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Chicago 6/7 · Logistics handled, head clear
Thursday, October 1 · Chicago D-10
On Tuesday we talked about fall races being mental. And nothing settles the mind like having the logistics handled.
Which happens to be exactly what to spend the hours on that the taper just gave back to you. Today, both — starting with one detail that can cost you the race.
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And if there was no edition yesterday, I didn't forget — we're on three days a week now. I'm still making adjustments and hunting for material that matters without boring you. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will serve us well.
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01 WHEN YOU ACTUALLY START
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3 min |
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7:20 isn't the start. It's the cutoff.
I'm correcting something I see repeated everywhere — and that we ourselves got wrong in earlier emails. 7:20 am is when the Wave 1 corrals CLOSE, not when the race begins.
And the 7:30 you'll find on some sites is the professional start. If you're running age group, your real start is 7:35, 8:00 or 8:35 depending on your corral.
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SUNDAY THE 11TH · VERIFIED SCHEDULE |
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5:30 am — Grant Park, gear check and corrals open |
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7:20 am — Wave 1 corrals CLOSE · Wheelchair (M) |
7:30 am — Professional start
7:32 am — High Performance Program start |
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7:35 am — WAVE 1 START (corrals A–E) |
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7:45 am — Wave 2 corrals CLOSE |
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8:00 am — WAVE 2 START (corrals F, G, H, J) |
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8:10 am — Wave 3 corrals CLOSE |
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8:35 am — WAVE 3 START (corrals K, L, M, N) |
9:30 am — Grant Park opens to spectators
4:00 pm — Gear check closes |
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Look at the gap between cutoff and start, because it isn't the same for everyone:
Wave 1 — closes 7:20, starts 7:35 · 15 minutes
Wave 2 — closes 7:45, starts 8:00 · 15 minutes
Wave 3 — closes 8:10, starts 8:35 · 25 minutes
If you're in Wave 3 and you plan your arrival around 8:35, you show up 25 minutes late to a corral that already closed. Write down your cutoff time, not your start time. The cutoff is the one that governs.
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02 THE 90 MINUTES BEFORE
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2 min |
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Everything below counts backward from your corral cutoff, not from the start. Write it on your bib if you have to.
–90 min Last bathroom stop while the lines are still short. After this they multiply.
–75 min Last 7–10 oz (200–300 ml). From here on, sips only.
–60 min Gear check. Drop the bag and drop that worry with it.
–45 min Start walking to your corral. The area is enormous and it takes longer than it looks.
–20 min Dynamic warm-up, 5 to 8 minutes. No static stretching.
–0 min Inside the corral. Now you wait 15 to 25 minutes.
That wait inside the corral is part of the plan, not a surprise. Bring an old trash bag or a throwaway shirt: Chicago in October, at that hour, gets cold fast.
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The two microclimates on the course
Miles 3.1 to 6.2 (km 5 to 10): the stretch most exposed to lake wind. If it's blowing, tuck in behind someone and don't spend there.
The Loop: the building canyons cut GPS and you'll get strange splits. Don't correct your pace based on what the watch says through those blocks — run by feel until you're out.
Plan A and plan B: decide both target paces today. One for under 55 °F (13 °C) and one 13 to 19 seconds per mile slower (8–12 sec/km) if it's above 64 °F (18 °C) at the start. Decided cold, not at mile 19.
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03 THE HOURS YOU SUDDENLY HAVE
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2 min |
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You're training less. And suddenly you have time.
That void is where last-minute bad decisions are born. I see it every season: the runner who shows up at the start with something brand new, because they had free time and an urge to do something.
WHERE TO ACTUALLY PUT IT
Sleep. By a wide margin the highest-return variable of these ten days. The two nights that matter most are Thursday's and Friday's — almost nobody sleeps well on Saturday, and that's fine.
Mobility without load. Ten minutes, not chasing new range. Maintain, don't gain.
Visualization, with a protocol. Ten minutes, three specific moments: mile 3.1 (km 5) feeling far too comfortable, mile 19.9 (km 32) when it hurts, and the final turn. Not the finish line — the final turn. That's the one you need to have lived before.
The logistics above. Settling them today removes a source of mental noise for the rest of the week.
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What you don't do in these ten days
A new deep-tissue massage.
New shoes.
A new diet.
A gel or drink you haven't tested on a long run.
A hard session "just to confirm you're ready."
None of these can make you win. All of them can make you lose. That asymmetry is the whole rule.
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📖 The full article · printable table |
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The blog has the full schedule in a printable format, the reunite area by last-name letter, and the 90-minute breakdown for each of the three waves.
🇺🇸 Read the article → 🇪🇸 En español →
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Beyond the race
The void before something important fills itself. And almost never with something good, unless you fill it.
Same thing happens the week before an interview, a move, a hard conversation. The mind needs something to do with that space, and if you don't give it a concrete task it invents one — usually one that doesn't help.
Giving the void useful work is a skill. The taper is just where it's cheapest to practice.
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Quote of the week
"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
shared by James Clear in his 3-2-1
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Coach Henri
USATF · TrainingPeaks · Certified Functional Strength Coach
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