Half Marathon from Hell!

Today I ran in the Chicago Rock n Roll half marathon. From the start, nothing seemed to be going right, which was not a good sign for the rest of the race. The nerdy GPS watch I wear (tells me my distance and pace) was totally messed up, saying that I was running a 4 minute mile. I figured that the buildings were blocking the signal, but I was really disappointed when my watch said that I had already ran 4.96 miles when I hadn't even reached mile 3! So, I had to restart the watch and was never really able to tell how far I'd gone, but most importantly, how much I had left. My stomach was upset for the whole race, the tank top I decided to wear chafed my arms to pieces (until I was finally able to get some Vaseline at mile 9), and there were no water stops between mile 9 and 12! I thought I was going to pass out from dehydration! The only good news is that I somehow shaved a minute off my time, which is a complete fluke considering that I thought I was so under pace (and had no clue because my watch wasn't working).
I'm not too sore (thanks to my three and a half hour nap after the race), but I expect to be pretty stiff tomorrow. Sometimes I wonder to myself why I do these races -- who in their right mind would run 13.1 miles for fun? Apparently me, since this is my third so far this year, and I have two more planned before the end of the year. Hopefully the next two will be better (and less painful).

Smiling through the pain.

Almost to the finish! I look happy, but inside I'm saying the worst of curse words.

Kristen and me -- this was Kristen's second race ever (and first half marathon),
and she did awesome!

Hobbling to the el. Ouch.