Chicago Lakefront 50K
three laps along chicago’s lakefront. each lap a bit further than ten miles.
begin northbound into a headwind for five miles then head back with the aid of a tailwind.
runners set. go.
four miles. detour to a bathroom. over hydrated. wonderful.
six miles. music player says “battery low.” power off. save it for later.
eight miles. detour again. same bathroom. over hydrated. great.
first lap finished. stop at the porta-john. seriously. over. hydrated.
second lap. into the wind. loud music would be nice right about now. focus on downing GU to avoid the bonk.
turn around. southbound again. a brief appearance by the sun while the tailwind assists. more GU chased with H2O.
third lap. this will hurt. fetch water bottle filled with defizzed cola. head down. cap reversed so it won’t sail into the lake.
final turn around. five (plus) miles to go. refill the water bottle at the aid station with more cola. power on the music player. turn the volume up. way up.
blow past the last aid station without stopping. slowly imbibe the high fructose corn syrup powered beverage. music player battery dies.
watch beeps. twenty nine miles. sub-four out of reach. personal record all but assured.
set cruise control. ease into the finish.
Finish: 4:03:02
Avg pace: 7:49 per mile
Overall: 9th/143
M40-49: 2nd/26
Splits
Mile Split Elapsed 1 7:50.6 7:50.6 2 7:47.1 15:37.7 3 7:44.7 23:22.4 4 8:12.9 31:35.3 <-- break #1 5 7:40.3 39:15.6 6 7:36.4 46:52.0 7 7:25.9 54:17.9 8 8:05.3 1:02:23.2 <-- break #2 9 7:31.7 1:09:54.9 10 7:39.2 1:17:34.1 11 8:52.1 1:26:26.2 <-- break #3 12 7:57.8 1:34:24.0 13 8:25.6 1:42:49.6 14 8:16.7 1:51:06.3 15 7:56.7 1:59:03.0 16 7:59.1 2:07:09.5 17 7:30.8 2:14:32.9 18 7:39.8 2:22:12.7 19 7:09.9 2:29:30.0 20 7:12.3 2:36:42.3 21 7:50.9 2:44:22.8 22 7:52.1 2:52:17.9 23 8:07.8 3:00:25.7 24 8:04.8 3:08:30.5 25 8:02.5 3:16:33.0 26 8:28.4 3:25:01.4 27 7:26.0 3:32:27.4 28 7:03.5 3:39:30.9 29 7:15.6 3:46:46.5 30 7:44.0 3:54:30.5 31 7:58.6 4:02:29.1 .1 0:33.5 4:03:02.6