Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon 12/4/11

Rock n Roll Las Vegas Marathon

December 4, 2011

Finish Time: 5:10: 55

Splits

Pace	10 Km	10 Mi	Half	19.5 Mi	23.1 Mi	ChipTime	ClockTime
11:52	55:57	1:33:48	2:05:14	3:24:44		05:10:55	05:13:03

                             Great weekend!!! Sisters on the Run did Vegas? What could be better?

                                                                       course map
The Weekend

We started the weekend with a  friday night dinner at Emeril's New Orleans Fish House at the MGM. Great steaks, sides, and of course dessert. The martinis were also well received! Next we shopped, shopped, and shopped some more. 

After sleeping in, we were off to.... 

The Expo

The expo was great, as most RnR expo's are. They are big so they bring out all the vendors. We picked up our shirts and got a RnR shirt. They don't always have a big selection of shirts to get. Plus they use Brooks and Nike is just better. Nike has good slogans, etc. We still got a shirt and then took our time going through the vendors and getting things. Our fave is a headband that says, "I'm Kind of a Big Deal." We also got some pink sparkly arm sleeves for the race and American stars for Marine Corps next fall. You know us, we have to run in style too! They had some vegas show girls there too so we snapped a picture.

After the expo, we shopped some more because, well that's what we love to do, and then headed to the Bellagio Buffet (YUM). Great food and outrageous desserts. We definitely used the excuse to carb up.... and it was one of the better carboload sessions we have ever had before a race!

After dinner, we headed to the O! show which was in the Bellagio. It was fantastic! We shopped a little more after that and then went to bed.

Sunday, race day, was funny because it was a night race so we weren't used to that. We had a brunch at 11 and ate but not too much. After we ate, we opted for some rest time in the room where we watched Friends with Benefits on the in Demand in the room and got ready for the race. We headed out to the start line (corrals) at 3:15 and heard just a little of the headliner concert because they started (Cheap Trick) at 3:30 and the marathon race started at 4 pm.

The Race

The first half was actually great, we started at 4 pm and ran through warehouse areas, not the most exciting but it was dark and we were able to run fast without a lot of crowding which was good. You could see the strip is certain spots which was cool. It went super fast with the anticipation of getting to the strip at the half way mark. The sun set while we were running so we turned on our flashing light arm bands and flashing pony tail holders and had fun! We didn't stop for water much or if we did, we just ran through it. Our mile splits were around 8:35-9:00 so we were going pretty fast for the first part of the marathon. Now we knew this isn't how you get any kind of negative splits but we were concerned about the 4:30 marathon cut off time because we had just run our double two weeks before so we weren't exactly running on fresh legs. Our goal was to make the cut offs and then we could relax and slow it down if we needed to. The front half of the course was almost all flat with some hills, but what went up, surely went down and it went down fast. In fact the whole first half we were running with the 3:45 pacers so that felt good. The jackets & gloves came off. tanks, capris, and arm sleeves were fine. It felt good.

and then…. It got ugly!! 

We got to the half way mark at 2:05 and we were ready for a 4 hour time easily until we  merged with the half marathoners who started at 5:30 pm, so we got there at 6 pm and they had the last corrals going through who were mostly walkers.... and this was very SLOW walkers at that. We all shared one side of a 3 lane road so there was only a small space for the marathoners (8,000 of us and 38,000 half marathoners with a 4 hour limit). So this meant that you had 4:30 marathoners sharing a small road space with 4 hr half marathoners. All we kept saying was, "Seriously? Really?" What were they thinking? 

There were not clear separated areas for the marathoners at all, only these tiny Pylar cones with signs that people either knocked down of ignored. Then there were people on road bikes trying to maintain the separation but they only made it worse because they were biking right by us. So now we're dodging the runners and the bikers. At one point there was even a lady with her dog in the route. What?????

We were forced to slow to a 11-12 min/pace. And to top it off, the water and Cytomax stations were ransacked, so we had no real water or if they had it then we had to wait in line for water for miles 15-26. GU without water is not cool at all. The marathoners were really angry. At one point there was a trash can filled with water that they were just dumping cups into and then handing to us. Did we drink it? Of course! We had run 17 miles and needed to hydrate.

