Date: June 14, 2020
Start time: 3:52:00 am
Finish time: 1:46:35 pm
Total elapsed time: 9h 54m 35s
(moving time on the course was just under eight hours)
This was Epic!!
The Comrades Marathon was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. Having run it three years in a row prior, I decided to chart my own course for it in Chicago. This was my slowest "Comrades" but my longest non-race run by almost 20 miles.
Great weather, mostly in the 60s and sunny. It definitely got a little bit warm in the last 30 km. Winds from the north, and much hotter at the finish. I had to stop for water many times, as well as donuts at about 40km. I finally got the chance to visit the three parks on the west side that I've been trying to integrate into runs (Humboldt, Garfield, Douglas). Glad to see so many new parts of the city and learn the places and geography. Felt strong in the first 50km, but the pace started to trail off after about 20 miles, which was kind of expected; wasn't really trained for longer than that distance, no support and so needed to stop in stores, dealing with heat, etc.
I did this on a whim, with no tapering, as a long training run. Took some walk breaks off the watch-clock to stay fresh, but nothing too major.
Mostly the contribution to extra time was due to hydration and keeping the heart rate in check due to the heat. Awesome tour of Chicago, on the route of the Times-Herald Auto Race (US's first ever automobile race). Overall I would do this again, but I might start even earlier, and definitely is useful to plan for water on miles 35-50 not a ton of options in that stretch for refueling.
The linked Strava activity has an additional ~1km/0.7 miles at the start and the end of the route. I wanted to make it an even 90km. But, the "official" FKT route doesn't include that part, the race route starts and ends at 60th and Cornell, just like the auto race.