review

“Disclaimer: I received free entry to the Rock n Roll Series Chicago 5k & Half as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!”

Friday:

We left Southern Illinois around 11am and knew we were going to head straight to the Expo as we had a schedule to keep. 

I thought my pizza Knockaround glasses were fitting for the drive to Chicago.

What do you think?!

The expo was great. I was able to keep my tradition of buying a Rock n Roll pint glass. The funny thing is, I don’t drink, but it’s great for my chocolate milk.  The only Rock n Roll race I didn’t have a glass for was my Nashville race. Still sad about it. 

I’m glad they had parking validation for $10 so we didn’t have to spend the $23. 

We then went right to the hotel and thank goodness I had already checked in on my app and requested a digital key, because check in was outrageous and we only had 10 minutes to get to the room, change and head to our Bibrave Orange Carpet Event. 

The food was amazing and Zimmerman won the “non-bibravepro” raffle.

Thanks again to Aftershokz, Knockaround, RocknRoll and Bibrave for an amazing weekend. Seriously everything went amazing!

Saturday:

I was originally signed up for the Rock n Roll Chicago 5k, but the race canceled it Friday night due to heat. This allowed me to join the Bibrave crew for a shakeout run and some photo opportunities.

Can we appreciate how great all the orange looks and how good we all take pictures?

This girl had enough of the city and wanted to go explore the outside suburbs. I had researched that there was a Sierra Trading Company and I have only ever ordered online, so I thought it would be fun to check it out. Of course there was a TJ Maxx and Homegoods nearby and I never pass up the opportunity to see what Rae Dunn finds are worth getting.

We then went to get Lou Malnati’s pizza and it was so good. Then we found an Andy’s Frozen Custard and had to eat that! I’ll be honest, we ate so much and I had walked so much, that all I wanted to do was stay in the rest of the night. So unfortunately, I didn’t make the Bibrave dinner Saturday night. Instead, I Theragun’d and hydrated to prepare for the half the next morning.

Sunday:

Let’s review this race! So I am a morning person and I truly appreciated the 6:30am start time, especially in July with 13.1 miles to run. I woke up around 5am and ate peanut butter crackers and drank a propel and some Starbucks coffee. I wanted to pack in some calories but not be too overloaded.

Thankfully we only had to walk less than half a mile to the start line. We were able to get a team Bibrave photo and we all left to go to our corrals.

I thought this race was well organized. I think the only complaint I had was that having access to porta potties within the first mile would’ve been awesome. I think I found a few between mile 2 and 3 and that’s when I went.

I believe it was my KC half that literally right after we spread out after starting there were a bunch of porta potties. I thought I  just had nervous pee and that it would leave after getting going, but it didn’t and it was all I could think about. So I was glad they didn’t take too long to find one!

The course was beautiful and I guess I lied, because the other part of the course that wasn’t pleasant were the tunnels/under the bridges. It just felt like you were suffocating. But then, when you got out, the breeze felt amazing! 

I truly loved this race and the amount of aid and medical stations was great. 

I had an original goal of 1:45, then changed it when my training was moving a little slower coming off a knee injury and I knew it probably wasn’t realistic. So then I changed it to under 2 hours. Then I changed it again to just finishing healthy and having fun. I was so traumatized by my last half marathon that I legit told Zimmerman I would never run another again.

My Garmin was off the whole race, so until I hit the last few miles and looked at my overall time, I knew there was a chance I could get sub 2 hours. I thought about if I wanted that or would rather keep my consistency going and know I would be able to walk afterward and still feel good.

I chose to just keep the pace and not try and break 2. Glad I did because I had a blast and was able to be in good spirits after.

My FAVORITE part of the race and I have read others say the same, was the turnaround between mile 9 and 10. I thought I would HATE it because it was just a small out and back and I hated to see everyone having to go down and then come back and I hadn’t yet done it.

It helped that FLY BY! I made a game to see who in Bibrave I could spot and I also ran on the inside so I could high five people the whole way. Runners are so friendly and I love the opportunity to support one another. This helped get me over my mental barrier I had after mile 9.

I only trained with 9.2 miles as my longest run, so I got in my head that I wouldn’t make it and my body would  crap out, but I made it through!

I will ALWAYS recommend the Rock n Roll series to any first time half marathoner because the atmosphere is the best. You will ALWAYS have people surrounding you and the spectators are wonderful too.

I just wish the series was still in STL.

Q: Did you run this race?

Q: Have you done the Rock n Roll Series previously?

Q: Have you tried Knockaround sunglasses?

Q: Have you tried Aftershokz?