We continued to run and dodge and slow and trample through the trashed water stations. Funny thing though was that they kept handing out GU (at 3 mile spots), but yet no water....

At one point one of us really needed to pee, but the Porta john lines were awful. So then after running into Mc Donalds with a line of 30 other runners, we went forth and like every good, experienced runner, found a nice spot behind a tree to go with a spotter. Honestly, men have it so easy. It is so difficult to have to pee in a race and search for the perfect spot when all along a back wall there you see men lined with their backs to you. Someone needs to create some running apparel for women with easy access. Just Sayin'

Some good things did happen during the second half. First running along the strip at night was awesome. seeing all of the lights, spectators, and shops was very cool. Also, they had a run to the chapel part of the race, so around mile 17 we saw runners getting married at the chapel. very cool to see. Also, we got to ran with quite a few Elvis Presley's which is always a hoot!

We ended up fast walking the last 6 miles because the dodging was enough and our legs were pretty torn up at that point. It got cold during this part because the night was here by now, and we weren't working as hard as when we were running. It actually started raining as we neared the finish. Nevertheless, we finished in 5:10. Not bad after running 3 marathons less than two months before.

The moral of the story, don't run any big races that combine half and full marathoners like that- very poorly thought out, or have a reasonable time limit for the half marathoners, like 2:15 since we had a 4:30 limit. Almost all of the marathoners lost about 45 minutes of time and were really angry. You should see the facebook page for RnR Vegas, scathing reviews! Too big for such a small area and fast marathoners with slow half marathoners = not a good idea at all.

                                             But the bling was worth it! It glows in the dark.

Post Race

Often people forget about post race but it is perhaps one of the most important aspects of race planning because you have a lot of tired runners who need bling (of course), warmth (especially if it is a night race), fuel, and rest. Beer is also nice.

So... we finished in the cold rain, got out bling, warmers (foil sheets), and grabbed fuel (snickers trail bars, pretzels, water, and we skipped the green bananas). We followed the crowd through the Mandalay Bay (race headquarters and our hotel), into the massive crowd. What a mess! It took us an hour to go 300 feet and runners were dropping like flies all over the ground. There was no crowd control and medics couldn't even get through. The most hilarious part of it all though was this was the opening weekend of the Michael Jackson Immortal tour, SO, there were all of these nicely dressed patrons trying to get to the show, mixed with the Jackson impersonator conference, and yes us sweaty runners. One could only laugh, except the runners on the ground of course.  Rumor has it that there was bad water (shocker) and people were vomiting from it, etc. and had to be hospitalized.

Glad we made it through... go to our rooms, and just slept because we had to be up at 4:00 to get to the airport, but we did it and we made it. Couldn't have had a better time. Sisters on the run did it again!

Cheers!
Sisters

Valley of Fire Marathon 11/20/11

Valley of Fire Marathon
November 20, 2011
Finish Time: 6:05:35
We are officially Marathon Maniacs!
#4631 (Tracy) and #4632 (Stacey)

                                                         Seriously just look at those hills!!!

Day 2 of the Double Marathon Weekend:

The only word that truly describes the double marathon weekend is "EPIC." The word epic is one that is overly used and misused on a daily basis. Why? Because the actual definition of epic means unusually large or powerful. It's funny because this word is used every day so you wonder, is it really epic? Well... we carefully selected this word and will only refer to these two races... this weekend in November 2011 as EPIC. 

After watching the movie in Mesquite, we drove our little rental red car to Overton Nevada (about 40 minutes), where we stayed at the only hotel in the town- the North Shore Inn. Upon arrival we met the man who as won the race two years in a row, and ended up winning this one too. He was a very nice guy from Germany, Marcus Lehr. We talked about the race a bit and he talked about his goal of hopefully winning this year. A very humble man because this race is not easy by any stretch, at all!

