Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

This was one of the most difficult race experiences I've ever had. I found the course to be much harder than I expected, and the heat was just brutal. On top of that I found the crowded course and the crowds of spectators to be distracting (there were 35,000+ people running, and the course got very narrow at times); I felt claustrophobic and stressed at several points. Mostly, though, I think I executed the race pretty poorly. Since I qualified for a start corral, I decided to start from it so I wouldn't have to dodge people slower than me, but it meant that I wasn't anywhere near the pace group for the pace I wanted to run. As a result, I went out way too fast, and never had anyone to pace off for the rest of the race. I also had hydration issues early, as I had to pee for the first 3.5 miles and could barely drink anything until I got that situation taken care of.

After the first 10k, I had worked a lot of these issues out and settled into a good pace and a nice, relaxed running form. But I think by then the damage was done, and everything fell apart in the second half of the race (as my splits show). From about mile 14 on, every step was pretty much torture, and I couldn't seem to get enough fluids without walking through aid stations and taking several cups of water and gatorade (I ran with a fuel belt and kept refilling my bottles, but it still wasn't enough).

I also think I had a total mental breakdown. Instead of focusing on what I needed to do to fix the problems I was having, I descended into a dark, miserable, feeling sorry for myself place. I thought about quitting. I thought about how much I hate running. I thought about how I never, ever want to run another marathon. I thought about how happy I was going to be when this stupid race was over and I could start riding my bike more often again. I sneered at signs I thought were stupid and got annoyed when a very hairy, very sweaty man plowed into me. In other words, my brain was in the completely wrong place and I could not get it right. Total FAIL.

Pretty much everything. But the top takeaways are:

1) I need more than 10-12 weeks between an ironman and a marathon if I want to have a good marathon.

2) Believe the pacing information from my training and stick to my goal pace. I can always pick it up at the end if I'm feeling good. Just because I qualified for a corral doesn't mean I should be there for this particular race.

3) Focus on fixing problems, not on how horrible the problems are.

4) Lose 10-15 pounds

Walked back to the hotel (which seemed so much farther away than it had in the morning). Tried to drink the Gatorade recovery drink they gave out, but it tasted horribly. Took an ice bath when I got back to the hotel.


Heat, pacing mistakes, mental mistakes.


I thought that aid stations were weirdly spaced out. Sometimes they were less than a mile apart, sometimes they were 2 miles apart. I was VERY glad that I carried fluids with me.