Chicago Marathon 2010: Race Report

A long over due post and race report, but it was the last race of the season and I was enjoying my off season. The 2010 season is in the books and it ended on a high note with a personal record (PR) at the 2010 Chicago Marathon. Just barely setting a new PR with a time of 2:45:02 I beat my previous PR by a mere 43 seconds.

The race was awesome there were 45,000 registered runners making it one of the biggest marathons in the USA and in the world. The volunteers and staff did a great job of organizing the race from start to finish. Getting over 45,000 people were the needed to go all at the same time must have taken quite an effort so thank you to all who were involved. I was fortunate to be able to start in Corral A which got me ahead of about 44.500 people which really helped. When the gun went off I did not have to maneuver too much around people, everyone around me seemed to be moving about about the same pace, which made the start quite exhilarating. You seem to always get that stamped effect when running in a big race but this was the biggest one yet.

We started in Grant Park and headed north winding through the city and popping out to the lake front from time to time. I think my favorite part of the race was running through the downtown areas, where you were surrounded by skyscrapers, it made you feel very small. Though I didn't really know where I was most of the race it was great to get to see so much of the city. Minneapolis truly does not compare with Chicago in its size especially its downtown areas. The crowd support along the way was fantastic, because we were in the city the whole time there was always people cheering along the way. My cousin and her husband, who I stayed with, got a great spot just after mile 8 and it was motivating to get to see them. Usually I don't have any fans cheering specifically for me so that was fun to see them out. I also go to see a few other friends from my run club as well which was very nice surprise around the half way point.

Overall I felt really good throughout the whole race, I went out a bit more conservative and tried to just maintain a solid pace throughout the race. I didn't feel like I did at the Minneapolis marathon where I felt like I was holding back the first half and I actually went out way too fast. I came across the half way point at 1:21:40 which is about perfect, I felt pretty strong through the second half and only slowed a bit the last few miles. Because the course is very flat it was very easy to keep a consistent pace throughout. It was also nice to have plenty of other runners to run with from start to end. Some of the smaller races get too thinned out and you end of having to run a lot of the second half without anyone around you which makes it tough for me to maintain my pace.

I will say that my cardio did not feel as strong as it did for the Minneapolis marathon but my legs felt great throughout the race and even after the race they were not really that sore. It did help to get a massage right after the finish though. All in all another great race and another good season. I improved on my PR and had a great time running the Chicago marathon for the first time. I will definitely be back to run it again at some point, but it may have to wait a year to so.

As for next year, I have my sights set on continuing to improve on my marathon time, but might concentrate more effort on some ultras next year. I trying to find a good 100 mile race to jump into, I have a few in mind so we'll see what 2011 holds.


Results

Fargo Marathon 2001:Race Report

The 2010 Fargo Marathon is in the books and marked in the win column for me. The weather was not quite perfect but certainly better than last year when it was 33 degrees out when we started. This year it was rainy, which actually helped with the heat, it was in the mid 60's most of the race with a bit of wind.

A high school friend and I ran the 2-man relay this year. I am trying to not run as many full marathons this year in hopes of improving my time. I ran the first leg of the race, which for whatever reason was 15miles long and my friend ran the second part 11.2 miles. Because the distance was and odd length I was more concerned with my pace. I have posted the race results and my Garmin watch readings below. I ran a 5min 50 sec mile pace and crossed the 1/2 marathon mark at 1 hour and 16 mins. I was very happy with this pace and the overall time.

The course, as you can guess, in Fargo was flat and fast. You start outside of the Fargo Dome and wind your way through Fargo, ND and parts of Moorhead, MN. The only difficult part is that some parts of the course are through residential areas that you have to wind through and causes you to turn a lot, but not a big deal for me. Because I started and was only running 15 miles I was running with the elite runners throughout the race. I was in 6th place for most of the race, but because there were not a lot of runners at that speed I often found myself running alone, which make it difficult for me to keep a consistent pace, as you can see from my Garmin read out.

All in all another great race and a fun weekend, several family members and friends ran in the full marathon, 1/2 marathon, marathon relay and 10K. One of the fun parts for me was getting to see two family members finish their first marathon, I even got to run the last few miles with one of them Finishing my first marathon was such an amazing feeling and accomplishment in my life and has obviously had an affect on my life and to get to be there when they both finished theirs was a lot of fun and something that, hopefully, they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

Race Results:

Garmin Results:

Get In Gear 10K: Results 2010

Sort of a last minute entry into the Get in Gear 10K this past weekend. It was a nice race, only a 1.5 miles from my house, so I was able to jog there and back, which was a pretty good warm up and cool down.

The weather was not the greatest it was raining most of the morning that throughout the race, but it the temperature was around 50 so it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately I didn't line up until about 5 minutes before the gun and was forced to line up with most of the 1/2 marathon runners, who all started at the same time, so my first mile and a half was spent dodging around people, so I didn't run the fastest times but all in all my splits after the first mile where pretty good.

Here is a link to the results page and a link to my Garmin read out of the race.

Results

Get In Gear 10K:2010 by jhanlon31 at Garmin Connect - Details

Ron Daws 25K: Race Results

This weekend I ran the Ron Daws 25k race in Hopkins, MN for the first time. It was a good but challenging course, there was quite a bit of wind that also did not help things much, but the main challenge was the amount of hills. It was a consistent up and down the whole way. None of the hills were really killers but it was almost impossible to keep any sort of consistent pace, as you can see from the results from my Garmin below.

It is a very low-key event with probably around 50-70 runners, fairly good competition as well. One of the nice things about the race is that it is only $4 for an entry fee. Because it is a more challenging course a lot of runners who are not that serious tend to shy away, so I have been told. I was very happy with my time and results, I was shooting for around a 6 minute mile pace for the race and was just over that with a 6:07 min pace, but considering the wind and the hills I am happy with that time. Here are the results below

Link to Race Replay and Course:

Untitled by jhanlon31 at Garmin Connect - Details

Overall Place: 6th

Overall Time: 1:37:18

Pace: 6:07 minutes/mile

Distance 25 Kilometer/15.91 miles