We got into our room and then headed to the only restaurant in town, "Sugars." A cute little restaurant with locals eating out for the night. The menu had just about every fried food you can imagine. We asked what the southwestern chicken was and found out it just meant grilled, so we opted for that with a baked potato, salad, and peas. It was good, plenty actually. We also had a nice huge slice of Pecan Pie. After all we had just run a marathon and were about to run another.

                                                        Oh yeah and it was goooood!!

After dinner it was time to set out our race clothes for the next day and go to bed because we were going to start all over again. We were both pretty excited and nervous because of the hills we heard about, but we were ready.

The Race:

We got up at 5:00 and headed to the race at 5:30. The race started at 7 and there was a little drive to the start so we dressed, grabbed our gear, checked out of the hotel and left.

This race is referred to as "the toughest course you'll ever love" this is so true. The Valley of Fire is a small race that takes place in The Valley of Fire National park in Overton, NV. There is a 10k, half and full marathon - with only about 60 or so people doing the full.

The course elevation scares people from this one. There is one part dubbed "the hill of hell, " which earned it's name in our book. Is it a course for a PR? Absolutely not, but it is breathtakingly beautiful, extremely well run, and promises a memorable experience! Running the Tri-States Mesquite marathon the day before was an even added bonus. 

When we got to the start, we saw several of the Marathon Maniacs there again. We were motivated by their shirts because this weekend would earn us entry into MM's and a four star level at that. We hung around the start with some of our friends from the Mesquite Marathon (Salt Lake City running club- see picture below). The winner Marcus also took our picture:

                                                                          At the start

There were about 30 people doing the double so we all got to know each other pretty well. These were definitely the smallest races we had ever run, and we really liked the small nature of it. The race directors, volunteers, snacks, start, finish, medals, everything was perfectly done.

The Course:

                                                                The hill we start on

The Valley of Fire starts on a hill and continues to weave throughout the park's beauty with scenic picture spots all along the way. We took our time with this one, stopped for pictures, talked and ran with other runners, and had a blast! The first half has a series of rolling hills. When we hit big hills we walked them.

Throughout the run we met up with different people and talked with them as we ran or walked the hills. Joe, from the Salt Lake City Running club, who was in his 60's told us about the ultras and Ironman races he has done. Impressive!!!

                                                                 One of the many views

When we got to the half way 13.1 mark we literally had to run right by the finish line. This is when we saw all of the half marathoners finishing up. Wow was that a tease! We had to run by it, but fortunately they had GUs which made it a little better. 

We even ran by our car.... and kept on going toward the hills- argh!!!

The route wasn't marked so we thought we had it right and made a right turn but there was literally no one we could see in front and no one we could see behind us. At this point the 60 marathoners had really broken up. We knew there were some ahead and some behind so we just kept moving.  

Miles 13-20 are gradual hills ending with the Hill of Hell at mile 20,  but what goes up, must come down so the last 10k is downhill. As we climbed the hills we kept thinking that this meant we would be running down it in the end. We went up and around a rock area and then straight down for the final 6.

Sometime around mile 15 we stopped to put on some Biofreeze and pose for some pictures (we said we weren't about to PR with time by any means- our PR was 2 in a row) so we had fun!!!

Tracy

Stacey

Shortly after these pictures were taken, we saw our buddy Larry from the SLC running club. He was our photographer for some of the Mesquite run. 

At this point, it was all hills and just straight up, even gravel in some spots.... so.... we walked fast with Larry to the end. The funny part about this weekend is that we thought we would need music to distract us more than anything. But that didn't happen at all. We talked to each other and other runners so much that we didn't even think about music. This is the nice part about small races, you can do that. You can talk and hear each other. We had some of the best conversations out there!

And we kept on moving... even up through that Hill of Hell and what a hill it was!! It was hard to get any pictures of just the hill because it was always winding around the rocks. But the view really did distract us from the aches in our quads.

                                                             

                                                              Mile 18 almost to the top

There were great snacks along the way too! GU, gummy bears, pretzels, Peanut M&Ms, and bananas. Also something you never see in big races.

