Next up, a family vacation to Chicago to explore the city and run the Chicago Half Marathon.  We stayed at the Palmer House, a very cool and historic hotel that has hosted performers like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Louis Armstrong.

Saturday was packet pick-up at Soldiers Field – quick and easy expo.  We then spent the remainder of the day exploring Chicago.

Went to the aquarium…

Grant Park…

Millennium Park…

Navy Pier…

And of course, pizza for dinner.

But, there was one problem…  I started marathon training 2 weeks ago and I think I over-did it.  I woke up on Saturday morning with a left achilles that was so sore, it made it difficult to walk. After regular advil, mild stretching and warming up, I was in less pain as the day went on. But, race morning it was again difficult to walk.  I limped to the shuttle buses with the plan to try to run/walk the race, not worry at all about my pace and just try to not DNF.  So, with those low expectations, I started gingerly running and the most interesting thing happened – within the first 2 miles, the pain dissipated and I had the most enjoyable race. I stopped to take pictures, talked to other runners and ran at a pace that felt like I could run forever.  Ended up being my most enjoyable half marathon to date!  And I finished as the 1,000 female finisher (out of slightly over 5,000) – pretty cool.

The finishers medal is enormous…

7 down, 43 to go!