Debriefing 10/10/10

Hello there! Ok, my blistered feet and aching legs are finally healed enough to write about the Chicago Marathon. I'm so sorry for the delay!

As you know, Taylor and I headed to Chicago on Thursday, October 7th for the Chicago Marathon. It was a very fun, very tiring weekend, so here goes!

We spend Thursday and Friday nights at our sister-in-law's apartment in Lincoln Square in Chicago. We arrived at around 9pm on Thursday and were really hungry so we headed out to get some dinner and wouldn't you know, the first place we found was a great little Mexican joint called Garcias. Fantastic! The food was delicious and, true to typical Midwestern form, we paid $18 for a MASSIVE amount of food, a fraction of what we would have paid in New York. Sigh....

We were both feeling a little sick Thursday night, so we headed back and hit the sack (well, the air mattress).

On Friday, I spent the morning working remotely and then met up with a couple of Chicago-based co-workers for a delicious lunch at a restaurant called Over Easy in Lincoln Square.

After lunch, I did a little more work and then met Taylor at the Marathon Expo to pick up our race numbers, T-shirts, and any other goodies we might want. Here are a couple of highlights:

Taylor is all ready to go!
Behind the giant 10-10-10 sign:
After we picked up our race paraphernalia, we headed to meet my friend Tracy, her husband Scott, and their new baby, Rachel for dinner. We got some yummy noodles and got to meet the little one before heading back to their apartment for some delicious Fondue. Isn't she just a regular Super Mom??
Baby Rachel :)
Fondue!
We went to bed early again because we still weren't feeling too well. On Saturday, Taylor and I both woke up feeling really sick. Aching bodies, stuffed up heads, you name it. And this all the day before a Marathon, not the best feeling. We took shots of Airborne, plenty of DayQuil and NyQuil, and just prayed that we would feel better.

We were lucky enough to get the entire morning to relax on Saturday before my family arrived at around noon. They had gotten up super early on Saturday and driven the 4 hours to Chicago in time to visit Navy Pier, go on a boat tour, and ride the Ferris Wheel before picking us up at noon. My mom and sister haven't spent much time in Chicago despite living 4 hours away, so they wanted to have some time to see the sights in addition to cheering us on in the marathon.

We headed straight to a famous Chicago style deep dish pizza place called Lou Malnati's with my parents. Taylor and I continued to drink lots of water in an attempt to feel better, but that didn't stop us all from enjoying some yummy pizza :)

After the pizza we headed to check into our Saturday night hotel. I'm so thankful that my parents were able to get us a room using some of the points that my dad has accumulated during his travels for work. The Hotel Indigo in the Gold Coast in Chicago is an absolutely fabulous, affordable hotel in a great location. We walked from there to Michigan Avenue for some sightseeing and it only took about 15 minutes. I didn't do a whole lot of walking around because I wanted to save energy (and health!) for the marathon, so I headed back early to relax with Taylor.

Saturday evening, we went to a bar (and drank water) to watch the Vanderbilt football game and then went to an Italian restaurant not far from our hotel to carbo load before the race.

Our whole crew at dinner:
Whew, sounds like a busy day leading up to a Marathon huh?!?!

Alright, FINALLY we have arrived at Marathon day. Like I said, the hotel we stayed in was great, and one of the best things about it was its proximity to the Start Line of the race. It only took us about 25 minutes to get there from our hotel, so we didn't have to leave until about 6am.

Thankfully, we felt better on Sunday than we had on Saturday. I think I was doing better than Taylor, but he hid it well :) We got up, put on our race clothes, timing chip, race number, and gathered up our breakfast and water bottles before heading out, nervously, for the Marathon.

Before starting the race, we dropped off our bags, used the port-a-potties, and did some stretching. We got in the start corral about 15 minutes before the start of the race and waited nervously. My memories of this time are mainly looking for the pacer (we were hoping to break 4 hours), hugging Taylor and telling him how proud of him I am, and Bruce Springsteen "Born to Run" playing on the loudspeaker.

Before I knew it, the gun went off, the crowd cheered, and off we went! Well, kind of...it actually took about 12 minutes to cross the start line because it was so crowded.

Miles 1 - 4
From the very start, I never felt settled in any one pace for this race. The 4:00 pacer, who should have been running a comfortable 9:09 (9 minute, 9 second) mile, always seemed JUST out of our reach. We also spent the first few miles messing with our GPS watch which, despite it's awesomeness, just couldn't seem to keep it together with all the tall buildings and all the other GPS signals interfering with it.

Miles 1 - 4 were pretty much right on our pace, but it just didn't feel like a pace that I would be able to maintain for 22.2 miles more.

