Today was the inaugural Women Rock Chicago race series presented by Team Ortho.  The series offered a half marathon, 10K and 5K so basically you and ALL your girlfriends could go and enjoy one of the distances.  The event had a fun theme and provided  AHHHHMAZING swag so that drew in a lot of ladies for the inaugural event!  Since I ran specifically for the swag, I’ll just put that up now and get it out of the way.  Women Rock Tech full zip jacket, sliver finishers pendant with a small ruby & large “W” (valued at $110), and a champagne glass.

The race was a women’s themed event so my girlfriends and I used that as an excuse to dust off our sparkle skirts!!  Michelle, Nicki, Dawn, April & I showing off our “sparkle”.  🙂

The half marathoner started at 8am with the 10K and 5K participants following at 8:30 am.  The course was the typical Chicago Lakefront Trail run so I fully anticipated it to be 1) crowded, 2)  slow and 3) have lots of newbie runners that are “all in” for theme more so than the running.  I was not disappointed.  I was not running for time, in fact needed to keep myself in check and run a controlled, focused race that didn’t push my endurance or stir up too much lactic acid so that I can run our F’N 20 miler tomorrow with my run club.  I managed to do that and to be honest the crowds helped.  I did find myself in the outside lane all most of the time passing a lot of other runners but when I looked at my watch, I was in a comfortable range, felt good and was definitely controlled so just kept moving forward and passing.  In fact, I kinda chuckled once the half marathoners ran up on the back of the 10K participants.  I knew they had joined us and that did in fact add to the congestion but they were staying to the right so I just kept moving past them.  I passed a couple ladies and one said to the other, “Wow, they are running fast!”.  Her friend said, “Yes, THEY are running the half”.  Made me chuckle cuz the runners I know have a much faster 10K than half marathon pace.  However, the new people on the trail were refreshing and I enjoyed interacting with them and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED seeing all the sparkle skirts, tutus & my F’N run club friends who came out to run!!

The aid stations were plentiful, every 2-3 miles.  They offered water and a blue electrolyte drink.  As much as I like blue ANYTHING, I passed due to my sensitive tummy.  Lots of potties too.  Volunteers were plentiful but some of the aid stations were short.  I had to backtrack one time to get water.

Typical Lakefront Trail view.  Beautiful.  Some shade and a breeze once we headed back north.    A course that was a bit of a maze for the half marathoners:   One sidewalk loop around Grant Park to get onto the Lakefront Trail heading north, turnaround at the Riverwalk (just south of Navy Pier), run south to 31st Street Harbor, then back north to the Riverwalk, then return to Grant Park to run the sidewalk loop again to the finish.  No my favorite course by far.  A bit of confusion at the end once we hit Grant Park, especially toward the end when the crowds thinned out for the half.  However, overall it was a decent race. 

Bottom line, I’m a ROAD RUNNER for a reason.  I prefer a fast street route where we bust thru the CHI like the pros.  Most of the themed races are designed for the masses, not for running fast.  I wouldn’t run this race if my objective was to run fast (between the race participants, the bikers, the normal runners, dog walkers and rollerbladers it was VERY busy).  This is a race designed for FUN so just enjoy it!

Best part, hanging with my friends at the finish!

** Women Rock ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **