Embrace the Suck - Rock n Roll Chicago 5K and Half Marathon 2015

"Embrace the suck": Translation: The situation is bad, but deal with it.

Those of you who've met us know that we don't like heat and humidity. We lived in Wisconsin for 6 summers (or road construction seasons, as the locals call it) and all I could remember was wanting to get back to California for their usually moderate/wimpy conditions.

So when Coach Al gave me a training program to start getting faster at the 5K distance, the assignment was to hit the 5K hard on Saturday and take it relatively easy on the half on Sunday. Naturally, we pick the hottest race day of the 2015 year to do this.

Ugh

We landed in Chicago mid Friday afternoon with just enough time to get to the last 15 minutes of the expo to pick up bibs for the weekend. Many of the vendors had packed up for the day. Susan had been dealing with plantar fasciitis for a few months and opted out of the 5K on Saturday. While the Remix medal was a nice to have, the half is the only thing that matters for Hall of Fame this year. That and she'd have the luxury of having a few drinks at dinner  Friday night and sleeping in on race weekend for once. Caryn joined us for the weekend. We're hoping to see more of her in the second half of the year with the races on the west coast.

The 5K started near the boat house on the edge of the lake. Temperatures were already in low 70's and there wasn't a lot of shade on the out and back course. This was another great race for the Gypsies who came out in force.

I started out about a third of the way through the corrals and got swept up in the pace, walking a 10:13 first mile. Let's ignore for a minute that my previous PR for a mile on flat ground was 10:20, and that I had 2.1 miles left. Al was playing pacer/Sherpa this race and ran ahead to grab water and clear a few tangents. The second mile through the park slowed to a 10:46, close to my half marathon PR pace. The third mile started on the water, but even though I could see the finish line, I was feeling the pain of going out too quickly. By 2.5, I'd slowed to just over 11 minute miles.

At that point, Al reminded me how much work I'd put in for the last month and how many mental barriers I got through. I started cycling between 11 minute miles and 9:30 bursts. At mile 3, the course goes by a boat house and you see the finish line for the last 0.12. Al was reminding me to concentrate on form and push for the last quarter mile. It'd be a real bummer if I missed my time by a few seconds. The last split came in at an 8:59 pace, peaking in the last 40 yards at just under 8 minute pace. 

And I cut another 15 seconds off my 5K PR, heat and all. It took me a little while to get my head around what that meant, but when I realized that was like taking over a minute off a half marathon PR, I was totally stoked.

We spent the next half hour cheering in the rest of the Gypsies and a big contingent of TeamUp. It's been awhile since we were part of the cheer squad and it was a great feeling to walk people in, especially some who were clearly finishing their first race.

Also new this race was Rock n Roll's #PartyRocker group. Like Kelvin Sapp from the old SA2LV group, Bill Kwok now leads a few dozen people who carry their own music to motivate people during the races. Look for them at the RNR's for the rest of the year if you need to keep your spirits up.

One race in the bag. Temperatures climbing into the high 80s with humidity. My legs were dead from a hard effort on the 5K, but I couldn't help but smile. When you're with this group of people, how can you not?

I never made it back to the Expo but Susan went back to grab a few more sundries and pick up a present from Marcey at Sport Hooks. I'll post a picture when I figure out where to hang it on the wall.

We had thundershowers Saturday afternoon. We missed most of them since we were inside a theater watching Minions in 3D. How better to beat the heat and stay off your feet to rest? We had a few Gypsy dinners scattered around Chicago. Here's the group from Noodles & Co. Tawni, Tamie, Rick and Rhonda have been MIA for a few months at other races and it was great to catch up with them.

The 6:30 AM Sunday start time gave us the best chance to beat the heat. For Chicago, they offered a pair of RNR sunglasses if you beat your best time on the course. Given the heat, I wasn't sure how popular that was going to be. We were ready with cooling sleeves and were stopping for ice as many times as we saw it. Al was having some issues that morning that we traced back to something he ate at Noodles.

