October 9. 2016
Place: overall 32418; female 13605; div 1946
I'm glad last year was my first marathon because the ending of this year's was a little bit of a bummer. Last year Emily finished 2 minutes ahead of me and she waited for me. We had our picture taken together, got our celebratory beer and walked that long, dreadful, walk into Grant park together. Emily was injured this year so she came in an hour after me. I wasn't able to wait for her in the finish shoot but we caught up at the CARA compound later.
This year I was a group leader for marathon training. I'm in the slower group which always attracts the hardest working new comers! we had a bunch of first timers. I love the first timers and new runners. Giving my best advice based on my one whole marathon and 7 halfs makes me feel good. Preparing for a marathon is serious business and everyone is so busy these days I know not everyone is taking the time to read a billion things on the internet plus books abut marathons to prepare. thats what I'm here for! What else are you going to during these long runs that last for hours?
Having the CARA compound this year was super nice! Last year I started out with my charity at some school off State Street. I didnt know anyone and didnt feel all hyped up. But at the CARA compound at the Palmer House I found a good portion of my training crew. It was exciting getting ready with everyone. The mistake CARA made was placing us in a room that, in order to get there, you had to go down some stairs and then up. Fine pre race but post race, stairs are the last thing you want!
This year wasn't quite as hot as last year. Thank God! Of course this made last minute decisions about what to wear even more worrisome. I ended up going with the same outfit as last year; tank top and shorts. I found 5" compression shorts with side pockets. They are pretty awesome for a quick reach of Kleenex or lip balm but because all the crap stuffed in there I looked a little lumpy in the photos. I don't have the thinnest thighs in the first place!
The photos are from a little camera I had clipped onto my tank top. It takes a photo every 30 seconds.
I ran the Chicago half this year in September. It was pretty cool as part of the course was on Lake Shore Drive. Afterwards I headed over to Jamie's house for a marathon shirt party. Jamie is super into crafting and she's quite good at it too! She used her special die cut machine to make iron on letters and put them on all our marathon shirts. I also had her put "put a bird on it" (from Portlandia) but she accidentally misaligned the letters. I didnt realize it until the week before the marathon. Thanks to google, I was able to get the letters off and redo it.
The Chicago marathon 2015 was my first and I really took my training seriously. I made nearly all of my weekly miles. I ate right, foam rolled, got regular massages and did yoga at least weekly. 2016 was a little different. I had a lot more going on and I wasn't able to meet the demands of the training schedule. I was able, however, able to stick to regular massages! It's really the best part. Instead of three weekly runs I only did two but tacked on a few more miles to each run. in 2015 I headed to yoga on the beach after many of the long runs. in 2016 they changed the start time for yoga and it conflicted with when we finished running so I made it to a few beach sessions on Sunday mornings. My body really felt it.
I was having tons of foot pain and tight ham strings like mad! Certain toes were going numb so badly that I'd have to stop mid run and adjust my socks and shoes. I experimented with different shoes and KT tape. At one point I remember crying to a friend that I may not be able to run again and m life would be over. I think I'm ok now but in the back of my head I know I wont be able to run forever and that's a little scary.
I had three people I was counting on to bring me food en route. Beth was my first stop. She was a course marshal around mile 9 in Lakeview. She texted me with her exact location so I couldn't miss her. I was set on pickles this year. It's never advised to try anything new during a marathon from new socks to food. Eh, what the heck? Those rules aren't for me! I don't have a sensitive stomach like others I know. Experimentation should be no big deal. And it was.
Beth had one of those giant pickes in a bag generally found at the cash register of drug and corner stores. I ripped the bag open, started gnawing away while we briefly chatted. I continued running and chomping on my pickle. I was getting close to the end of the pickle. I squeezed the pickle swimming in pickle juice up the bag and whoops, it fell right out and onto the street.
The next person I was supposed to see was Zuzana. I had a round about idea of where she was going to be and she was tracking me on the app but I never saw her! She had pickles too. I wasn't too hungry so it wasn't a devastating loss but it would have been nice to see her.
The last person(s) was my Mom, Steve and Randy. This one was easy as they were at the same location as last year; in Little Italy at mile 18 on the south side of the street.
My uncle thinks he funny. He also doesn't know when to not be funny. He sends me a text around mile 13 to tell me they were on the highway and ask if I could slow down so they don't miss me. Ha ha. Seriously?
I've worked hard over the years to become more light hearted but this was really not the time and I was just annoyed.
