Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

When the gun went off, I settled in to what felt like an easy pace. I was hardly breathing and I found myself flying past people. I checked my watch and my pace was in the 6's. Yikes. I hoped my garmin was off, so I used each mile marker to watch my splits. Each mile I clocked a 7:20 or below, and with each mile, I tried so hard to dial it back. I wasn't overly excited or kicked up on adrenaline- I just felt good! My lungs were 100% cooperating, and my legs felt great. This was a huge improvement on how I'd felt all week and it made me extremely happy.

The race was awesome. There were so many people out there cheering, for virtually the entire race. I read nearly every sign people had out there, and there were some really funny signs. 'Worst Parade Ever', and 'Go harder' with the accompanying 'That's what she said', were my favorites. I also spotted nearly every dog on the course, and came really close to stopping and petting a 12 week old tri colored Aussie fuzzball that stole my heart. Watching out for dogs really made the miles fly by.

I had to do a fair amount of weaving at every water station, and to get good pavement. I drank water and gatorade at every aid station, and dumped the water over my head. I got gatorade up my nose twice, and in my eye once. You would think after doing enough races I'd figured out how to drink and run at the same time. Apparently not! A few of the sections are pitched, or had sun-exposed areas, so I tried to avoid running there, and in doing so, ran a less than perfect course. I also stopped at the bathroom twice, grabbed a green popsicle, ate 3 bananas, 2 orange slices and 4 gus and smiled for all the cameras. If only I had known my pace for my previous PRs, and what time I was running towards....

But, I didn't- I didn't care about my time and pace, I was just running what felt right. I also knew that I was running way faster than I was expecting to, and was just waiting for the pain to hit. I had to wait until mile 23, when finally my legs said they had enough. I was so ecstatic that I'd made it that far, feeling so great, that I just kept running hard, and only dropped in pace to 7:40s/7:50s for the last 3 miles.

When I crossed the line and saw 3:17, I just couldn't believe what I'd done. For almost every race, I come in 100% prepared, with a goal in mind, and this race was the least prepared I'd been. Obviously, training for tris for 10-15 hours a week for the entire summer isn't exactly 'untrained'- but my body usually objects to running long without building slowly, so I was just so thrilled that I ran a near-PR. And, according to my Garmin, I ran 7:21s hehe :)

Nothing! I had a wonderful race- both performance-wise, and fun-wise. Chicago is a blast!

This was when the temps started to climb! I found Ryan and he had a huge grin on his face, so I knew he broke 3 hours. I am SOO friggin' proud of him! 3 years ago, he thought I was nuts, hardly running at all, and now he's so fast, it's just incredible!


Not training properly for a marathon. This race motivated me to focus on running for a bit, and who knows, maybe I'll run another marathon soon!


Chicago is an awesome race. They were extremely well organized, especially considering the massive scale of the race. The expo blew my mind. I highly recommend this race. It is also very flat. However, unless you are seeded in the A corral, the flow of runners never really lets up, so the course is pretty crowded. That makes it super fun, but if you need to save a few minutes to get a PR, the congesting might take away those few minutes.