Fortunately, just about every one of our Gypsy friends were in town for this one. It's starting to get to that point where I need to be more creative with the group selfies. Al gave me some toys to play with for the next few races. Stay tuned.

We're a pretty awesome looking bunch, if I do say so myself!

We've done Chicago enough times to know a few things. It's flat. It's hot. It goes across a few bridges with tricky surfaces. The tunnel at McCormick can be super stuffy, especially since it's so late in the race. None of this changed in 2015, but I chose to give the sunglasses incentive a shot. Back in 2011, this was the first half marathon where I walked under a 12 minute mile pace. We met up for a quick picture with Amy who we met at The Biggest Loser RunWalk Crown Point. She's over halfway through crossing off 7 new states with half marathons this year.

My first 9 miles went pretty well. Imagine my surprise when I actually caught up to Al at mile 10, Noodles still not agreeing with him. I guess everyone has a race where things just don't go right and Chicago is Al's nemesis. Fortunately, he was able to gut it out. 

Literally.

OK, I think I can make it now!

That last mile on Columbus felt like it lasted forever, but I walked in at just under 2:33, 3 minutes better than my previous course record. Given what was going on this weekend, I was more than happy with it. 

We were even happier with the set of bling. For a bunch of us, this was the 10th Rock n Roll race of 2015 and the biggest Heavy Medal awarded to date - the Gold Record. This replaced the previous Rock Idol 10-race medal and I think it was a really cool upgrade by CGI. This makes 5 years in a row for Susan and I getting to the 10 mark. Add that to the 5K medal and the Remix and this was a four medal weekend!

Susan finished the half and had time to catch up with Barbie from TeamUP. They met two years ago when Susan helped Barbie cut a half hour off her previous fastest time. Barbie did the 5K on Saturday and the 10K on Sunday, not bad for a lady who wasn't able to finish the half three years ago!

Chicago marks a long break in the Rock n Roll schedule between the middle to late July and the start of October for Rock n Roll San Jose. The European RNR's haven't hit our radar since we've crossed off the continent for full marathons and Virginia Beach is even less appealing weather-wise than Chicago ever will be. We picked up three races to fill the schedule and may stay on track to join the 100 Half Marathon club by the end of the year.

This isn't a bad half way point for the year. I just hope the wall holds up to the weight of the medals.

~//~

This is the sixth time we've raced Rock n Roll Chicago, missing only the inaugural race in 2009. We've used this race as a mid-summer cool down after San Diego and Seattle, taking part in George Melichar's Moving Art Museum in 2014 as well as using the race to practice walker pacing for Nike San Francisco in 2010. Add to the fact that there's a lot of cool things to see in the city, it makes it a regular location for us, despite how much I complain about the heat.

The July - September slow period lets us work on speed and form or take time to heal and recuperate before things get really nuts in October. This was half marathon #90 leaving 10 more to finish in 2015 including six half marathons in seven weeks in five different states followed by our usual two half marathons in the same day in different states.

We look forward to embracing the suck.

Find us on Facebook at Marathoning For Life

Chasing a Dream - Rock 'n' Roll Chicago 2014

"Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the Running Man." Christopher McDougall, Born to Run

George Melichar has a lot of dreams. What sets him apart from the crowd is that he works hard enough to see a lot of them come true. We were there to see this happen at Rock n Roll Chicago 2014.

George had been working with Project Onward (Project Onward on Facebook), a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the career development of visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Located at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago, Project Onward provides professional opportunities to artists who have exceptional abilities but face challenges ranging from autism to mental illness. Society makes allowances for juveniles with special needs, but once they turn 18, the resources are scarce. Project Onward fills a need for these individuals.

It was a quick trip for us, taking off from Oakland early Saturday morning, landing at Chicago Midway at noon, heading to the Expo for a few quick things then straight to the Project Onward Gallery. There were 10 of us in all. Each had a shirt painted by a different artist. 

At the Project Onward Gallery. 10 runners and walkers and six of the 10 artists.

