Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

Race was incredible but COLD at the start however got comfortable a couple miles into it. I was shooting for a 4 hour goal and through the first half I was sitting about 4:07 which given my training (lack of) and injury I was very content with. I had fought with patellar tendonitis a week just after the disneyland 1/2 and wasn't able to get my final long runs in like I needed. The CW-X tights helped a ton (built in kininseo (sp?) tape), knee never bothered me.. Was definitely feeling the pain around mile 20, left ham cramped on me and i felt my right IT Band tightening up.. Wife saw me around mile 17, saw that I needed a boost and jumped in with me @ mile 20 to pace me and keep my head in it (my amazing wife ran with me the last 6 miles then dumped out before the turn to the finish.. she's incredible!).. Mile 21 ish had to stop quite a bit to get rid of the cramp and try to loosen up the IT Band, worked the cramp out but the IT Band was as tight as a piano string and hurt like hell..35k to 40k pace fell WAY off due to stops for stretching, but ran from mile 25 to the end.



HTFU? (saw the sign and it made me smile, but work.. and remind me of my mantra that I needed to continue to chant... "Don't cry like a B*tch when you feel the pain"..

Not sure how to avoid the tendonitis, wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary however I did run my wife's pace @ Disney which I think affected the knee.. Hate that I can't run with her like that, have to figure it out.

Definitely would've had the training if not for the injury, don't think I would've had IT Band issues either.. Maybe instead of alternating water/gatorade on the stops start doing a 2 Gatorade/1 water to keep things in balance from a cramping perspective.. have to figure it out.
Take it as it comes,

shuffled through finish line, got the medal,food, beer.. met my wife @ Buckingham Fountain. bought a finisher's fleece/pull over (was FREEZING).. had lunch at Jimmy Johns and enjoyed the rest of the day until we left for home that night.


Piano string tight IT Band, lack of training mainly.


This race is incredible, going to make it tough to decide between this and/or the Marine Corps Marathon in 2010.. I really enjoyed it, however want to come back for another shot.