Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon

It was fun - for a while... It was so freakin' hot!! Started out with Sandi, but I had to use bathroom - she lost me... stayed o.k. until mile 9-10 when I started walking for a little while, (took my other Gu, which helped) but still doing all right. I had water bottle that I was holding so I could drink when I wanted as well as get water from the course. Mile 13 saw a couple of friends yelling and screaming... thought I could continue, so on I went. Got to mile 14, a little tougher, then mile 15..... getting somewhat harder (and HOTTER) - hearing ambulances all over the place - saw a couple people laying in the middle of the road (EMT's were already helping them).. then I saw the 25k marker, and thought, well, that's where I'll stop. Made it past that marker, and sat down by the side of the road for a little while. I was doing better off than most of the other people that were sitting around me, I just lost energy. The people asked if I wanted to drop out, and eventually I said 'o.k.', and ended my day.

let's see..... have more that 2 Gu's available? maybe break in the shoes a little rather than try to run in them for the first time? probably use salt tablets? keep on going another 20 minutes?

looked for Sandi - they ended up shutting down the race due to excessive heat - 3 1/2 hours into the race... basically if I would have kept at it for just a little bit longer (now I see it would have been about 20 minutes longer - after my little sit-down) - I would have been able to get a finisher's medal.

They had 35,000 start the race; 11,000 had dropped out before the race was cancelled, and 312 people were taken by ambulance to the hospital (1 of which passed away - sincere condolences to his family - he was a 33 year old policeman from Michigan).

Because of the craziness, and not seeing Sandi until more than 5 hours into the marathon, I was starting to freak out a little bit, but waited where we said we would meet - I was looking one way, and she came up and hugged me - nearly knocked me over, and all was good... she had finished the whole course!! which is AWESOME!!


absolutely NO training for this...

Overall very happy and satisfied how this run went. I figured there would be almost no way I'd make it to 7 miles with my recent training (both distances AND how running has felt)


I think next time I'll hopefully know I'll be racing more than a day ahead of time... and I LLOOVVEE my new Newtons. My knees/hips never hurt on the run, and while I'm sore today, I think it's because I kind of went away from that 10% rule thing (quads, hamstrings, and side gluts hurt), and I CAN still walk today.