Chicago PGA Pro

On Saturday I ran in my second race of the year, the Soldier Field 10 Miler in Chicago. What a great race! The race starts just outside of Soldier Field and goes south for 5 miles down Lake Shore drive and back up the Chicago Lake front. The best part is the finish of the race as everyone gets to come running out of the tunnel like the Bears and cross the football field to the finish line. I finished with a time of 1:18. Not too bad. Just under 8 minutes a mile. I haven’t been training much as I used too so I am happy with my time.
I started out in the B corral. I think I need to be in the A corral from now on. I started off my race pretty slow to get my legs warmed up. My first 2 miles were in the 8:30 range and I then I had to stop off to pee. That costs me 4min. Yes, long pee. I drank a ton of water to make sure I was hydrated enough and may have over did it a bit. I got back into a good stride for miles 3-6 and continued to pick up the pace. I have fallen behind the 1:25 pacer and finally passed him around mile 5. The 1:20 was already heading north so I had to make up some serious time without bonking(means crashing). My pace was around 7:30 a mile for miles 7-9 and the last mile I was probably around 7min. It was awesome to run through the tunnel and come out onto the field for the last hundred yards! You could see yourself on the jumbo tron screen. All and all a good effort.
This will be my base line for my training for the Chicago Marathon in October. The Chicago Marathon will be my second marathon and since I am much more experienced than my first one I have decided to raise the bar and qualify for the Boston Marathon – The Masters Tournament of all running in my opinion. Anyone can run a marathon but you have to qualify to run Boston. My last marathon was 2008 and I finished with a nice time of 3:38. That was 8:20 per mile and to qualify for Boston I am going to need 7:10. It is quite a stretch but I look forward to the challenge.
I will also be raising money for the outreach programs of my church Old St. Pat’s Church. My brother has decided to join our church’s running group and compete in his second marathon as well. Looking forward to my training runs with my bro and fellow Old St. Pat’s Running members.

What goals do you have set for this year?