Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

Goals: Have fun, take everything in, minimize shin pain, stay with B as long as I could, finish.

Starting this race was just amazing. I was in awe at the city, the runners, the volunteers, the spectators. I was cold - wearing shorts, compression socks, a l/s base layer, my Oasis tank, arm warmers, glove liners, throw away gloves, hand warmers, a visor and a fleece headband. It sounds like a lot but it really wasn't. As soon as we started moving I finally stopped shivering.

The first few miles were just maneuvering and taking it all in. Todd had to pee so left us in this time frame - Brenda had to pee too, but the first few potty lines were enormous so we waited. My left shin was talking to me, which really concerned me as I thought this was going to be a long day. At mile 5 lines were a bit shorter so we pulled off. In line I took a picture and texted it to our Mom, and ate my first installment of Stinger chews + 2 ibuprofin for my shin. We were stopped for 7 minutes - not bad.

After that my goal was to stay with B till mile 10, that sounded reasonable. My shin pain went away and I could barely believe it. I felt so good here, so so good. The crowds were lifting me up and the miles were ticking away. I remember saying "we're already at mile 8?" or something... our pace was a solid 10:45/min/mile which was quite a bit faster than I'd trained, but the desire to stay with B was so intense I just kept pushing.

At mile 10 we ate again as planned, and my new goal was to stay together till the timing mat at 13.1 - so my mom would get the text updates that we were still together. I don't know why that was so important to me at the time, but it was. Brenda turned up her music here and got into a zone and I was just trying to keep up with her. Starting to hurt.

At the halfway point, I remembered she was going to test her blood sugar at mile 15 and I REALLY wanted to make sure it was okay. She'd mentioned she couldn't tell how she "felt", so it was suddenly very important I found out that number was okay. When we got there, we stopped to walk while she tested, and it was fine, so I breathed a tiny (okay huge) sigh of relief. I still felt okay, so kept running with her. But this point I was in shock we were still together, but so happy!

At mile 17 we were hot, so stopped to walk and take base layers off - which was the plan. We ended up having to walk a little longer than planned (my wardrobe change was silly difficult) but felt SO much better with the long sleeves around our waists. Good call. Then at mile 18 I had to walk and told her to go ahead. My left hammie was just killing me at this point, and I wanted her to get the best time she could today. I made a little sad face to myself as I watched her go...

On my own, I pulled off and stopped to stretch - man that felt GOOD. Then it was a run/walk, which I totally expected. At mile 19 I was stretching again when TODD came up to me and gave me the hugest bear hug! I was so surprised - you never expect to actually see someone after splitting up in a race this big! We walked a bit and then he decided to run, and I watched him go off, too.

Around mile 20 at and aid station where they had bananas, I got a peel lodged on the bottom of my shoe and I kept slipping with each step. I stopped to pull it off but when I bent down my calf started to cramp up. An angel volunteer took off his gloves and peeled it off with his fingers. THANK YOU, volunteer!

At mile 21-ish I saw a guy who I'd been leap-frogging earlier in the race - but the guy he had been with was nowhere to be seen. So I trotted up to him and said "Hey where's your buddy? You guys were my pace booty for awhile there!" and we started talking - CLICK! Here is my talking buddy!

We walked for a good bit and chatted before one of us suggested trying to run again. Let's do it. We stayed together for the whole rest of the race, pushing each other to "run to the next mile marker" or "run to the stoplight" or what not. We talked about random stuff, just clicking away the miles. What a huge help that was, I can't even explain it but those of you who have been here know exactly what I mean. Those last 5 miles are usually the WORST, but somehow this made it just fly by. So THANK YOU to Brian from Chicago - whoever you are!

In the last mile, I knew there was a bridge hill, then you turned a corner to see the finish line. I was shocked that Brian pushed me to run up the hill AND I DID! I was running up a hill at mile 26! After we turned the corner he took off ahead, while I looked up and around and savored the last little bit. I'm finishing my 6th marathon! The Chicago Marathon! Boom.

Today, nothing. This was pretty much perfect for where I was at.

My run buddy had waited for me at the finish line so I high-fived him and we walked through the massive areas together to get food, medals, etc. And then I saw B & T! Little did I know they were only 30 seconds ahead of me at the end - how crazy is that?

So glad I'd found them right there, so we could get gear bags, change, and make our way to their Oasis friends together. After all of that we hobbled back to the car and drove to their house to a welcoming committee of their boys and our parents - whoop whooop! Dinner that night was full of celebrations - not only 3 marathon finishers, but my youngest nephew had a gymnastics meet that day where he qualified for a regional/national team designation, which is a huge deal! Awesome, all the way around.


Shin splints/injury 6 weeks out from the race.


DO THIS RACE! Extremely organized, tons of volunteers and aid stations, lots of amenities you wouldn't expect for such a massive race. The city is beautiful, and the crowd support is simply overwhelming. I doubt I'll do another race of this caliber in my lifetime. I enjoyed every second!