We also met up with another double marathoner from Colorado around mile 19. As we climbed the last 1/4 mile, we saw those who were ahead of us cheering for us as they went down. Our friends who ran the double (a couple from North Carolina) gave us a high 5 and said the hill was "an investment in gravity." So true! And we just kept moving.... 

Once we reached the top of the Hell Hill we felt like we should scream at the top. In fact I think we all sort of did. We went to the bathroom, refueled, and then we were ready to head down for the last 6 miles.

Usually around mile 18 or so your legs start to build lactic acid and you really start to feel the race. Add a marathon before that AND hills like no other, well we were so ready to run down but didn't even know if we had it in us. We did though, and we ran, and kept moving. We refueled when we needed and talked as we ran.

Apparently, they did miss mark mile 20 so the course was .6 longer which isn't fun when you've just conquered those hills and realize you see the finish line and it's definitely not as close as it should be. We found this out as we were nearing the finish line and our watches were saying we were close but that finish line looked really far away. Also, one of the runners yelled at us as he drove off saying that the course was .6 longer. At that point what does it matter though...?

                                                   Our buddies from the SLC Running Club

When we got close to the finish line, we ran up the last hill. Larry didn't want to run so we waiting for him at the finish. It was great running through and hearing them announce our names. The other runners we knew were cheering for us too and it really felt like we all bonded over the weekend. This is what marathoning is all about. Having a good run with family, friends, telling stories, and enjoying the sites along the way.   

You finish at the start where there was a DJ. Our bags were right where we left them at gear pick-up ( spot on the ground) and we had a short walk to the car right across from the start. The logistics of this course could not have been any easier, including the convenient packet pick-up which was at the Mesquite finish line.

                                                 Double Marathon Weekend Accomplished!!!!

We met some wonderful people, had really good volunteers, and excellent snacks along the way. This race is definitely a favorite and should be on any marathoners bucket list. Don't let the elevation scare you. Just go there expecting to run in the beauty with no worries about time.  Our favorite saying with this race was on the shirt.... Beauty, it's a beast!!!!

After the race, we said our goodbyes, promised to run the St. George marathon with our SLC buddies next year, and headed to Vegas to the Hard Rock hotel. Once there we ate at Pinks tacos and has some yummy celebratory champagne margaritas. Then we went to the spa for much needed massages and went to sleep. Up at 4 am for the planes to head for home. The Epic weekend over. But what a fun one it was. And the theme for the weekend.... Just Keep Moving.

Mesquite Tri-States Marathon 11/19/11

Mesquite Tri-States Marathon

6 miles in Utah, 17 in Arizona, and 3.2 in Nevada- we counted this for the state of Arizona

November 19, 2011

Finish Time: 5:21:13
Day 1 of the Double Marathon Weekend

Sometime over the summer Stacey sent an email to Tracy with a link to the double marathon weekend in Nevada with the Mesquite Marathon on Day 1 and Valley of Fire Marathon for Day 2. The title of the email was, "If we were crazy, we could...." Intriguing, yes. Scary, yes. Fun, yes. Marathon Maniac Status, most definitely. 

And so we contemplated for months, especially since we knew the races would not sell out. There is no cap because they are so small and relatively unknown, and the Valley of Fire elevation chart is enough to scare anyone out of it altogether. But, the reviews for the Mesquite and Valley of Fire on marathon guide are great.  The idea of running through 3 states sounded so fun and the mesquite elevation looks fairly tame (however the elevation profile is a bit skewed because the hills at the second half are much bigger than you would expect- more on that later though). Meanwhile the Valley of Fire looked tough but breathtakingly beautiful. Every one who ran and reviewed it said the beauty was a big distraction. This was very true.

We decided to wait on registration until after the Chicago marathon (10/9/11) to see how we were feeling, especially since we had already registered for the Vegas RnR race on 12/4/11, just two weeks after the double. Four marathons in two months was a lofty goal...but attainable.

Chicago went well and the idea of the double kept calling us, especially since they said it was the only time they would ever be offered back to back. Note: The feedback and energy from all of the back/back runners were so high that they are considering keeping this double weekend next year. 

The races were also fairly inexpensive for registration so we jumped in two feet first!!!!

