For the Beoir and such

Chicago Marathon 10/12/08

What a day. Its a day that I will never forget as long as live. I was really nervous not knowing what my body would do during the race and what to expect after 20 miles. I took Saturday as a complete rest day, no touring the city with my friends. I stayed back with Brian at their house while my wife went shopping. My nerves seemed to lighten up from that point on. Had a good night sleep and felt ready when I woke up at 5 am. Crystal and I headed out to the train to downtown. As we took the 40 min train ride we talked about the past races we had run. Its funny to me that in the past 2 years of running races 5k’s to a half marathon we are now headed to the ultimate of running events, The Chicago Marathon. Man we are nuts. At each stop along the train, more and more runners get on. All I am sure feeling the same sense of excitement and a little unrest of whats to come. We hit our last stop and head to her office so we can use the restrooms their instead of dealing with the crowds down at the start line. We went to her desk and looked out the window down to the start line. WOW what a sight. I have never seen so many people in one area in my life. It was time to make our way down to the start line. We made the 3 block walk and said are goodbyes and a last high five for luck.

I walked over to where the 4:15 pace group was. The problem I ran into was they were all the way over on the right side of the road and I was stuck behind a fence on the left side and could not get to them. I climbed the fence and jumped over along with the other runners. As I pushed my way across the mass of people to try my best to get as close to them, I realized that in any other event people may have been more upset with me for pushing my way over. Not the runners in this marathon, they were all first class. Once I get over there the National Anthem is sung and I am standing there in awe of what I am feeling. The mass crowds and the excitement is really a rush that you would just have to feel for yourself, my words would do it no justice. They then let the elite runners go. Its amazing to me that I am running this race in these world class runners. Then they let the rest of the field go. Slowly we reach a point that we can see the start line. I got to talk to a few people there, some like me doing their first marathon. I finally reach the starting line and my Marathon journey is about to begin.

As I cross the start line I raised my arms with the other runners and wave at the mass crowds that cheer us on our way. It was reported that there was an estimated 1.5 million people watching us run the race. That is awesome. We hit the tunnel and go underground for about a 1/4 mile. Already I was sweating like crazy. It was so freaking hot under there. I made the decision then that I needed to stop at every aid station for gatorade. The 4:15 pace group took off so fast that I was already about 1/4 mile behind them, but I still had them in my sights. I know they ran the first few miles faster then the projected pace. I got stuck behind some slower runners in the mass of runners and started to drop back even more. I was at this point on a 10 mile min pace. I hit the 5k marker and could still see them up in the route. So I picked it up to catch up. The closest I would come would be a 9:49 pace. The crowds were so packed at the start of the race and made the first 6 miles go by really fast. As I started to reach around Wrigleyville area I was suppose to try to see my wife there. I missed them there as they were on the right side of the road and I was on the left. There was still so many runners that you could not see the other side of the street with any clarity. Miles 8-12 went with realitive ease, though my goal of a 4:15 marathon was gone. I knew I could not catch back up and pushing it at this point would have ruined my marathon. So I changed my goal to a 4:20 or so.

I hit the halfway point and my left foot started to go numb. Not good. By mile 17 is was no longer numb but throbing with pain. Every step hurt and my goal then was just finish. It was about this time that my fortune kind of changed. I ran up to this girl that looked familiar. It was my wifes best friends, brothers wife. (thats a lot to say in one sentence). She was dealing with a knee problem and dropped back from her husband, so we both needed this time to run with someone. I for one was feeling pretty lonely out there. Not seeing my wife along the race and running alone with no music was getting to me. Not to mention at this point in the race the crowds were thinning out and the sun was taking its toll on us. We ran together for about 3 or 4 miles. At mile 20 I could tell that there was no way I could hold this pace up and would probably have to start to walk at some point. We walked through every aide station and that became to much for her as she started to cramp up and needed to keep running. I told her that I appreciated the time we ran together and told her to go a head.

Miles 21 - 24 were the hardest 3 miles of my life. I have never felt so bad in my life. I started to get a slight cramp in my knee, my foot was yelling at me to stop every step of the way. I decided at this point that I would walk a little bit. I am glad I did, my pace had dropped so far, but my heart rate was still high. I knew at that point that the heat now had taken its toll and I was about to over heat. I took any water, ice, sprinkler I could to cool myself down. It was around this time that the 4:30 pace group paced me and I tired to keep up with them and feed off of them. That would soon fade as well.

At mile 25 the crowds picked up and so did the sun. There was absolutely no shade to be found. I pushed as hard as could and ran more then walked during this time but still was feeling pretty bad. I just kept saying to myself forward is forward. Then the crowds got larger and larger, the end was near. I got excited and ran the last 1.2 miles straight. We reached the only real hill on the course just as you crest the hill mile 26. I was so excited at this point the end was near. I made the left hand turn and the most glorious sight was ahead. The finish line. I can say at this point my emotions all most got the best of me and almost cried. As I crossed the finish line with my arms raised I realized I did it, I am a marathoner.

Truly the best part of the marathon though was when I finally saw Kelly at the runner reunite area. I was so glad to see her. I could not have gotten through the 18 weeks without her support and understanding! 

Congrats to Crystal, Philip, Katie, Billy, Bill, Dave and Brenda for a job well done. It was rough out there at times and from all the reports I have read we all faired better then some.