Pre-race
We flew up to Chicago on Friday morning. The flight was uneventful as was the day. We rented a car and headed over to the race expo to pick up our race numbers and timing chips. The expo was pretty unexciting. If you have seen one expo, you have seen them all. We then went to Jamie’s old high school to watch the homecoming football game. Made us feel old.
Saturday, slept in, had a wonderful breakfast with Jamie, returned the car and checked out a local tri store: Mission Bay Multisport store. Again, nothing really to purchase. I did scope out a cool transition bag, but I will buy it online. We also hit up the Garmin store (no news on an updated Forerunner 305) and NikeTown. The excitement for the day was when we arrived back at the hotel room Saturday afternoon to nap. Jamie could not find her phone. To me, in a city like Chicago, you are not going to physically backtrack so the phone is gone. Jamie called the tri store and the place where we ate lunch at. No dice. Then she called her phone and someone picked up. It had fallen out of her pocket in the taxi that we took from the tri store to NikeTown. She convinced the guy to swing by the hotel and pay him for his trouble. $30 later, she had her phone back.
Jamie read in the spectators guide that they only had 45K gels. Luckily, she took pity on my stupidity and she brought four - I planned to carry those with me. Rookie mistake #1 – do not rely on the race course for fuel. Jamie did awesome as she had her stuff well planned out. I figured I would restock on the course and 4 would be enough. Boy was I wrong.
Sunday we woke up at 6am. I showered and ate a banana. I drank some water and had a little Gatorade. We left and walked over to our neighbors hotel and then on to the race site. We checked our gear, went to the bathroom and then it was time to head over to the start corral. My God, were there a ton of people.

I had previously decided I would pace off the 4:15 pace group. At 9:44 pace, this seemed doable. If I felt really good, I could shoot for 4:00. If I felt bad, a 4:30 finishing time would still make me happy. Rookie mistake #2 – No respect for the distance. I honestly felt like this would be 2 half-marathons. If I ran the first at a conservative speed of 2:15 I could do the second in 2:00. After all, I ran a 2:15 half back in March with only 12 weeks of training. Since then, I rationalized, I have done a ton of training. Silly me.

Race
I made my way to the 4:15 pace group team and waited. After then national anthem, we were off. – WALKING. It was very crowded. We crossed under the starting line with 18 minutes on the clock. Just before the starting line we started running.
This must have been the national race of Mexico City. There was a tone of Spanish speaking folks at the race. Cool by me: I like women who speak a foreign language. Nothing wrong with 26.2 miles of sexiness.

Miles 1-3
These miles went pretty well. Although my HR was a little on the high side, I chalked it up to adrenaline. We hit the first water station and it was crowded. I lost the pace group ahead of me. At this point I thought I would reel them in over the next few miles. I could still see them ahead, but not close enough that I was actually running with them.
My Garmin was pissing me off since it kept on auto-pausing whenever we went under anything (I have since turned this feature off).

Miles 4-6
I still felt good but looking at my times after the fact, this is where I started to slow down. We hit the second water station and I asked about gels. I got a “what are you talking about” look back from the volunteer.
Ok, adjustment: take gel every other water stop (every 4 miles) and supplement with Gatorade. Even though I’ve never done this in training (the most in training was every 3 miles) and stopped drinking Gaterade due to high sugar content, somehow this made perfect sense to do this in the middle of a race. Duh.

At one of the water stops, I look up to see a girl dancing. I thought, she’s not that bad looking. Then I noticed her stomach was all hairy. Then I noticed it wasn’t a girl at all but a transvestite. Hmmm, guess we are in the gay part of Chicago. I think I had a little sick in my mouth over this one. I’m pretty sure getting out of there was my fastest mile.

Miles 7-9
Someplace between miles 7 to 9, I officially lost the 4:15 pace group from my sight. I never saw them the rest of the day. At this point, my goal changed to just stay ahead of the 4:30 pace group.

Miles 10-13
Still felt OK during this time – I could feel it in my legs and feet but nothing, I thought, that was different from my training runs. I was taking in water. I was walking only enough during the water stations to pick up some water. I hit the half marathon mark at 2:15ish. Still on track, I thought. I’m a little tired, but I only have to hang on until mile 20, then I can suck it up for a 10K. “I’m the man, baby!” was going through my head.

Miles 14-16
The bottom started to fall out here. Rookie mistake #3 – last long run (3+ hour) was 6 weeks ago – needs to be 4 weeks out max. My legs started to feel it at this point. Feet hurt. At this point, I started to walk the entire length of the water stations and run to the next one. These strategy worked and got me through to mile 19. We passed a bank I think at this point and the temp read 95*.