The Expo

Races this small never really have much of an expo. We both flew into the Vegas airport on Friday night, rented a tiny cheap red car and headed to mesquite Nevada.

                                                  Stacey and our little car

We arrived to the Casa Blanca (race headquarters hotel) at exactly 10 minutes until 8:00 p.m. after the hour and fifteen minute drive. We wanted to get our packets the night before so we sprinted to the tent and grabbed our race bags with the bibs and shirts. The shirts are red with the mesquite logo on them (see the top of this post), cute and nice. When we got our packets we were super excited and decided to only think about each race at a time. First, we had Mesquite on Saturday. We wouldn't even think about the Valley of Fire with the infamous "Hill of Hell" until Saturday night, after the mesquite was finished.

Well.... that line of thinking was stopped when the lady giving us our bag asked if we were doing both and then told us that the Mesquite was beautiful with some hills, but the Valley of Fire was spectacular with hills that only very serious runners would tackle. Hmmmm.... are we in that category?.... don't think so..... which meant nightmares all night about the hills.

We awoke at 5:00 ready to get to the bus that we had to be on by 5:30 am. We checked out of the hotel, gave our bags to the hotel staff, and made our way to the buses. 

The Bus Ride

"Who traveled the farthest?" yelled out a red headed tall and very skinny lady who was sitting with her husband next to us. This was the first set of friends we made. A couple from North Carolina who run races all over the country- they are trying to reach 50 state status too and they bring their two kids. They are also training for their first ultra (100 mile run in North Carolina). They were the farthest and also running the double, along with a few others on our bus.

The fun part of racing is the time you get to talk to other runners about races they've done, funny stories, etc. We chatted it up until we got there. We were driven up to the start in Utah.

The Start Line

You know you are at a small race when.... the race starting line is chalk drawn on the ground. This was the start of the Mesquite. There was only about 4 Porta Johns out there too which wasn't enough with about 100 racers who all had to go at the start.

                                                  Waiting at the start

There was a DJ there and some very yummy whole grain bars with water. We ate, talked, and got ready to start the race.

The Race

At 7:00 am off we went. The race starts in Utah and runs for 6 miles in the state. It was beautiful because you are running mostly downhill amongst all of these Joshua and Yukka trees. It reminded us a bit of Dr. Seuss Lorax trees.

We knew we had two days of races so we agreed that we would take both days easy, run at a moderate 10 minute mile pace, stop for pictures, talk, have fun, and walk any big hills. 

After 6 miles we saw the Arizona sign and then went along a long straight road through Arizona for 17 miles. We saw runners here and there, some we passed, or some passed us. Everyone seemed to be having fun talking and enjoying the scenery.

                                                   Somewhere in Utah

                                                           Arizona!

We met some guys from the Salt Lake Running Club who were in their 60's and also doing the doubles. Very inspiring! Three of them were running, and the fourth was walking. One of them, Larry, stopped and took pictures for us along the way which was very nice.

The first 13 miles are basically either downhill or very flat so we ran through it all and at some times ran faster than we planned but it was such an easy course to do that with. Right around mile 13 we hit a pretty big hill and felt bad for the half marathoners because that is where they started. They didn't have the downhill start we had.

There are no major landmarks in this race. It is really straight road, no turns until the end when you are in Mesquite, NV near the finish. It was almost ominous in some ways, like we were on a training run together. People were miles apart from each other and for the majority of the middle of the race everyone had their pace and were in their spot. So, we talked a lot, laughed, and just had a great time. At one point it was eery because one of us (Stacey) felt the need to scare the other one (Me- Tracy) about the horror movie The Hills Have Eyes. At any moment some crazy zombie could run at us and attack. Imagines can run wild when you have 26.2 miles of time.

We were just out there in the middle of nowhere following mile marker signs and coming up on aid stations every 2 miles. It was unique for sure. Nothing like the big races we had run in the past. Up until this point, Colorado was the smallest race we had done with 2,000 marathoners.

