For reasons, Andrea and I wanted to go run a half-marathon this fall and a month after my last marathon seemed like a good time. I scanned some lists of races and found the Des Plaines River Trail Half-Marathon based largely on the date.

The DPRT isn’t a huge race—there was a limit of 350 runners for the half-marathon (Andrea and I got the last two spots!), 225 for the marathon, and 150 for the 50 miler. So it was delightful that the whole day was well organized. It was a easy drive out to Vernon Hills and there was remote parking, but they had three school buses shuttling back and forth and we didn’t have to wait long going either direction. Packet pickup was fast and easy. Things went so well, we had to just sit and wait around for almost an hour.

The weather was delightful, the trail was very well maintained and easy to run on, and Chicago has me so spoiled for flatness, it feels silly to complain about the two or three very, very gentle hills.

The one bobble I only discovered this afternoon. Right after the race, my Nike GPS app indicated that I’d finished in about 2:20, so I was excited because that’s a PR in the half-marathon, and so I’ve been waiting for the official results. I just saw them, and they have me and Andrea finishing about 6 minutes apart, which is off since we started and finished together. I feel no shame in using her time to list this as a personal record.

Time: 2:23:10.6*
Overall Place: 191 / 283
Place in Sex: 103 / 124
Place in Division (M40-49): 34 / 43

• The official results on the DPRT site show me finishing in 2:29:23.7, but I started and ended with Andrea, who has the time I’ve listed above. That time also matches my Nike GPS time, so I’m confident in my time over the official time and I’m going to take it as a PR.