Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon


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Chicago, Illinois
United States
LeSalle Bank
40F / 4C
Overcast
 		Total Time = 4h 05m 19s
Overall Rank = 12434/33,608
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Woke up around 4:45 and had breakfast. Since I trained with CARA they rented a hotel ballroom (Congress Plaza) and had gear check, etc... My wife, buddy and myself drove down there around 5:30. Got to the hotel at 6:00 and began getting ready. We headed over to the start around 6:45, hit the bathroom one last time and got into the corral (D) around 7:15ish. Did the national anthem and then the gun fired and we were off.
Event warmup:

Did some light jogging on the way to the starting corral and did some stretching in the corral. About 2 minutes before the gun went off, I took off my extra layers and chucked them.
Run
  • 4h 05m 19s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 09m 22s  min/mile
Comments:

I was cursing right along at about an 8:40 pace until I hit mile 21. At that point the wheels just fell off both physically and mentally. Since IMCDA was my big race and I was just doing this for the heck of it, I folded mentally. Just didn't want to push and deal with the pain. I ended up doing the walk shuffle for the last 5 miles. Overall I was happy that I finished, but in hindsight a little disappointed I didn't push harder to go under 4 hours.
What would you do differently?:

Take the training a little more seriously and push through the low spots. I think I'm just a little burned out from doing 2 IM's in the last 16 months. The mental part of the training has taken it's toll on me.
Post race
Warm down:

Grabbed some food and drink in the finish area and walked back to the hotel. When I got in the ballroom I saw my wife and she had qualified for Boston. She ran a 3:35:34. She made it by over 5 minutes. She has been trying the last 2 years at Chicago to get to Boston, but with the heat in 2007 and 2008 just couldn't pull it off. She rocked it this time.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Mental burnout and being a wuss and not pushing through it.

Event comments:

For having 45,000 runners this was very well organized. They let somebody else get your packet for you which was nice. In addition they learned from the past and had more than enough aid stations that were full staffed with 100's of people at each one. In fact I skipped 2 of them as it wasn't needed with the cooler temps.




Last updated: 2009-02-02 12:00 AM
Running
04:05:19 | 26.2 miles | 09m 22s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/33,608
Performance: Below average
Course: Course was a winding course through the city of Chicago. Went north first and then came back south. Went west towards the United Center, came back east through China town. Headed back south towards US Cellular Field. Came back north to finish in Grant Park area.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4