Mile 17-19
At this point in the race, the heat started to take its toll. I was drinking 2 cups of water, pouring 2 cups on my head, and then taking and extra cup of water with me on the run/shuffle. Oh, and mile 17 was the PowerGel station. I took a handful as I had one left at this point.
So here is the plan at this point, just make it the next 4 miles. At mile 23, it’s only 3 miles left and you can get ‘er done. I could still finish in 4:45. Outside my goal but still ok.

At mile 19, a police officer in the middle of the road was announcing that the race was canceled. WHAT? My first though was, oh no, has there been some kind of 9/11 incident. A few people started to make phone calls. There was a ton of miss-information.

I took note of the fact that I saw a few stretchers and folks being added by EMTs.

Miles 20-23
I made it to mile 22 shuffling along (albeit at a blistering 15 min pace). We were told to just make to the next aid station and we would be bussed back in. Then we were told to keep going – we could finish. The 30K timing mat looked turned off – no sound or time on the clock. I started talking to a few people as I walked along. My legs and feet hurt bad at this point. Then I started to think about Jamie behind me. Walking along in the sun, I suddenly realized how hot it was. I got worried for her and hoped that she was alright. I sat down for a minute to rest my legs. If the SAG bus had come along at that point, I would have gotten on it.

I tried to run a couple of times, but after about mile 20, the mood of entire race had changed. Some spectators started to pack it up. I saw a few women crying. I realized at this point that every medical tent I had passed today was full. Spectators were handing out water, using hoses, anything to cool people down. It didn’t register to me how bad it was until this point. There were too many people walking to run; absolutely no one to pace off of. I talked with a few people here and there. The more I walked, the more I knew that running any part of the rest of this race was out of the question. My legs tightened up. I sat down once or twice to rest them.

Miles 23-26.2
Death march: that was this felt like and looked like. A pacer from the 4:45 group and I talked for ½ a mile. She asked me how my day was going, present condition not withstanding. I said I had 16 miles of a great race. We talked about what the marathon is really about: doing the training and getting all the positives from that, taking the day in, not worrying about the uncontrollables, and the lessons learned for my first marathon. Her parting words were that I had a really good attitude and lucky to have my positive perspective right in the middle of what was going on.

I hooked up with another lady from Kansas City and we talked for the rest of the way in. We both tried to run but we were done at this point. I learned about her training and who else was doing the race with her (her sister-in-law and brother-in-law: SIL got bussed back in and BIL DNFd). She said this may be her first and last marathon; I hope not.
We walked all the way to the last 500 meters. I could see the finish line and it said 5:57. I asked my new friend (never did ask her name) if she could run to the finish line and we could break 6 hours clock time. We shuffled in with a minute to spare.


FINISHED!
I started to choke up with emotion. I was worried about were Jamie was. I was tired, sore and done. I wished my KC friend the best and went to gear check. I called Paul and then hobbled over the where they were. I was happy to see Jamie and Jess. I sat down for a few minutes. As I took in some water and few bites to eat, I learned that Jamie was rerouted and only finished 18. She seemed perfectly fine with that. Jess was also rerouted and only finished. She was less than happy. I think this is her 3rd marathon. Her first (Nashville), she had a broken foot before she started but still finished. The second was Disney and she did alright. I know she wants to be faster and this did not help her confidence.

Post-Race
I struggled back to the hotel. Jamie, who felt and looked much better than I did, went out and got us some protein shakes. After a shower and a check of BT, I tried to lay down and catch a nap. I was shivering (which I normally do after long runs). Other than feeling like I slogged through 26 miles, the only other ache to note was that my toenails hurt. I could not even put sheets over them. Strange feeling. I eventually did get a 30 minute nap.
Later we went to Smith & Wollensky’s steak house. I tried to be cordial but I know I wasn’t that much fun. I went to sleep as soon as we got back. It was a really weird sleep. I was disgustingly sweaty and woke up a couple of times.

Next Day
I woke up at 6am with no problems. We got ready and left for the airport. Walking is not a struggle – legs just feel like they got a workout (no different then the first few times you do squats). Jamie and I flew back to Atlanta, then I had to turn around and fly to NY after a quick bag change at the car. I even had to jog a bit to catch my flight so I guess my legs still work.

Retrospective and go-forward plans
• I have a new respect for the marathon. It is decidedly not 2x a half-marathon.
• I really like the idea of pace groups. At Disney I will sign up for the 4:45 pace group.
• I do not regret anything that happened on race day. I’m really not mad at the race director. No mater what I read, it was the right decision. Maybe they could have had water stops at every mile, but otherwise, not much they could have done. (note: now that I have read some newspaper articles with interviews of the race director, I hope he gets fired. He is now blaming the runners for drinking too much water and that’s why they had issues. What a tool!).
• I overheard several locals saying this race had gotten too big. I agree. I signed us up because of all the positives: crowd support, flat course, great city. Those things are still true. There are just too many people running the race. It is just like the Peachtree in Atlanta.
• I am so proud of Jamie for going the distance. I really hope that this is not her last attempt. I know she can finish a marathon.