No spectators obviously, but the aid stations and volunteers were great! They had GU, water, Heed, gummy bears, pretzels, and bananas. At one station they had no cups though....so we were told to just give a pull form the jug. Hmmmmm.. runners are funny aren't they?

Arizona had some beautiful views, like the pictures above. This was in some canyons we ran through. We continued to run and stop for pictures, walk the big hills (which did exist). In fact, several people said the course elevation profile looked a bit skewed. There were pretty large hills at the second half. But then nothing like what we had coming the next day.

We entered Nevada at mile 23 so we were almost there. This was probably the only part of the course that was just okay. We entered Mesquite and had to run along the city streets, even through a parking lot at one point. They had good mile markers and police stationed, but it was still odd.

                                        Entering Nevada, Arizona sign is behind

We weaved through the streets of Mesquite for the last 3.2 miles and then as we got closer to the finish we ran up a curb and into the convention center/tent where we picked up our packets the night before.

It was the most unique finish we ever ran because as you ran from the sun into the dark tent, all you saw was the marathon clock and the finish line of balloons. There were people cheering with cow bells and beer at the end. And we were done.

There were free massages at the finish tent so we got quick massages, picked up our packets for the Valley of Fire there (same race directors so that was very convenient.

Next we decided we wanted to watch the new Twilight movie- New Dawn. Yes the idea of eating big bags of popcorn, watching a movie, and sitting in comfy clothes sounded great.

We changed in the cars into some swishy pants, sweatshirts, slider shoes and off we went to the movie theatre that was .2 miles away.

What a day it was! Great run, a lot of fun, and at this point very excited for Day 2 of the double weekend. Bring it!

Chicago Marathon 10/9/11

Chicago Marathon
October 9, 2011
Finish Time: 4:41:43

The Expo:

The expo was located at the McCorrmick Convention Center. We picked up our race packets and t-shirts (nice white short sleeve techs) and then headed to the vendors. First stop was the Nike race apparel of course, especially since they tend to sell out of small sizes fast. There were a lot of choices, long sleeves, short sleeves, techs or cotton, jackets, hats, water bottles. You name it- Nike thought of it. We opted for long sleeve race jackets and a short sleeve cotton t-shirt. Both cute. The jackets are perfect to run it too- pocket and all.

Next stops were the dozens of other vendors. We talked to Rock ‘n’ Roll and tried to find out who the headliner will be in Vegas but she wouldn’t budge. We should know soon though…. We hope. She was pretty excited about Miami though and said it will be the biggest headliner they have ever had. Hmmmmm…..

The usual vendors were there, so we ate our way through…. Cliff (who surprised us with great granola bars), kefir (great froyo), smuckers natural peanut butter (not bad), nuun sports drink (pink lemonade and tropical are the best), larabars, and a really good protein bar that came in a white chocolate/caramel or peanut butter/jelly (also chocolate flavors too).  Wish we remembered the name of them.

Then we shopped our way through…. Got more arm light bands (nite beams), and headbands with martini glasses for Vegas (Razzy Roo headbands- they say they never slip off unless you have a tiny head like one of us does who shall remain nameless but you have a 50% chance of getting it right).

We walked through the whole thing and took our time, about 3 hours…very fun. Then we boarded the shuttle and headed back to the hotel.

Highlight of Chicago’s Great Places We Visited:

·      Sprinkles cupcakes (yum)

·      Garrett’s Popcorn (Chicago blend is a must and pumpkin  

     caramel)- you smell the place two blocks away (double yum)

·      Gino’s Pizza East (Chicago stuffed- takes about 45 min-1 hr. to 

    make but well worth it

·      Shopping on the miracle mile (lululemon, Nordstroms, Macy’s, Ann 

    Taylor, Nike…..)

·      Bowls  (Asian food and best gingerail ever!!- They make it from 

    scratch there). This was a great post race lunch spot

·      Texas Brazzilian steakhouse (fantastic salad bar and meats- our 

    post race dinner spot)

    Downtown dogs (great Chicago style hot dogs)

                                Dinner at Fortnetto Mei the night before the race with our parents

The Race:

We woke up at 5:45, dressed, and headed out to Michigan Avenue to walk to the start at 6:15. It was still dark and there were thousands of other runners on the way. Everyone had their gels clipped to them, bibs on, nervous energy… the marathon buzz was beginning. We got a few odd looks as we were wearing flannel throw aways in case it was chilly at the start. We’ve obviously never run a marathon in such warm weather conditions. One of the photographers looked at us and said, “You’re throwing those away after you start right?” 

