The inaugural Peapod Sly Fox Half Marathon was held this
morning in Saint Charles, IL. Peapod
puts on a late summer half marathon in Batavia, a nearby town, but this was
their first spring half. Based on my
friends’ assessments of the fall run, I grabbed an early, inexpensive
registration for this run. I think I paid
$25 for the registration which was a bargain for any half marathon and a real
steal for this one.
Pre-race communication, once it started, was great. I had not heard anything from the race
organizers until last Monday, April 20th and I was beginning to
wonder. But, after that I think I received
three or four emails with race details, parking information and encouragement
to go to packet pickup on Friday and not wait until race day. Now, Saint Charles is a long (lots of
traffic) 20 miles away from my home, I had no reason to go to Saint Charles and
wasn’t about to go that distance if I didn’t have to. Instead, I planned to wake up early and get
to race day packet pickup around 6 AM.
The race was scheduled to start at 7 AM and packet pickup was supposed
to end at 6:30 AM. I like to get to
races early anyway so same day packet pickup seemed quite doable.
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| It could have been worse and looked like this. |
As the week before the race progressed, the weather forecast
got uglier and uglier. As I went to bed
last night, at 9:30 PM, the skies had opened up and it was pouring. The forecast for the race was for 40-45
degrees, rain and 13-15 mph winds. With
a forecast like that I can often talk myself out of running. I decided, however, that I was going to run
no matter what and planned accordingly. My
race kit was a pair of compression tights, winter socks, the long sleeved half
zip from the Chicago Quarter Marathon, a well vented rain jacket and a
Naperville Marathon cap. Even though I
had not yet run a long distance in them, I also decided to wear my Hoka Stinson
ATR’s. Since the race was going to be
all on pavement, I figured my hips, knees and feet would prefer the extra
cushioning.
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| The Race Shirt |
This morning I woke up before the 4:30 AM alarm, got
dressed, gave the cats a snack (of course they thought it was breakfast time
and asked for more), made coffee to go, had tea and a granola bar, pooped
(yeah! ) and drove up to Saint Charles. The
good thing about these early Midwest races is that traffic is really light at
5:15 AM and I got to Saint Charles quickly and got a great spot in the free,
municipal parking garage. I then walked the
two blocks to packet pickup and got my number “37” and race shirt. I love the race shirt!!! It’s a black, women’s cut, v-neck shirt with
a nice sly fox design. Races that take the effort to provide women’s
cut race shirts are top notch in my book!
I love the black too. Yeah, it’s
not great for visibility but it really looks nice. I took the shirt back to the car, put on my
number and ventured back to the start line.
At this point, it wasn’t raining yet but the temperature
was in the low 40’s,
the sky was heavily overcast and the wind was swirling around. I found a spot behind a building, tucked in
the corner by the gas meter where the wind was fairly well blocked to wait out
the time until the race started and took look for my running club buddies. |
| Lots of port-o-potties!!! |
After a little time waiting, I decided to use the port-a-potties. Another big shout out to the race organizers
for having a MORE than sufficient number of port-a-potties. There was a whole line of them and no lines
to use them. Plus, there really was hand
sanitizer in the dispensers. I was not
the only one to notice this positive amenity.
Lots of people were chatting about them.
Way to go Sly Fox!
As I waited for the race to start, my running club buddies
started to show up. A number of them
were doing the 10K (how come they were so smart?!) but Liz, Sherry, Carolyn,
Andy, Leslie and I were set to run the half.
Liz had other friends to run with and Sherry and Carolyn are best
buddies and a bit faster than I am.
Andy and I had discussed running together a few weeks ago and Leslie
joined us. We decided to run/walk doing
intervals where we would run a minute and a half and then walk a minute. We ran the first four or five minutes which
was uphill right out the shoot and then shifted into our run/walk strategy.
I had not paid much attention to the race route prior to the
event and was pleasantly surprised with the beautiful neighborhoods and parks
that we ran through. When we did have to
run on the busier roads, there were paved paths (probably bike paths) to run on
beside the road, not sidewalks. There
were a few roads where we shared the lanes with cars but our lane was clearly
marked and well monitored. Unlike some
races, I never felt unsafe and it was a really interesting run.
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| The map |
Remember, this is Illinois.
Prairie Land. We generally do not
have hills. The Chicago Marathon is
known to give people trouble because it is so flat, they get repetitive motion
injuries. But the Sly Fox was a hilly
course! I don’t know where they found
them but the course went up and down over and over again between 702’ and 852’. Ok, for you mountain folks, those are not
hills but for us… whoa, we were getting tired on those hills. About
half way through the weather changed too and now we were running hills in the
cold, steady rain. Having friends to run
with makes all the difference in the world, we stuck with our intervals,
chatted about all sorts of things and commiserated about the hills.
I carried water with me as I had checked out the aid
stations prior to the event. I’m glad I
brought it. The aid stations were right
where they were supposed to be but as a back of the packer, I need water more
than every 2.5 miles. The runners today
were pretty fast overall. I don’t know if
that’s because that is who registered or some of the slower runners might have
stayed home. Being out in a cold rain
for two and a half hours or more isn’t for everyone. On a warmer day, the slower runners would
probably have liked more aid stations.
Sly Fox, add one more, please.
The volunteers for this race were great! There was someone on almost every corner
showing us the way and cheering us on.
It really is helpful to have a stranger cheering on the back of the
pack, especially a stranger that has been standing in the cold rain for a
couple hours. We thanked all the
volunteers as we ran by and we truly were thankful that they were out there
with us this morning.
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| Post Race Sam Adams! |
As we passed mile 12 and got closer to the finish line we
could hear the announcer. At that point,
we were powered by the promise of a waiting beer. I usually skip the beer at the end of the
race but today, it sounded great. When
we passed the 13 mile sign and could see the finish shoot, we put on a little
gas and ran to the finish. Andy, Leslie
and I grabbed hands, raised them above our heads and finished the race as we
had run it, together! I don’t have many
photos because of the weather. I’m
hoping the official photographer caught us in a few good ones that I can post
later.
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| Our splits. We were fairly consistent |
The after party was A plus!!! First, given the weather, the fact that we
could go into Alley 64, a nice, Saint Charles,
tavern and drink our beer out of the elements was a real bonus. Normally, in weather like today’s, I would
have just left. Who wants to stand
around in the cold and drink beer. The beer
was Sam Adams, not a watery lite beer.
There were also hot dogs, hamburgers and potato chips for the
runners. Leslie’s family had joined her at the finish
line so Andy and I grabbed our beer and food and enjoyed it in the warmth of
the bar before taking the short walk back to the parking garage and our drives
home.
Oh, one last comment, the race medal. I loved the medal and it's a really nice bottle opener. One small complaint, it was the same medal as the 10K medal. I would like it to at least have a different ribbon. Maybe next year, Sly Fox?
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| The dual race medal |
