We Finished!

We're back home and getting ready to head out to Brunch to celebrate Melissa completing her first half marathon! We ran together all the way and even got some pics taken along the way holding our hands in the air to celebrate! We finished in 2:12:40 for an average pace of 10:08 per mile. We woke up at 4:30 am to get breakfast started and left the house just after an hour to drive down for the 6:30 start. There was plenty of parking at the Millennium Park lot but the walk to the gear check and the bathroom line left us hustling over to start in time. The humidity appeared to have cleared over night with the storms hitting early so there was a pleasant breeze when we weren't running underground.

The first 4 miles flew by as we ducked and weaved our way through downtown Chicago keeping a steady pace for every mile. At 4 we took our first water stop and then carried on. The next 4 miles were harder as the course turned East on Roosevelt over the bridge and then down the entrance ramp to the highway South. Mile 8 was the turning point one exit past McCormick place with what seemed like a careless place for a water/gatorade stop.

We hit mile 10 and it was a great psychological boost. Our pace had been rock solid all the way through and with 3.1 miles left to the finish we found a spring in our step. The view heading North is great with the Chicago skyline ahead of you and the lake on your right. Past Soldier Field towards the Shedd Aquarium and then a hard right towards the Adler Planetarium. At the end we double back down the other side of the road and then under the bridges towards Grant park. The last mile was weird as they have you snake in an S-shape before you see the finish sign in the last 400 meters or so. We held off in the last few strides to make sure the photographer could get a clear shot of Melissa and I hand in hand crossing the finish with big smiles.