We knew it would be a hot day:

Gatorade was one of the sponsors so they were giving out their prime drink, which we love so we got some and then we headed out to our wave with the mass marathoners. This one is big, like NYC (50,000 runners) so the energy is fierce!! The corrals closed right at 7 and they weren't joking because people were jumping over into them at the last minute. We starting with the national anthem as usual and then we were off. 

We started out a little too fast which is easy to do with such a big race. The numbers of runners and the spectators can easily distract from the pacing. It didn't take long to warm up, in fact, it happened immediately once we ran through a tunnel at the start. It felt pretty hot at that moment with all of those bodies in a tunnel. We ran through the city and under a lot of bridges.  

Chicago is known for being flat and fast. We both agreed that it isn't as fast as people think because of the sheer volume of people.... and there were hills. Not big ones, but they were there. 

The spectators were easily the best part of the race. They were there for the entire race, from start to finish, much like NYC. We ran through Boys town at Mile 7. One of the best parts was running along Adams street at miles 13-15. It is a long street lined by sky scrapers- very cool when you look ahead and see the thousands of runners heads ahead of you. Of course we also started on Columbus drive and finished at the park there. Mile 17 was Little Italy. It was great running through tunnels or whenever we ran by the L (their rapid transit system). People would be sitting on the bridges cheering us on.

                                                                Mile 15- feeling great!

The weather at Chicago is known for being sporadic with either really hot (one year in 2007 it reached record breaking temps in the 90's and forced runners to stop and get hospitalized), or really cold (the following year there was freezing rain and snow on the ground). 

This time we ran it in the low 80's which felt pretty hot. The race crew, volunteers, and spectators were awesome though! They turned on fire extinguishers, had baby pools filled with wet sponges, passed out ice, set up sprinklers, passed out ample water and gatorade, had fans, and basically did everything to keep us cool. One of the best sites was some guy with a big hose and a bag of water strapped to his back and he just sprayed everyone who ran by him. It was as if the whole city was out there in the heat with the sole goal to help us race and finish strong.  

Mile 21 and feeling great

                                                               Mile 21 and feeling great

We made sure we ran through every single sprinkler in site and at each water station we took 2 cups of water, one to drink and the other to pour on our heads. Our hair would be soaked and then literally dry by the next half mile. But we had great support from all of the spectators and our parents came along with their Sisters on the Run sign.

Our Mom made that sign when we ran NYC and that is the best marathon sign ever!!!! We have a pretty good routine now. The night before the race we pick out the spots they will be at, then when we get within 1/2 mile of the spot, we each take one side of the road and look for them. Without a hitch we spot that sign ahead and run for it. There are two sides to it. One is Go Sisters on the Run! The other is the one in the picture to the left above.

We spotted the parentals (AKA Sisters on the Run race crew) at Mile 21 and we were in the home stretch. It was hot and people were starting to look pretty beat. Our mom was hilarious because in front of all these runners she shouts, "Wow you two look great you should see some of these guys!" We took the compliment, hugged them, and told them we would see them at the finish festival. 

The best cheer section was right after that around Mile 23, there was a group of women dancing and singing for us. It was awesome. We kept on running and going through sprinklers until we got close. At the end they had Nike inspiration signs, a jumbo tron and signs saying "1 more mile," "1/2 mile left" "800 meters left", etc. Very cool to see! But not as nice as that Finish line. It was great to cross and get our bling. Then we made our way through the finish line where they had bags of ice and fans blowing. They also had the heat blankets which we grabbed out of habit, only to immediately tear it off when it felt like our skin was baking under it. We got our beers and walked to meet our race crew in the park. They had bands playing and tons of runners relaxing. All in all, it was a great one!