Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

I wasn't planning on running this. After the ankle tendinitis over the summer that kept me from training, I decided that I'd use this as a training run for Vegas. And then - a week beforehand, the ball of my foot/big toe was absolutely killing me. I thought - no way I can run.

In the end, I decided to make this my last race of the season. Go out and do as much as possible, see if I could finish, and then be done with my season.

The very best part of all this? Being able to run with Jen (jschmitchicago)! We had decided early on that we'd run together for as much as either of us wanted to, see how we'd like company on the course. And it was fabulous. :)

Now - the race. We had a vague goal of sub 5 in our heads, but with Jen dealing with an injury and me not trained and injured, we weren't sure it was going to be in the cards, but we'd give it a shot. So - we were shooting for 11:00-11:15 miles. Easy schmeasy, right?

The key was to start out conservatively and keep the pace slow. Both Jen and I have a tendency to speed up once we get all warmed up - the Garmin mostly kept us honest. The first 6 miles went by pretty quickly... around mile 3, my foot started making itself known, but nothing I couldn't push through.

At about the 6 mile mark, I *really* had to hit the porta-potty. I had been so resolute to make sure I was hydrated properly, I think I overdid it a little. So, with just a word to Jen to stay on the left, I sprinted off. Luckily, the lines were only 1-2 deep. I sprinted away then to catch up with Jen and was struck with a thought: what if she was waiting for me where we parted ways?? Rationally, I didn't think this would be the case -- I knew she needed to get through the aid station to get water, which was about 100m up the road from where I broke off from her - but I couldn't take the chance that she was waiting. So, I doubled back and made as sure as I could that she wasn't there.

So, that put me another 1-2 minutes behind her. And I realized with a jolt that I REALLY didn't want to run the rest of this marathon on my own, so I got on my (slow) horse and started trying to make up the distance. I ran two miles about as fast as I thought was reasonable seeing as how I still had 20 miles to go (9:07, 9:21) and then - thank god! - there was Jen. I don't think I could have kept that pace up much longer without it really killing me. And thanks to Jen for slowing up for me... I know she did a fair bit of walking to give me time to catch up. :)

After that, the miles kind of slipped away pretty uneventfully. We saw Jon and Kelly at around mile 11 (saw Jon at mile 3, too!), and we stopped and chatted for a short bit. Around mile 12, I stepped on something in the road - a momentary "oh shit!" as I inventoried and decided nothing was really hurt (though this morning, the ankle is bruised and swollen - might be related?).

At halfway through, my legs were already really feeling the miles. I knew I was completely undertrained for this event - the only thing I had going for me was that the pace allowed my HR to stay fairly low - it was just leg fatigue that I was dealing with. And that's totally doable. Heh.

Both of us started slowing down somewhere around the 16 mile mark...not too much, but enough to make that 5 hour mark just a little out of reach. But we were still moving forward, still mostly running.

Right before mile 18, I was able to keep myself occupied with looking for another friend of mine who was out cheering - managed to see her, and that was awesome - it's amazing how much having people there really buoys you.

Then - looking forward to mile 22 where Jon and Kelly would be again! By the time, we're running from cheering section to cheering section. Both Jen and I were in pretty bad shape by now, both of us wondering why the hell it is that we were doing a marathon, anyway. :)

Jon and Kelly at the 40k mark! And then - the home stretch. So close you could taste it!! Walking hurt. Running hurt. Existing hurt.

But - we made it. Ran across the finish line in fine style, even.

And like I've said - this was easily the most painful marathon I've ever run, but also by far, the most FUN marathon I've ever run. Having company made all the difference. I'm pretty sure I would have given up around mile 18 or so if I were on my own.

(sidenote: because I had so many pockets because of the cold-weather clothing, I carried my cell phone with me. And was one of those annoying racers texting while running. But it was SO HELPFUL! We always knew exactly where our support crew was to look for them. YAY!)

Train?

Medals. Gear check. I was FREEZING by the time we finished and all I could think about were the warm clothes I had in my backpack. Both Jen and I got our sweat pants out, looked at them, and were all like, "... and how the hell are we supposed to get these on??" I looked longingly at the curb, but knew I'd never get up again if I got down that far. :) After that, made our way through the marathon crowd to meet up with Jonathan and Kelly.


Again - training.


This race is CROWDED. That's both the best part and the worst part. Especially before the race, all the people make it difficult to get where you're going. And if you're going for a PR, it can be hard to maneuver around people. But, you're never alone out there. It's a top-notch event with a lot of city and crowd support out there. I would totally do this race again. You know, if I were to ever be insane enough to want to do a marathon again. :)