Easily, the most bizarre race I've ever been in.

The race started at 8am, and it was already in the mid-to-upper 70's with very high humidity. Not even a mile in and I was sweating buckets.

Knew that it was going to be a scorcher out there, so right out of the gate I was focused on keeping my pace easy and my heart rate down. The first 8-9 miles I was probably low 160's, which was right about where I wanted to be. I stopped paying as much attention to it, and somewhere around mile 12, I noticed that it had crept up to the high 160's and low 170's.

The first half of this race was probably about the most fun I've had out at a race in a long time. Since I was purposely taking it easy, I wasn't feeling fatigued, and if anything, I was making myself slow down instead of pushing the pace.

Then - around that time, you start heading out west of the city, and the sun was unrelenting. And, by then it was past 10-10:30 and the heat index had skyrocketed. It was then that I started feeling the heat and it started affecting my run. After this point, a lot of things start getting a little fuzzy for me (esp. since I don't have accurate mile splits). I was very fortunate in that there was always water available at every aid station I passed through -- and even still, I was always looking/waiting/wanting the next one.

I was conscientious about making sure I was taking in gels and electrolytes because I wasn't drinking gatorade and think I did a pretty good job of that. I think I had 6 gels over the course of the race as well as about a package of this new product called Endur-something-or-other that look like the Listerine breath strips.

My pace really started slowing down from sub-10's to 10:15-10:30-ish around mile 18. Of course, the heat had something to do with it, but let's face it - ANY marathon is going to be hard once you hit that distance.

GI-wise...I always seem to have problems with long runs, but this one was probably better than most. Stopped 3 times (I think?) and that was as much because I had my period (sorry, TMI!) and it was necessary for other reasons (just trying to document so I can remember all the details).

And then the weirdness started. Around mile 21 I started hearing the announcements that they were cancelling the marathon... "The marathon has been CANCELLED! The course is closing, go to the next aid station and wait for a bus!".... and now, understand that I was not really "with it" at this point... the guy making the announcement was not in any kind of official gear, so my thought was, "Oh, crazy dude". Then, there was a woman saying the same thing. "Hmm, crazy chick working with crazy dude." Then a THIRD person... literally, my train of thought is "wow - whole crazy person conspiracy... why do they want us to stop? it's not as though any of us are going to WIN this thing...?!?" So - I kept running. Saw my sis around 22.5, walked with her for a short bit (even managed to get a pic of the two of us by official photogs!), then started running again.

Around mile 23, I started noticing that it was police officers who were making the announcement. And not only that, but they were saying that times were no longer being kept and they were very adament that we all walk instead of run. The mile marker time clocks had been turned off, and the timing mats weren't chirping any longer, so in a huff, I stopped running.

Of course, they WERE still keeping time - had I known that, I'm sure I would have kept running. Of course, that might have also put me in the medical tent with so many others, so it was probaby for the best.

The best part of the race? Saw my posse around the 5k mark and then around 11.75 miles. Saw the BT posse around 3.5, 11.5 and 24.5 miles. I can't even express how GREAT it was to have support out there. There were times when all I was doing was counting down the miles before I'd have someone to see on the side of the road! At 24.5, when I saw Jen and Jon and Jen (Hangloose's wife), I stopped and chatted for about 5 minutes in fact (figured they weren't keeping time anyway)... that was a great boost. And then - one of my posse came out to the 25 mile mark and walked some of the last part back with me, even.

When we turned on to Roosevelt, I started running again. No way was I going to WALK over the finish line. And so - I jogged it in, coming in with a time just a hair over 5 hours, about an hour over my original goal time.


Garmin: turn off Auto Lap and Auto Pause. This messed up my timing right from the beginning.

I should have been carrying water with me. I've been around this scene for too long, and should know better. I KNEW that some of the water stops were 2.5 miles apart -- way too long for that kind of heat. And I was one of the lucky ones ... I can't imagine getting to one of those water stops and then not being able to get any.

I finished this race pissed off and disappointed. After a few days to mull it over, I realized how lucky I was, comparatively speaking. I was allowed to cover the full 26.2 miles. And I managed to do it relatively unscathed. Not everyone had as good of fortune as I did, and some of those people were even better prepared for that race than I was. I was lucky. I'll take it.

Found my posse and we high-tailed it back to the train station to catch the 2:30pm train back home.


Heat. Who expects 90+ degree heat in CHICAGO in OCTOBER??!?!