These miles were really nice because they went right through downtown Chicago which gave us plenty to look at and also meant there were tons of crowds out there cheering for us.

At mile 4 was the first time that we saw my parents and Taryn. Here's a good shot of the sign:


Miles 5 - 10
This part of the race heads up through Lincoln Park and along the coast before turning back and heading back toward downtown more inland. At this point, I finally felt a little comfortable in the pace, but the pacer still was getting ahead of us little by little throughout this stretch of the course.

One of the highlights of this portion was around Mile 6. Mind you, we're six miles into the race when we run near a park where there's a fence backed by a line of bushes. And wouldn't you know there are a dozen or so men lining the fence facing the bushes and peeing. I felt awful for the spectators who had clearly told their respective runners where they would be standing and didn't want to abandon ship, else they most definitely would not have been cheering right in front of all of the peeing gentlemen. Sorry, no photo of this.

Miles 11 - 14
We saw my parents and sister right before Mile 11. This time, we stopped to hug them. In fact, I was so concerned with the hugging, I forgot about the photo op:
Stuff like this starts to look completely normal after you've run 12 miles...

After we saw my family, we headed back into downtown Chicago and toward the half marathon mark just on the south side of the river. Shhhh...I stole this nice shot of us with some Chi-town buildings in the background off the marathon web site:
Miles 15 - 18
These were by far the hardest miles of the race. We passed the half marathon mark feeling decent, but then any marathoner will tell you that you realize you have 13.1 miles still left to go and it starts to dawn on you just what you've gotten yourself into. I think the sign I saw about this point says it pretty well: "YOU'VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE!"

Between 15 and 18 is where the heat started to kick up (it topped out at about 85 on race day), crowds died down, and we realized we still have more than 10 miles left to run. It was definitely a struggle and at around mile 15 I realized that I wasn't going to be able to maintain the pace necessary to break 4 hours (again, I'm speaking for myself, not Taylor).

The hardest part about this part of the race was definitely the lack of cheering supper. We were running through a less populated area of Chicago and really didn't have that crowd energy to draw from.


Miles 18 - 23
Around Mile 18/19, we headed into an area of Chicago known as Pilsen, and it's a very lively Mexican neighborhood. I was still feeling pretty crappy, but you can't beat the energy of the crowd to help keep you going through the infamous "Wall."

It was around this point that I realized I would need to walk through the water stops in order to complete the race. Walking is definitely a touchy subject for marathoners. Clearly, it's not something you want to have to do during a race, but sometimes literally all you can think about is taking a break. I walked quite a bit during my first marathon in Nashville. In my second Marathon, I was really proud because my goal was not to walk at all and I had done it. But it's an entirely different scenario when you're running on a hot day with lingering sickness compared to a perfect fall November day in New York City. I am still proud of us for running between the water stops the entire race.

After little Mexico, we passed through Chinatown while looking for my parents (they were supposed to be at Mile 21). Unfortunately, we didn't see them, but we figured they were just lost in the crowd and kept trekking on toward the finish line. Miles 21 and 22 took us through Chinatown and down toward US Cellular field, where the White Sox play baseball. Taylor, miraculously, had the energy at this point to do 2 things I found amazing: 1) go out of his way to high-five the White Sox Mascot and 2) take and eat a donut from a well-meaning but ill-advised spectator. I was absolutely sure he would puke.

Mile 23 - 26.2
At long last, we reach the end! The last few miles of the race took us straight up Michigan Avenue. It was celebratory, painful, exciting, exhilarating, and every other emotion/feeling you can imagine. We had a nice surprise at mile 25 when I suddenly heard three people screaming our names only to see out cheering squad (mom, dad and T) standing there. We totally weren't expecting to see them, but it was just what I needed. Here's a pic of us:
After we saw my family, we knew we were almost there. Miles 26 went by pretty quickly and before I knew it, we could see the turn to the finish line. Little did we know, a nice long hill awaited us just around that corner. Considering how flat the entire course had been, this nice little incline in the last 500 yds was pretty tough! But we made it, turned left, and there was the finish line, tantalizingly close!

The crowd cheered and we could hardly believe it as we crossed the finish line of the 2010 Chicago Marathon in 4 hours 15 minutes and 48 seconds.

And here's a nice shot afterward, we look like we're tipping over!

Oh wait, here's a better one (no proof but still falling over):
After the race, we met up with my family, headed back to our hotel for a quick shower, and made a very important stop for lunch at a delicious Chicago eatery called Choppers (thanks Tracy and Scott for introducing me to this place!).

We rushed home to Perrysburg (a 4 hour drive) and made it just in time to go to my favorite ice cream place, Mr. Freeze, before it closed for the season for some Turtle sundaes. Hey, we earned it!