Soldier Field 10 Mile

So  Saturday, May 26th, I ran the Soldier Field 10 Mile race and I have to say, it was an awesome experience.  The race started just south of Soldier Field at the corner of Waldron And Museum campus Drive.  According to the announcers there were around 10,000 participants in the race, and every branch of the armed services were represented.  I thought this was especially nice since it was Memorial day weekend.  The announcer shared some stories with all of us of some veterans that were in attendance.  Next came the National Anthem.  Now one of my pet peeves is people who are noisy or disrespectful during the National Anthem.  Not so at this race.  The mood was boisterous but when the National Anthem started, the crowd went silent.  I have been to many sporting events both professional and amateur and have never witnessed a crowd so quiet and respectful during the National Anthem.

Race time.  Racers were divided into 15 different corrals based on projected finish time.  I was honest when I registered and was aiming for 1 hour and 40 minutes which is a 10 minute/mile so i was placed in corral #11.  Corrals 1-7 were on museum Campus Drive and corrals 8-15 were on Waldron.

At the Start, they allowed the first corral to go and then waited a minute or so before letting the next corral go.  This continued until finally my corral was called to the starting line 35 minutes after the first had started.  The race started off kind of dark and gloomy and it had been threatening to rain all morning.  The race started off kind of slow for me since I was crammed in on the road with hundreds of other people but when the crowd started to thin a bit I was able to push a little harder and make up some time.

After the first 2 miles or so my legs had loosened up quite a bit and I was making decent time.  By th e mile 5 marker though , my quads were burning and kept tightening up.  Just before the mile 5 marker was the turn around and I finally got to run with a nice lake view.  The breeze coming off the lake was cool and refreshing and helped me catch my second wind.  The trail narrowed and widened a few times and I found myself running not on the pavement but on the crushed stone on the side of the path.  It was softer and was not as jarring on my joints, plus there was less traffic.  My legs were burning but I was still keeping my pace.

At the 8 mile mark I was really feeling my legs burning.  I could have easily stopped and walked the rest of the way, but then Soldier Field came into view and filled me with adrenaline.  I figured if I saw everyone else running, I wasn't going to be the only one walking, so I kept pushing.  Finally, we got to the tunnel that was our entrance to Soldier Field.  Everyone went running through, there was high fives and cheering from all the runners.  We ran down the players tunnel that the Chicago Bears use and chills ran down my spine.  Then, I stepped out onto the field and felt the turf beneath my feat and I sped up.  I wanted to finish strong.

I crossed the finish line on the 50 yard line with a time of 1:39:13.  That was a 9:56 min/mile pace.  Right were I wanted to be.  After I crossed, exhaustion set in.  My legs didn't want to work any more and I was stumbling around.  I grabbed a bottle of water and was headed for the tunnel when I heard my wife and friend Steve.  They were sitting in the stands watching.  I walked out of the tunnel and got my finishers medal and met them off to the side.

We hung around for a while walking around and seeing what venders were ther, but I was so tired and hungry, we ended up leaving to get lunch shortly after.  It is now 3 days after the race and my legs are finally getting back to normal.  I may even be able to do some running after work.  If I have learned nothing else, it is that I need more training.  I thought I was going to breeze though this race because I have run 10 mile on my own before, but running on your own, and running in a race are very different.  I have a lot of training to do.  I hope I am not this sore after my Half-Marathon in July.