Rocking & Rolling on Race Day

Sunday morning...and when I say morning...I mean early enough where to some people it could very well be Saturday night still...the Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series was to begin! Now I'm used to early race days, but waking up at 4a.m. for a race is never going to happen again. My friend and I had a LOVELY time trying to park in our reserved spot since they basically started closing off the whole fricken Loop hours beforehand. When we finally made it and we lined up in our corrals, it was quite an amazing site to see how many thousands of people participated!

This was behind me...

And this was in front of me!

I'm pretty sure this was the largest race I've ever participated in and it definitely gave me the biggest running high ever. PLUS my friend and I stopped off at Sports Authority the night before and we discovered the best running compression capris EVER. Runners, I was not paid to say this, Under Armour's Women's UA Fly-By Compression Capris are the BEST. The best part is that I didn't even feel like I was wearing any pants and post-race, I was feelin' even better in them. Zero sweat and fuss. Sports Authority only has them for sale in store right now, but feel free to get them on Amazon too for $36.99! A STEAL. But really, new workout/race wear is primo motivation for me.

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Once my friend and I found out how amazing these were, we had to buy another pair. I bought these bad boys in their "Neo Pulse" color. How much win is this? A lot. I'm pretty sure these will most definitely be worn for my 10k coming up in two weeks.

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Okay you can thank me later. Now back to the race! A lot of people felt cheated afterward since there were many reports of the distance being longer than it should have been by half a mile...which if you're a hardcore competitor, that's a bfd. Also, times were off according to some reports. My GPS even tracked it to be a longer distance as well. HOWEVER it was a great race and there were awesome bands playing at each mile marker. The extra motivation was definitely appreciated since I just flippin' came back from vacation...where I did zero training.

I finished and I was able to do my victory pose in the middle of downtown, in the street and lived to tell the tale.

Of course I needed to stuff my face with a bagel too since I absolutely couldn't have eaten anything that early in the morning before the race. Free bagels, free swag...it was a great day. So attractive.

My only regret was that Ace of Base didn't make it to my running playlist in time before the finish. Luckily we all finished before it got really hot out. Grant Park was home to the thousands of finishers where we stretched out and snagged a bunch of free drinks and stuff from all of the sponsors.

I just looked at the "official" race day photos of myself too and yep, I look absolutely ridiculous in 80% of them thus far. So we'll settle for this post-race pic with our cardboard guitars. Because, yes.

I was quite impressed with myself since I didn't stop once and I kept on hauling ass! Not too shabby after all of that drinking and binging on snack food on vacation. Now to look forward to my 10k that's happening in two weeks. Bring it, bitches!