Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

the run went very well. I didn't know what to expect since my knee had been hurting since my last long run. Prior to the injury, I had planned on trying to run 7:45 pace, but with the injury, I decided to just go nice and easy and try and keep a nice smooth 8min pace.
I started off easy, skipped the first water stop. Got some water at the 3 mile mark, and was worried about losing time, so I picked it up a little. It felt really good, and when I saw 7:34, I was surprised. I slowed some the next mile,, still faster than I had planned but it felt fine. The knee wasn't bothering me at all. It took another couple of miles to settle back down to my 8 min pace, but by then I was in the zone, knocking out hte miles right on pace. I ran 17 miles each between 7:50 and 8:10, so pretty consistent. I hit Mile 18, feeling good, but starting to tire. I told myself I had done a good 22 miler at a faster pace, and I was able to keep that pace, running 22 at 7:56. Felt OK at 23 and 24 but was starting to hurt. Made it to 25 and was really hurting. I told myself to just keep moving and I could beat 3:30, and knew PR was going to be close. I kept running the whole time, even though I slowed a bit the last 2 miles, but was thrilled to come in under 3:30.
The knee never bothered me at all! I never walked more than 10 steps at once and only at the water stops. Mentally, this was probably my strongest race in a long time, and even though I didn't PR, I was really happy with it. I still have no idea how my knee didnt' hurt during the race, and even more, why it hasn't hurt me at all in the 48 hours since.

nothing other than not have 3 weeks of knee pain prior to race time

walked around for 20 minutes. The post-race Gatorade was actually making me a bit nauseated, but hte beer hit the spot and really made me feel better.


nothing, I couldn't have gone much faster. Going slowly at the start helped me stay consistent I am sure.


This was a great race. Huge, but very well done. NO problems at expo, traffic control, tons of water stops and volunteers. This was one of the best 2 or 3 races I have done