Then I get a text from him a few miles later saying they were parking, slow down. At this point I'm thinking, "we'll it really sucks for them to have driven all the way down here and miss me." I was on a good trajectory for a PR!
I saw my step dad looking in the other direction. I saw my uncle in a chair looking at his camera. Then I see my mom far back from the curb bent over her phone trying to text me.
I was looking forward to my uncle getting a photo of me running but noooooo!
He wanted me to go back and do it again. No.
Then we're posing for what should be a quick photo and the professional photographer in him is posing us.
So he's telling us to move a little to the right and I'm shouting how there's no time for all of that just take the stinking' photo!!!!
My mom brought me fig bars and Nuun!
I ran into Chuck about 2 miles later in Chinatown at the 20 mile mark. From Chuck's 70th birthday in March to the marathon Chuck ran 73 races of varying distances in honor of his brother in law who passed away from Alzheimers who would have been 73 this year.
He and a course marshal were gripping each other's arms and Chuck was breathing pretty heavily. I felt like I needed to stop but I was about to PR in 6 miles! What should I do? I asked if he was OK and if there was anything I could do? He said he was going to be fine and to keep going. OK! You don't have to tell me twice!
Fast forward 2 months and Chuck has a heart attack the day after Christmas. He got right back out there a few short months later and will run a half marathon in May. That Chuck is one tough nut!
I hate cords. Of all kinds. Especially the vacuum cleaner cord but that's a different story for a different blog. I use wireless head phones to avoid the headphone cord. When I first started running I was constantly catching the cord with my had and ripping the head phones out of my ears.
Technology specs will usually tell you how many hours the product will run before it needs to be charged. I believe my headphones are good for 8 hours. Of course, over time, that number goes down. That is why I always bring a corded pair tucked safely away in the side of my bra. I hadn't used it yet, until this marathon. Failure happened around mile 23. I was so over this race and to add having to fiddle with headphones was just making me mad.
I can't recall exactly what happened but the music app on my phone stopped working too. Good thing I had music back up item #2; iPod shuffle!
Michigan Avenue is the final long stretch in the course. At the end, at Roosevelt before we make that turn and go up the dreaded hill, there are a bunch of countdown signs. They couldn't come fast enough. I was done with the cheering crowd. Done with the clanking of cowbells for the past 5 hours. Done with the whole deal. I cranked up the music and ran the whole stretch. no more run/walk intervals. Let's get this thing done!
I got to the end and crossed the finish line. It was anticlimactic. Emily wasnt waiting like last year. I had already done this before. It wasnt new. Of course I was still excited; it just wasnt the same. Oh, and my time wasnt official yet but I was pretty sure it was going to be a PR kind of a day.
This year the marathon had an almost real time app to track runners. I say almost real time because it can only estimate where a runner is based on the last timing pad they crossed. I saw that Katie was pretty close. It was her first marathon and I thought I'd pay forward Emily's kind gesture of wating for me last year.
I missed her. There is still a decent number of people coming in even after 5 hours. I moved on to get my medal and photos and most importantly, my beer. I grabbed two. Is someone going to deny me a second beer after running a marathon?
I made my way through Grant Park while talking to my dad on the phone and juggling my beers. I found the unofficial time tent. Yes! It was a PR. I looked at FB on my phone as I was finishing the last of my beer, reveling in my 4 minute PR and I see all the congratulatory messages. I got really emotional about it. Running does that. It gets you high and then makes you cry.
Emily was injured and probably shouldn't have been running this race. We knew she'd take a long time so I made it my duty to get her bag from CARA's gear check at the hotel if she wasn't going to make it back by the time they close at 3. I even had her record a video giving me permission to get her bag. This didn't give me much time to hang around Grant Park. I kind of wanted to take it all in.
I got back to CARA in enough time to get stretched out and snag some snacks. Emily arrived and got cleaned up and we headed out on the El to the Bad Apple for burgers and beer.
CARA made a big mistake by having us in a room where you have to climb down a short flight of stairs and then up again, coming and going this was a muscular nightmare. The stairs to the El was pretty bad too.
I took an Uber home from dinner. It was around 7 PM. It's amazing how on a day where I ran 26.2 miles I only had one meal (plus 4 beers) and stayed awake until 9 pm. The body can take more than one thinks!
This was the race to commemorate my 4 year run-aversary. I hate to travel so far for a 5k but I'm going to run out of options soon so why not?
