Chicago Marathon Recap

Oh, hey there! 

After a long night of traveling we finally made it home from Chicago at 2:30 this morning. I am crazy tired but haven’t been so happy after a marathon EVER and needed to share my recap with you guys ASAP!! I have soooo much to share about the whole weekend but for now let’s just cut to the chase and talk race-day! (warning: this post got really long so you might want to grab a snack/coffee before you begin 😉 )

3:06:09

A 4 minute and 10 second PR and a time I never in a million years thought I was capable of this weekend. I think I’m still in shock. I mean… let’s take a look at my last 6 months of running.

• Ran Boston and had a really disappointing race. Was shooting for sub-3 hours and after being on pace for the first half walked a lot of the second half and crossed the finish line in 3:15.
• Ramped up too quickly after Boston (because I was frustrated with my result) and ended up burnt out/anemic by July – had to take off two weeks to recover.
• Made sure to build up slowly after that break. Did minimal workouts and peaked at a weekly mileage of 60 (20 miles less than before Boston).
• My longest run since Boston was 16 miles (16.59 to be exact)
• I didn’t taper <– and even did a hill workout on Wednesday before race weekend…

So let’s just say that I wasn’t expecting much of myself.

Sunday morning… 

… I woke up EARLY and couldn’t fall back asleep so I slinked into the bathroom with my plain bagel and instant oatmeal so that I didn’t wake up Henri. (<– what will it take for me to rethink my idea of a “fun” weekend?)

By 5:45 I was ready to go and heading down to meet my friend in the lobby.

Over the course of the weekend we kept hearing rumors that they weren’t going to allow runners to move back to a different corral. This derailed my plans to run with my friend because I was in corral “A” and she was in “C”. So on our way to the starting line we decided that if there was no way to find each other we’d run just run our own races and that’s what ended up happening.

While I was killing time in my corral before the race I made friends with an older Italian guy that was running his 18th marathon, we chatted for a little bit in Italian-English before he started making his way closer to the starting line. I hung back because I didn’t want to be trampled and ended up running into one of my sister’s good friends. I am so thankful for these random conversations because they helped keep my mind off of what I was about to do! 

Finally it was time for the race to start. I tried to hold myself back because I’ve always gone out way too fast .

A couple miles into the race I ran into my sister’s friend again and we ended up running a few miles side by side before he jetted off ahead of me (he ran 3:03!). I kept chugging along at my 6:50-7:10 pace and before I knew it we were at mile 8. Right after one of the aid stations I felt a tap on my shoulder and guess who it was – my Italian friend Antonio!! He told me that he was shooting for 3:10 and that I should follow him. 3:10 sounded pretty awesome to me and I was feeling good at our pace so I ran on his shoulder while he encouraged me along and reminded me to slow down when I started speeding up when the crowds were cheering really loud (doesn’t that happen to you too??).

When we crossed the halfway point in 1:32:34 I KNEW I had a good chance of beating my PR, I just had to hold pace. We ran together until mile 22 and honestly I don’t remember much from the middle of the race except for the amazing crowds, wondering why my watch was already a quarter mile longer than the mile markers were saying, and trying to eat my Honey Stinger Gel for about 5 miles. 

I felt like I was cruising along until mile 22. At that point things started to get hard, and I knew I needed to push through it instead of trying to hold to my pace or I would have slowed down. Antonio told me to “leave him behind” (haha), and cheered me on as I pushed the pedal down on the gas – it seems funny looking back that I thought I was “pushing the pedal” because that 5K split was almost exactly the same as the one before. 

A little before mile 24 we turned onto Michigan Ave. and it was basically a straight shot to the finish. This was the hardest part for me, I was soooo tired, my legs felt wicked heavy and you could just see in front of you forEVER! The only thing I took solice in was that I was still running, and was actually passing people. This motivated me because I’ve always been the one walking/stretching/stopping the last few miles of a marathon. It was like a completely different experience and I was just so thankful that I wasn’t crying on the side of the road that I just kept swimming running.

The last mile seemed to last the longest time but then I hit the 400m to go mark!! Whoever thought to put a hill there must be a cruel cruel person, because after a completely flat marathon that was BRUTAL! I was moving as fast as possible at this point which probably looked like a turtle’s pace to everyone watching. Thankfully there was one more turn after the hill and it was a slight downhill to the finish!

As I was coming down the last straightaway I glanced at my watch and saw 3:05:xx and I KNEW that I was going to have a PR! I was in awe, overwhelmed and excited! A PR when 2 weeks ago I wasn’t sure I was going to be running? I never never thought it would happen!

So what did I do differently this time around?

• I had NO stress going into the race. I was really laid back going into the race. I didn’t even have a time I was shooting for until I had gotten through the first half and could gauge what I was capable of for the last 13.1! (don’t get me wrong – goals are great but I just needed a stress free marathon experience!)
• Because I wasn’t stressed I didn’t have an upset stomach!! 
• My fueling was a lot better! I carbo-loaded really well the couple days before and made sure to eat more salt as well! I also started taking my chews at mile 3 – much earlier than I ever have. I was even able to get the majority of a Honey Stinger Gel packet down (over the course of a few miles) and I know that fueling evenly throughout the race really helped my energy levels!!!
• I didn’t go out to fast! I held back at the beginning even though I was feeling great because I knew I had a long way to go and that it wasn’t worth not finishing to push it the first half. 
• Even splits! All of my 5K’s were within 20 seconds of each other with the exception of 35K-40K when I was really feeling the pain.
• NO STOPPING! This is maybe the thing that I am most proud of. I did walk through an aid station at mile 24 because I wanted to make sure that the ENTIRE cup of water made it into my mouth but even when I was hurting I told myself that I could keep running.
• Positive self-talk! I never EVER got down on myself during this race. I still went through the ebbs and flows physically but I told myself that the bad parts were just temporary. I saw a sign that said “Pain is temporary, pride is forever” and kept trying to remind myself of that when the going got tough!

Going into this race a PR was the last thing I was expecting, but isn’t that how it is sometimes? The best things happen when you least expect it. I’ve always felt that my marathon times were pretty weak in comparison to my 5k/10k bests and after this weekend I feel like I’m getting closer. Progress people, progress!

And how did the rest of my group do???

Court ran 3:26 and qualified for Boston in her first try EVER!!!

And Kellie and Cam finished in 5:28 with minimal training going into it!They are rockstars and I am truly blown away by all three of them!!

Cheers Chicago – we’ll be back again next year!

You made it! It probably feels like your eyes just ran their own marathon, but you made it! haha. Thanks for reading, I appreciate you guys and your support so much! 

Who else ran Chicago this weekend? How did it go for you?

What is your favorite marathon/race that you’ve ever run? After this weekend Chicago is my new favorite marathon! Can I sign up for next year yet??