RnR Chicago 10K Recap

Disclaimer: As a member of the Rock’n’Blog team, I received free race entries to both the 5K and 10K races. As always, all opinions are my own.

Time for part 2 of my Chicago weekend highlights!

When I left off Tuesday’s post, the 5K was done and we were enjoying a fantastic blogger brunch. Since I was remixing with the 10K the next morning, I decided to head back to the hotel to put my feet up and give the cranky hip a break. After a nap, I took a walk with Kim to Millenium Park to check out the infamous Bean.

We circled back to the hotel, picked up Deborah and headed out for another great meal, this time at Quartino. With an early race start time looming (hello 6:30 a.m.!), we called it an early evening.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago 10K

Kim, Deborah, and I were up and out of the hotel by 5:30 in search of a little pre-race fuel. The plan was to once again meet up with everyone around the gear check, but with a lot more runners than the 5K it was harder to find everyone. I get the added bonus of running into Skirt Sports sisters Ericka and Danyell. We found Kim G. and her mom, spotted Marcia briefly, and made our way to the very crowded corrals.

Soon we were off, and just a few minutes in we got hit with the first big blast of rain. While the start was a little congested it didn’t last long as we quickly split off from the half marathoners and headed south down the Lakefront Path. We followed the Path for almost 4 miles before rejoining the half marathoners. My cranky hip reared its ugly head somewhere around the 5K mark, and my walk intervals became a little longer. I swear it felt like it took me forever to reach the 4-mile marker.

We ran under McCormick Place, which was really the only part of the course I could have done without. It was dark and the ground was uneven and I saw a woman trip in front of me – thankfully she didn’t go down. Once out of the tunnel, there was just the long 1.2 mile stretch to the finish. At this point the skies opened up again – really Mother N was that necessary?! I was so happy to cross that finish line!

I got my medal, water, and chocolate milk and headed for the exit. While it looked like there was a lot of post-race food at the finish, I was too wet to want to stop to partake. I found the Remix medal tent and then made the short walk back to the hotel.

Cleaned up (and dry!), there was time for one more fun Blogger Brunch before checking out of the hotel and heading to the airport. It was nice to have Erica and her friend Melissa join us.

Overall this was a fun race, despite Mother N’s hissy fit. The course was nice and flat, and running along the water was a bonus. I do wish the course would have taken us through a little of Chicago the way the Half course did I would definitely run this race again!

Have you run an RnR race?