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Comments: We started to walk and radios were blaring Springsteen's "Born to Run". We started to run when we got to the starting line to the Stones "Start Me Up". How cool was this??? Just after the starting line was an overpass full of spectators and a cameraman, everyone waved thier arms and SCREAMED! I was just so grateful to be alive and a part of it. The race runs all through the town. Everywhere people were cheering and holding signs-I looked really hard for jschmitchicago and jowisc and I thought I saw thier group around mile 11 but I wasn't sure enough to say hi. It didn't look like them. I thoguht if I saw that group again I'd say hi, but I never saw them. I had gotten a pace bracelet at the expo and I had marked the miles where jscmit's group planned to be but the bracelet fell off at some point. At mile 4 there were portapotty's so I stopped. Lots of people were running into alleyways but I just couldn't bring myself to do that I was sticking to my plan of a sip of perpetuem every 10 minutes and I had a gel at around 40 minutes. I got water at most of the aid stations but wasn't walking them yet. Gel at mile 9 ish. At mile 10 my stomach was gurgling and I had to stop again-DARNIT! If I'd known I'd have to stop at 10 I probably would have tried to wait and at least only stop once. But what can you do. The rest of the race I stayed with my plan more or less...gel every hour or so and perp every 10 minutes. Other than the stomach gurgles it worked out well. Toward the end of the race I was taking less time between gels-I think I had one at 16, then again at 20. Then I think I had another one at around 23-I figured by that time if my stomach revolted I could just suck it up. But it was fine. The first 3 were hammergels and the last 2 were Powergels, which taste horrible but actually work pretty well for me. I wish I could write well enough to describe the energy and exuberance of the day. It was like the whole city was partying. Different districts had different characteristics. Everywhere there was music...live bands. Some things I saw: In the more residential areas people had music blaring out thier windows. Around mile 4 we passed a nursing home and the residents were waving from the third story windows. In chinatown there were those dancing guys with the dragon heads. ...lots of different districts. At 20 miles I guy was holding up a sign that said "your feet hurt because you're kicking so much ass!" In the hispanic area there was a salsa style band and guys outside a bar handing out thier own water. AT around 22 ish miles there was a group paying a bluesy style song ..."Almost there...you're almost home...just a little farther...to run..you're almost there.." At around 23 miles a woman holding a sign that said "First time marathoners-congratulations! You did it" (I almost hugged her). 24 and someone shouted "In 2 miles you can tell all your friends you RAN A MARATHON!" The 25 mile mark...then a sign that said 800 meters...around a corner and the sign said 400...another corner and OH MY GOD...I could see the finish...I actually sped up a little....I couldn't help holding up my arms when I crossed the mat. I couldn't believe I ran the whole thing. I'm not one to get all emotional about racing but I have to admit I teared up a little... After I crossed the finish line I could hear announcements asking everyone to please keep moving...and "Beer is on your right everything else is on the left". BEER? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING! But sure enough, I looked ahead and to my left and there was an MGD trailer. Wonders will never cease. I woman behind me said: "beer? I'd puke!" We discussed the pain in our feet for a second...in the whole run she was only the second or third person I talked to. I saw people getting these shiny silver sheetlike things and wrapping up in them-seemed like a grand idea because suddenly I was so cold. I went to get one and I swear those were the best invention ever. ON to get my chip cut off of my shoelace...when I stopped to do that the world wobbled and I was afraid I would go down but it passed. There was water and food and even though I didn't want either I grabbed them for later. There were people lining up to have their picture taken but I didn't figure the way I looked really needed to be saved for posterity! So I went and got my gear and put sweats over my running stuff. Then I sort of floated over to Buckingham Fountain and there was Mark waiting for me under the big "K" sign as promised...I was soo glad to see him! We kissed and he said "Hey BABY how was your run?" and I would pop, I was so happy. What would you do differently?: Stay in a different hotel-the Holiday Mart was on the Marathon website but they sure didn't cater to the runners much. For $225 a night-and we didn't even get the room we requested- I expected a lot better, to be honest. Get up earlier to relax, drink coffee and let nature do her thing....I've decided that it isn't my nutrition plan bothering my stomach, it's just my stupid stomach. Place myself better at the start-Anytime I tried to pick up my pace I was running over people and it was hard sometimes to zig-zag around them. By mile 4 I was in fromt of the 4:30 pace group but my potty break put me back behind the 4:45 group- which I got around but ended up behind again after potty break #2. If I'd made it to my pace group I wouldn't have been tryign to get around people so much.  Post race
Warm down: limp back to our hotel, change in the van...and STARBUCKS! What limited your ability to perform faster: Only the pottybreaks. My pace actually was pretty close to what I wanted. Event comments: I couldn't believe how smoothly everything went with the sheer number of people. I won't do this race next year because trying to marathon train during the school year was just to stressful, but I hope to go back in 2008 :) Last updated: 2006-06-01 12:00 AM
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LeSalle Bank
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Overall Rank = 22748/35000+
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 1467/
SATURDAY: We left for Chicago at around 11pm and got there around 1:30. The first thing we wanted to do was get checked in, so we left on foot for the race site. Two blocks away from the hotel and my phone rings-WHIZZZ calling to wish me good luck ;) It was AWESOME!
Little did we know that check in isn't at the race site! It was somewhere else (don't ask me where). So after quite a bit of walking we finally caught a shuttle bus to the check in and expo. We hadn't eaten lunch so we grabbed a big soft pretzel before hand. After checkin we were walking around the expo when I felt pain in my right pinky toe...oh, no...BLISTERS! When I put on my shoes that morning I hadn't expected to do so much walking. I was panicking! MarkK, sweetheart that he is, bought me a new pair of running shoes right there at the expo...and some body glide. And new socks. I stopped right there to cake on the bg and change shoes. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We went to a hotel bar for Markk to eat some more around 4-I'd nibbled at the expo and wasn't at all hungry. DInner at our hotel was at around 8 pm - it was the worst pasta I've ever had-I swear I didn't know you could hurt pasta that badly. I ate a little of it then ordered a plain baked potato. We were told at the desk of our hotel that there would be breakfast in the lobby for the marathoners. I was relieved...for the first time I'd decided to rely on what was at the site and not carry so much stuff.
Up at 5 am, shower, coffee. Down to the lobby and - WHAT? There was a basket of muffins, ONE bagel, and some fruit on the bar. That was thier "breakfast". OK Plan B...we knew there was a DUnkin' Donuts on the way to race start. We decided to grab a bagel there. But on the way...what was that old commercial? "Thank Heaven for 7-11"? Bagels, bananas (which I skipped) and a yogurt smoothie and coffee did quite well. Also a couple of endurolytes for good measure.
The weather was supposed to be VERY windy and cold and rainy and MarkK hadn't brought a warm hat...but they sold them at 7-11 so he got that too. Good karma :)
I called StartingtoTri and woke her up...oops! So I called jschmitchicago to tell her what I was wearing but for some dumb reason my cel phone wouldn't complete the call.
It wasn't rainy but it was chilly. The buildings really blocked the wind. I'd worn a windbreaker but at the last minute decided to leave it in gear check in because I didn't want to feel weighted down. It was a good decision. The winds were forecasted to be 30 mph but there were so many buildings that I really only felt the wind a couple of times. On to our planned pace groups-4:15 for me and 3:40 for him. We were running behind though and couldn't make it to our pace groups, it was too crowded. We ended up somewhat behind the 4:45 pace group...hmmmm...
I started the race needing the portapotty (even though we'd stopped ont he way). I could see them...just couldn't get to them. THis cost me a few minutes.
Standing in a crowd of 34,000 people!