Race Report: Soldier Field 10 mile

We woke up at 5:30 this morning to get ready for the race. Cassie and I picked up Jon and Sara at 6 a.m. and we drove downtown to the race start at Soldier Field. After some traffic near the museum campus we were able to park easily and walk up to the start with about 25 minutes to spare. The weather was perfect for a distance race in the low 50s at the start. I thought I would need a long sleeved shirt, but I ended up going with a short-sleeved shirt right before we began. This ended up being a great decision as it warmed up very quickly during the race with the sun out and no cloud cover.

The race started at 7:30 a.m. There were about 7,500 runners, so it took us about 8-9 minutes just to get past the starting line and it was slow-moving during the first mile. The race course headed south along Lake Shore Drive for about 4 and a half miles and then cut back and returned north to Soldier Field, with a fantastic race finish on the 50 yard line.

My goal was to finish the race in less than 90 minutes, since I just missed that mark by 7 seconds during the Lakefront 10 miler a month earlier. My strategy was similar to the LF10; keeping a nice easy close to 9 min. pace for the first 7 miles or so and then pushing it on the last 3.

I felt really good during the race. I spent alot of time and energy weaving around other runners and passing them, but it was sort of a fun game to keep my mind occupied. It was really a beautiful course. I particularly liked heading north on the lakeshore path with a great view of the skyline. I never run much further south than Navy Pier so it was a treat to be running on new ground. Around mile 7 I knew that I'd have to pick it up to make it in under 90 minutes. I felt fine until about the last half-mile when I was feeling a little sick and mentally exhausted. When I emerged onto the field I saw that I had about a minute to spare and so I kicked it into the 50 yard line and finished the race in a chip time of 1:29:34 with 26 seconds to spare. I hadnt eaten anything before the race so I was really nauseated and hungry and the Gatorade wasnt sitting well. It didnt really help to get ushered into the crowded, hot concourse and I had a hard time finding some recovery snacks, but eventually we found it and were on our way.

The stats according to my watch (they vary slightly from my chip time):
Average lap: 8:58 miles
Splits:
Mile 1: 10:00
Mile 2: 9:15
Mile 3: 9:03
Mile 4: 9:28
Mile 5: 8:58
Mile 6: 9:10
Mile 7: 8:58
Mile 8: 8:35
Mile 9: 8:19
Mile 10: 7:51

How's that for some nice negative splits? All in all, a great race. I still can't imagine keeping this pace for an entire marathon, but with some speedwork and tempo runs this summer, that is exactly what I want to accomplish at the Chicago Marathon. This was my last race before Grandma's Marathon on June 21. Cassie and I have our 20 mile run this weekend while were up in the Twin Cities, and then there is nothing left but the taper.