It’s been a good morning in Chicago. The weather was spectacular for the runners, there.
The elite men have finished in what was evidently a back and forth race at the end. The elite wheelchairs are done in what I heard was a photo finish. And the elite women are done, too. I watched that finish with Florence Kipligat metaphorically thumbing her nose at her Olympic selection committee which passed her up. Kipligat pulled away from her competition and was all alone as she crossed the finish line.
The crowd and the runners are cheering at the 13.1 mile mark. The blue bells are ringing at the Merrill-Lynch cheer station just before the route turns south on Halstead and heads for the Eisenhower expressway and southern Chicago. The crowd is cheering in Pilsen. And the dragons are dancing in Chinatown as the runners pass under the red gate where the route turns south again on Wentworth for that great loop that feels so far away from the finish line, because the skyscrapers of downtown are so small on the horizon to the north.
Our running coach, Chris, is out there, too. Her goal is to break 4:00 with negative splits, and she passed the half-way point at 2:00:44. And five minutes ago she passed the 30K mark running a 8:50 pace.
Looking good, Chris!