George picked a great group. Brian (aka. Pavement Runner), Michael (pointonemiles) and John all met Geo at the big SA2LV event last November along with Beth, Jim, Susan and me. Amelia Sawyer, a gallery employee, joined us for the event. It was shaping up to be a long day and with the 6:30 AM start, we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

Susan's shirt was painted by Bill Douglas. Susan spent a long time talking to Bill at the studio and about the significance of the symmetry and the bees on the back. "By being in touch with nature through his art, Bill is getting more in touch with himself."

Michael Bryant painted my shirt. His favorite subject is "People and what life does to them"

Getting to the starting line was a lot less of an adventure than last year. We took a group pic just ahead of the starting line a half hour before the gun.

Dang. We look good.

We did our best to stay together as a group, even with most of the group being sub-2 hour half marathoners, Susan and I in the mid-2's at best and Michelle nursing a recent leg aggravation. We made it easier by taking breaks at the mile markers for some photo ops...

...and calisthenics. 

Michael and Mindy with a donut cameo.

If the shirts didn't attract attention by themselves, we sure did.

A lot of things went through my mind that day. Probably the thing that's going to stick with me was late in the race when I was next to George. He was talking about two years ago when he first met the folks at Project Onward and came up with the idea. The last few months had been a flurry of activity in the design and painting of the race shirts. He said that then 10 of us willing to race with him was a blessing. It's us, and the rest of the world, that was blessed this day.

Swiped from Pavement Runner's race report. It's a great read.

Some of the artists met us at the finish line. The shirts and our bibs were returned to Project Onward to be some day put into an exhibit. With any luck, the shirts will travel the country as much as we have, raising awareness for such a great cause.

George kicked off his next two projects this week. He'll be striving to raise $100,000 for the Hard Rock Foundations IMAGINE there's no hunger campaign in collaboration with Yoko Ono Lennon and WhyHunger. He's also close to finalizing a world record attempt. Details on the latter should be coming soon.

I, for one, can't wait to see them.

Talk about chasing a dream. I didn't think I'd ever do that literally.

~//~

Rock 'n' Roll Chicago has been under the CGI banner for 6 years. There were 13754 finishers for the Half (median finish time of 2:17), and 1901 for the 5K. This year's event added a 5K on Saturday (1162 finishers) that offered a bonus medal for completing the Saturday 5K with the Half on Sunday. There were also a handful of crazy SA2LV alum who did the 5K on Saturday, the 5K on Sunday which started at the same time as the Half and made it back to the corrals in time to do the Half. Kelvin, Justin and Shannon also earned one of the Heavy Medals for the Half, so they collected a total of 5 medals each for the weekend. Not bad considering all three races were included under the TourPass!

This was our 5th time at RNR Chicago. Most of them were last minute decisions or because we were in the area that weekend anyway. Since it's usually close to RNR San Diego and Seattle, we rarely make it an A race. The typical Midwest heat and humidity make it more challenging anyway. This year's race started in the mid 60's and ended in the mid 70's.

The course had a few changes with an early diversion east to Lakeshore before weaving through the city like previous years. We merged onto Michigan Avenue closer to the center of Grant Park and had a short loop south in Lake Meadows park before heading back up the narrow Lakefront Trail. While it's a flat course, some of the sections of the race can be described as a 'good character building experience'.

More pictures of RNR Chicago and the Moving Art Museum are on the blogs by Brian (Pavement Runner). I'll be linking to Michael's (PointOneMiles) when I see it.

This was Susan's 12th half marathon in 2014 and her 67th lifetime. With everything going on, we also missed that it was her 50th Rock 'n' Roll event. Ron is at 11 half marathons for the year, 65 lifetime and will hit his 50th Rock 'n' Roll in Philadelphia in September.

We haven't signed up for RNR Chicago 2015 yet, but with TourPass 2015 already paid for and Southwest Companion Pass coming as soon as next week, it could be a foregone conclusion.