Chi Town 26.2

October 9, 2011
Chicago Marathon
Chicago, Illinois

Chicago...the race I really wanted to do well at did not really pan out.  I arrived Friday morning with Marianne and Saila in Chi Town and we headed to the expo for registration and some shopping.  This expo was probably one of the biggest expos I have ever been at including all Ironmans!  It was huge!  Which meant lots of walking but that was ok.  I got some swag and then we played tourist for the rest of the day even trying out some famous Chicago deep dish pizza and Garrett's popcorn!  Saturday I ran about 6km in the morning with 3x1km at race pace and I felt ok.  We spent the rest of the day shopping along the Magnificent Mile and site seeing.  Had some pasta for dinner and went to bed early for our early wake up call.

Race day Sunday.  Got up, had some oatmeal, a banana, and a boost and got ready for the race.  We were really close to the start/finish area so that was really handy.  Walked over to the race site and got into the corral with about 45min left before the start.  I was not seeded so I was in the Open corral and went to the 4:00 hr section as that was my goal - sub 4hr.  This was for sure the biggest race I have ever been in.  There were over 50,000 people who started this run. Wow!  Insane!  The gun went off at 7:30am but it took me about 7min to cross the start line.  And I consider that pretty good! Lol!

My goal was to hold around a 5:40 min/km pace right from the beginning to about the half way mark.  If I felt good I would then try to bring that down, if not, maintain pace and reassess at 30km and if I still could not bring it down then just try to maintain the 5:40.  5:40 was what I needed to come in just under 4hrs and I REALLY wanted this!  I was prepared to hurt for this.  At the start I was really careful to try not to go out too hard as can happen with adrenaline and all the energy surrounding you.  However,  with all the tall buildings in the downtown core and running under some bridges I noticed that my Garmin was not reading my pace correctly.  It was jumping all over the place and I quickly realized I could not rely on my avg pace reading anymore.  Darn!  That was ok as I was quickly doing math to figure out the mile pacing.  Next time I will know what mile and km pacing I want.  I figured I needed to maintain around a 9min/mile and that was what I tried to do.  I was so focused on maintaining pace that the first half of the run just flew by.  This was also aided by the enormous amount of spectators!!! It was absolutely incredible.  The whole 42km were lined with spectators and in some places it went about 5ft deep!  We were never alone.  And it was also sooo loud with music and performers along the way.  It was so loud I could not even hear myself breathe.  At the same time though with the huge number of runners it made running in some places tricky.  The corners were tight and at times there was a bottleneck effect.  The aid stations were a bit crazy but they were so long that I waited until there was some clearing before I got fluids.

I was so focused on the pace that I did not notice or look around the different neighbourhoods we were passing.  I was careful to take both gatorade and water at the aid stations as it was a HOT day!  I believe the temp was about 30C!  Yikes!  And I was soaking wet!  I took a total of four gels throughout and I also took a couple of salt pills because I was caked in salt.  At about 22km I also took a redbull shot hoping it would give me some wings! ;)  As the temperature was rising I was really starting to feel the heat and I was grabbing sponges and running through water to try to cool down.  Just before the 30km mark the heat started really getting to me but I did not focus on that at all.  I was maintaining a good pace right until about 34km where I guess my wheels fell off.  I had stayed in front of the 4hr pacer until then and then I got passed.  I tried to stay with them but I just could not.  I tried to fight and was focusing on trying to push but it wasn't happening.  I made some more calculations and realized that I was not going to come in under 4hrs.  Maybe once I realized that I let my pace go even more but I tired to bring it back as I wanted to get as close to 4hrs as possible.  Yup...not so much!  With 2miles to go we entered the inspirational mile and I tried to pick it up again there.  I even had volunteers telling me I looked great!  But when I looked down at my watch the pace just wasn't there.  I had little left in me.

Crossed the line in 4:09:12.  And to be honest, I was very disappointed.  I really thought I was capable of a sub 4.  I consider myself to be realistic with my time goals and I thought sub 4 was possible.  Maybe it was too rich for me or maybe it just wasn't my day.  My garmin read a 5:48 min/km pace but it also read 43km, it looks like I ran a 5:55 pace with an avg HR of 164bpm.  Stats: I was 10,649 out of 35,628 finishers.  I was the 2839 women to cross the line out of 15,453 and I was 541 in my age group out of 2845.  On the bright side this was a PB for me! Yay!  My first marathon was a 4:16.  At the finish we were given free beer and here is me enjoying one:

Afterwards, we went to Niketown to get our medals engraved and look at the finisher's gear and we had the best welcoming party ever.  We had to enter through a specific door since we were finishers and the employees were lined up on either side and cheered us in as we walked inside.  It was a first for me and it was amazing!  That was a lot of fun!  I do have to say that this was a very well organized race.  All the aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were great!  And we also got free medal engraving and photos courtesy of Nike!  How cool is that!

Right now I am considering a November marathon!  Do not know if this is insane or not.  Hmmm???  I do have the run training in me right now....maybe try again at a sub 4!?!?