BANK OF AMERICA CHICAGO MARATHON 2009
For my trip to Chicago, Brian, my fiance, and his son were the only people coming with me. That was fine with me, they are the ones who truly supported me throughout all the training anyway. We started out from Springfield on Friday morning (Oct 9) as soon as Tyler got out of school at 11. We decided to stay Fri night at my parents house in Dwight, about an hour and a half or so southwest of Chicago making the trip a little shorter for us the next day. On Sat, I got in a quick 2 mi run in the morning just to loosen up my legs from taking 2 days of rest. We left Mom and Dad's house at around 10 am. I was driving, basically because I stink at navigating and Brian could then just tell me where to go.
The 1st stop in Chicago was the marathon expo at McCormick Place in downtown Chi town. We made it, without dying, and paid our 20 bucks to park. Holy crap, yeah. 20 bucks to park at the expo! We definitely aren't in Kansas anymore. From the parking garage it was about a mi hike into the expo, but it was easy to find because of the thousands and thousands of other people there doing the exact same thing. Just play follow the leader! I didn't really know what to expect at this expo, but it was definitely huge! I wanted to take care of business first so that if we had to bail early because of some tired legs or whatnot, I could. After asking a few people questions, we made it to the check in to get my bib and chip, and then over to chip activation. Simple enough. Then I learned that we had to go through the entire expo to the other side to get to the packet pickup. Well why the heck not put it all the way over there! So we made our way through the crowds of people to the other side where I very excitedly picked up my packet complete with my race shirt!
After making sure I got what I needed to race, there were two other stops that I wanted to make before just browsing the expo. I needed to make it to the RUN FOR OUR SONS booth to say Hi to the charity that I was there running for. I raised $800! I really wanted to meet Missy who was the person on the other side of all those emails that updated me on everything that had to do with the marathon and getting there and what I had to do. She was SOOO helpful.
Next stop was the Nike Pace group booth. I decided that I wanted to run with a pace group so I could avoid the mistake of going out too fast and not being able to finish strong. I decided on the 4:30 group. I knew I could run the pace. That's all I want to do is finish smiling. Not too much to ask!
After I did the necessary stops, I wanted to do some browsing. Brian and Tyler were still going fairly strong, they were so supportive and acted like they wanted to be there! Very sweet! So I went up and down some of the rows of booths. I was on the search for a marathon tshirt for kids so that I could give one to the little boy that I was running for the charity for. They didn't have any that said Chicago Marathon 2009 in small kids sizes, bummer. I did find the Nike booth, the single biggest booth in the entire expo! I got a pair of Chicago marathon shorts. I also got another tshirt at the asics booth.
After a few other purchases and some tired family members in cargo, it was time to go. We hiked it back to the car and got ready to make the couple mile, very scary drive over to the Hard Rock Hotel. We made it, got checked in, and decided it was time to rest for a few hours! We had pasta dinner plans with the RUN FOR OUR SONS charity at
Quartino on State St. With no clue how to get there, and knowing it was only a few blocks, we decided to take a cab.
Dinner was amazing and totally free! Well, I guess I did raise 800 bucks for them, but still, it was VERY nice! Now it was time to get back to the hotel, get my race day gear all ready and hit the sack. I knew it was going to be pretty cold out on race day, and I think I brought my entire
arsenal of running gear to prepare, so I had to decide what I was going to wear. The temps looked like mid 40'
sF for a high! I knew at 5 am when I was going to haul my family to the charity village that it was going to be really
freakin cold. I decided on
underarmour frosty tights, and
underarmour long sleeve moisture
wicking tee that I made with Carson's picture on it, and my State Fair Parade Run 2 mi race
tshirt over top. (I just love that shirt! So comfy!)
Contrary to most predictions, I did sleep pretty well on race eve. We had two alarms set, my phone alarm was going to go off first. I even hit the snooze a couple times! I did my routine, ate a bagel with cream cheese and a banana. The only thing I was missing was my coffee. I gotta have my morning coffee! I didn't want to make any there in the room and figured there were probably about half a dozen Starbucks on the walk from the hotel to the charity village. Turns out there was only one. And it didn't open for another half an hour! Oh well, I'd have to live without. I was absolutely freezing by the time we got to the charity village. I had even bought extra through away paper layers to put on!
The whole charity village was flooded out from the days and days of rain before race day. Some of the charity's had to move their tents to other places, ours was just moved back out of the water. I sat and waited for the other runners to arrive. As I was waiting, someone slapped down a box of Starbucks coffee right in front of me! I couldn't believe it! I got my coffee afterall!
Pretty soon it was time to go find the line up. Brian, Tyler and I walked with the other runners from the charity up to the start area. There were SOOO many people! I needed to find the 430 pacers, so we walked along the line of thousands of runners toward the start line. We saw each pacer, 5:30, 5:15, 5:00, 4:45, and finally 4:30. Now it was time to say goodbye to Brian and Tyler. This was something I wasn't expecting. I quite literally started crying because I didn't want to leave them. I was so scared! There were so many people! What if I never found them again!?! I felt so alone among all those people! Crazy, I know. I'm even tearing up as I write this because those scared emotions are coming back as I think about it. Brian talked me through it. He is my rock. He reminded me that we had a plan AND a backup plan to find each other afterward. He told me not to worry, I was a runner and this is where I belonged. At a marathon. I'm not sure these were his exact words, but that's basically the feeling I got from him. He and Tyler were so proud of me, but I needed to get out there.
