The Great Western Half-Marathon is the “Great Western” because it’s on a trail that was converted from the old Chicago Great Western Railway. It was also a point-to-point race, with shuttle buses taking us from parking at the St. Charles North High School to the start of the race at the Sycamore Speedway. It was flat and straight and the weather was gorgeous and if I hadn’t not-trained since my last half I might have even knocked a real nice time. As it was, I lost the 2:30 pace group at a port-a-potty around mile 4 and just had to run my own race.

The trail ran through some beautiful Illinois country side—I’m pretty sure I saw some beaver dams!

This marks nine of thirteen “Runner’s Dozen” halves done and I’m going to be making May my double-up month, so I’ll be back out for another half in a few weeks. Let’s see if I can keep some running going between now and then.

Time: 2:34:42
Pace: 11:48/mile
Place: 517 / 608
Place in Gender: 271 / 295
Place in Age Group (M45-49): 48 / 50