Not sure why the half marathon is not listed as a race on here, but I ran that, not the 10k. This was probably the single worst half marathon I have ever run in my entire life. Now, I'm a girl who loves city running. I try to travel at least once/year to visit a new city (or one dear to my heart) and see it from a new perspective by running a half or full marathon. This race, however, was an incredible disappointment.

Full disclosure: I was running ill. I came down with some illness a week before the race, which left me unable to eat well leading up to the run, and I ended up running a bit anemic and extremely slow and had to stop to see a medic for the first time in my racing history (shoutout to Matt the medic, by the way for getting me some water and making sure I was good to go on).

Even if I hadn't been running while sick, I was still super disappointed with this race. To start, all over their website, the race company was bragging how this race was 'flatter and faster' than before and yikes, I'd hate to see what it was like before. This race is NOT flat and includes a number of very steep inclines, especially going over the bridges. Did we need to go over 3 bridges? I don't think so. One was more than enough for me. I would have much preferred no bridges and a PR. Also, while I thankfully didn't have to stop for it, a group of runners in front of me got stopped by a city train. How about you run your races on closed courses, hmm? That could have been really dangerous for quite a lot of people.

Mile markers were very poorly labeled, and aid stations were incredibly small. Like 2 tables with tiny dixie cups half full of water and nowhere near enough volunteers. I was tripping over people to get water and even then the volunteers weren't making any effort to actually hand out water. At most of the aid stations they were just standing at the tables and not actually holding cups for passing runners. It was also not clearly labeled what was water and what was electrolytes.

The end of the course leading back to the finish line had a LOT of turns and I almost got lost because the volunteers again didn't seem like they cared very much to be there. Post-race was decent because beer, but I basically paid $65 for 2 beers, so that felt like kind of a ripoff.

T-shirt was absolutely awful. Cotton!? Ugh, please give me a shirt I can actually run in, thanks.
Course scenery was pretty much just factories. Not much to look at so you better have a good podcast queued up. Expo also really boring, nothing to do there, very limited parking. Claimed there was free beer in an email, but when we got to packet pickup they were telling us it was $5. So is it free, or $5?
Overall, absolutely terrible race. Clearly lots of couch-to-5kers, though, and like if that's your thing, good on you, but you don't need chocolate milk and a banana and 2 beers to refuel after a 5k, js. I certainly would not do this race again, and I would probably go out of my way to tell others not to do it.

What words can I use to describe the Chicago Marathon? Amazing, fantastic, awe-inspiring, life-changing, long as hell, painful, too long, but passed in a blur. I started out ten seconds too fast on my first mile, and while I was able to keep up my pace through about mile 18-19, I crashed HARD. I kept pushing myself but between miles 20-23 I had to stop and walk through two (well-stocked I might add) aid stations just to make sure I was actually keeping down gatorade to get my blood sugar back up. It got so bad at one point around mile 23 that I was thinking about even quitting the race entirely, but I called my mother and had her talk me through the last 3 miles. Even though I couldn’t talk much since I was trying to concentrate on running, it was wonderful to hear a familiar voice – also, I was pretty sick of listening to podcasts at that point.

I was so overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and seeing Chicago from this new perspective that most of the race seemed to pass in a blur. I do remember passing over the bridge at the halfway point because my GPS got totally messed up and was telling me I did a 3 minute mile -_- I remember seeing my charity's cheer squad around mile 14. I remember the high winds off the lake before turning onto Stockton near the zoo. I remember the 800 meters to go sign and seeing a wall of police officers guarding the last km to the finish. I remember the further I got to the end and the further I got into my delirium the more faces started to look really warped and strange. Everyone was a part of the uncanny valley at that point. I remember turning onto Halsted near UIC and running through my old hood. I passed by my old apartment, my old office, my friends’ apartments – flashbacks of undergrad passing through my head. I remember being so out of it that I had no idea what direction I was running at some points. I remember a banana at mile 23 tasting like bile. I still don’t know if I threw up or not. Most importantly, I remember finishing, and being in pain, but still smiling.

Overall: I absolutely LOVED this race, and I would totally do it again once I shave off 20 minutes from my time and can get in as a time qualifier. This is an amazing course for a first marathon. Spectators lined the entire course, the aid stations were two full blocks long, they came up frequently, and they were very well stocked, the medal wasn't too flashy, which I liked, and it was a great representation of Chicago - I remember being a little kid and playing around on the Picasso sculpture, so it has a lot of nostalgic meaning for me. The expo was enormous, and while it was a little annoying that bib pickup and t-shirt pickup were on entirely opposite ends of the expo, the whole process was incredibly streamlined and efficient, which it should be for the amount of people running. I didn't use the gear check at the race, so I can't comment on that, but everything else I can comment on was absolutely 100% perfect. A successful first marathon - I can't wait to do it again!

For an inaugural race, this sure didn’t feel like one. The course was a point-to-point 5k through the heart of downtown, starting at the original Chicago Marathon start line near Daley Plaza, and finishing at Roosevelt and Columbus, near the current Chicago Marathon finish line. The course even ran down Columbus for a minute so we could get a close-up view of the start line before we headed down the Lakefront Trail with Lake Michigan to our left, Grant Park to our right, and the Museum Campus ahead of us.

There was no gear check for this course (and even if there was, we would have had to take the train or walk back to the start line). It might have been nice to have a sweatshirt ready for after the race since it was pretty chilly, but I survived. No race expo either - I was happy to have my bib mailed to me. Although international participants were required to pick up their bibs at the Chicago Marathon expo, there was a bib pickup tent at the start line for anyone who missed getting their bib. The starting line also provided water, gatorade, and some toilets, but unfortunately it was really cold and lots of people were huddled around the eternal flame in Daley Plaza - I think we were warmed mostly by each other's heat!

There was one aid station on the course, which I think had Gatorade Endurance formula in addition to water, but I already knew I was going to PR and I didn’t want to waste time getting fluids when I didn’t need them.

My garmin splits were of course totally messed up running through the loop and under Randolph St (it registered the course as 3.5 miles), but the mile markers were large and clear. There were police officers standing at the turns (though every cop I passed was too busy texting to be an effective course marshall) but there were also quite a few traffic cones demarcating the course, so it would have been pretty difficult to run off course at any point. Volunteers standing at the entrance to the Lakefront Trail cautioned us about the step up onto the curb, which was kind of them.

The finish line was great. I had to stop and collect myself, since my sprint to the finish and consequent PR had me almost throwing up, but I made my way over to the tables and picked up some water, gatorade, powerbars, an apple, and of course, the finisher hat, which is super warm and snug.

Overall, I absolutely loved this race. The course was amazing, it definitely didn’t feel like an inaugural race, and I loved seeing everyone’s nationality on their race bibs – in the start corrals alone I met people from the UK, Brazil, Canada, the Netherlands, and Japan. So fun that racing brings us all together. Even though I may not run the Chicago Marathon again (at least until I can register as a time qualifier), I would definitely run the International Chicago 5k again if I were in Chicago during marathon weekend!