After a couple of final hugs and kisses, I made my way through the fence and followed a 4:30 sign holder to the middle of the street full of people. I found myself shoulder to shoulder with many interesting people. We were all so cold and the fact that we were so close together was actually a good thing. I couldn't imagine being that close to people if it was hot! I was right next to a group of 4 or 5 guys from Ireland. Very interesting to me, I've never met anyone straight from Ireland. I listened to them encourage each other in their own language and got encouraged myself.
Before I knew it the star spangled banner was being played and the gun went off. Of course we didn't move right away, but right as the gun went off I imagined in my head the best runners in the world starting off the race! I can't believe I was about to run in the footsteps of the greatest runners in the world! Awesome! We slowly shuffled to the start line, and soon enough we were off! I stayed toward the right hand side in hopes to see Brian and Ty again. That didn't happen, but I was in awe at all the people! Well, this was the start line after all, surely there would be times along the course when there weren't any people.
I remember images of the course. I remember seeing signs people made for their loved ones that were running. I remember saying over and over in my head "The first ten miles is run with your head". Just get to mi 10. The water stops were weird to me. I skipped the first one just so I could scope out what happens at a water stop of this size. People were tripping over each other to get to the sides to get some liquid. Some stopped dead in their tracks and started walking to get their drink, which tripped up other people. At the second one I decided it was time to give it a try. I saw it coming up ahead and started to get toward the right side kinda early. I was in perfect position to get a cup from one of the first volunteers. I grabbed one, used my triathlon skills of running and drinking by pinching the cup and took a big gulp. YUCK! I grabbed Gatorade! I hate Gatorade! Blah! I threw the cup and kept running. From then on I made sure to get water! I had to catch up with the pace group a little. I noticed they were going a little fast. I made sure to stick with the pace group as close as possible.
I expected the crowds of people running to thin out, but it never really did. I expected the crowds of spectators to thin out, but it never really did. Amazing. Such a big race. Soon enough I hit mi 10... then my mantra was "The second ten miles is run with your legs". I expected pain. I waited for the pain. It actually didn't hit until around mi 18. I said "Oh, THERE you are". My pain was mostly in my right knee... the IT band was going to rear his ugly head. I just kept trying to keep my torso up, running nice and tall, trying to hold my form as best as possible. There were a couple of times my knee kinda gave out a little, but overall I did ok.
The pacers were at times kind of slow to me. I guess they were ahead of the game a little, because they walked through a couple of the water stations and I found myself really ahead of them. I turned my head, saw that they were behind, and decided to wait for them. So I slowed my running down a lot. I promised myself I would stay with them. That would at least guarantee me a 4:30 finish. I was afraid to get ahead of them and burn up all my matches per say and then not be able to at least accomplish the 4:30.
Finally I hit mi 20. My next mantra was "The last six miles is run with your heart". I had to repeat this one a lot. I remember seeing some of the same spectators multiple times at this point. Some of the same signs. I got a motivation boost every so often by high fiving random spectators! I saw one sign that said "Free hugs". I was tempted. Then I saw a sign that said "Pain is weakness leaving the body". I repeated this to myself throughout the rest of the race. I hit mile marker 24 and kinda of woke up. Holy crap, this is it! Last 2 miles! I know I can finish now! So I went ahead of the pacers at this point. Nothing too crazy, just ran at my own pace and never looked back. By the time I hit mi 26 the crowds were INSANE! They were going crazy! I felt like I was the winner! Finally I rounded that corner and saw the finish line. I sprinted with everything I had left. There wasn't much. But that was ok. I was smiling! I did it! I crossed the finish line in 4:28:45. I made all my goals! I finished. Smiling. In under 4 hours and 30 mins. I can't believe it!
The finish line was somewhat overwhelming. Once you crossed everyone came to a dead stop and started walking. The volunteers immediately hand you a bottle of water. You just keep walking and get handed stuff along the way. A mylar blanket (cool!), your race medal, food, chip removal. There were hundreds and hundreds of volunteers. I couldn't believe it. I felt like they were all there just for me. And I think all the runners felt that way. The runners around me just kept looking at each other and smiling, and I did the same. We did it. We were rock stars. There were even photographers insisting that we move our medals to the side so they could see our numbers in the picture they were going to take of us. (they wanted us to buy their photos later, but it still made me feel special!) Someone handed me a beer. I grabbed it, took a couple swigs, and promptly realized what I was doing. I hate draft beer. I set that down and went over to the finishers photo area.
When I was finally done with all this I realized I had no idea how to get back to the charity village from where I was! I asked several people. Some had no idea (even volunteers!). Others said "over in that area" and pointed in one direction or another. I finally made it the village. I stood at the top of the stairs by Buckingham Fountain and looked out over the village. I saw Brian and Tyler in the distance! Then I looked at the stairs that I had to go down. How the heck was I going to maneuver this? I can barely walk, let alone do stairs! I monkeyed my way down holding on to the railing. Brian saw me! He started coming over to me! Finally we got to eachother and I wrapped my arms so tightly around his neck! I said "I did it, babe, I did it!" He said "You sure did! Way to go!" I didn't want this moment to end. It was perfect.
We made it over to the tent. The RUN FOR OUR SONS people were so supportive! Brian set me up with a chair and got me some food. I was so happy to be done!
Well, it was time to go. We had to get back to the hotel, get the car, and head back to Dwight. We had such a good time. My biggest thanks goes out to my biggest fans, I couldn't have done any of this without them!
