee, which had been bleeding, at mile 6, but he couldn’t see it. It was definitely a tough mental race after I fell. But I’m really glad I could/did keep going!


The highlights of the race - besides the incredible views - were misting stations, ice cold sponges at mile 10, an icy cold towel and popsicles at the end of the run. I had been expecting it to be a little cooler, and actually the first half of the race felt great and then all of sudden the temperature skyrocketed!


The very best part of the race was after I had finished. As I was walking to meet Mark at the family reunion area, a girl came up to me and told me I did a great job. She said she’d been running with me for the last several miles, and I helped her finish. Awwwwwww! This made the whole race so much better for me!