Chicago

Details

• October 10, 2021
• Entry: Draw
• Marathon Number: 2
• Expected Finish Time: 3:30:00
• Actual Finish Time: 5:00:02

Overview

Chicago was supposed to be second of the six world marathon majors that I would complete as I reinvented myself in my mid-30s, keen for a new challenge that I knew would stretch me physically and mentally.

I was originally slated to start my marathon “career” in 2020 with my hometown Boston Marathon, where I secured a charity bib from the non-profit that I’ve worked at since 2014. To read my post on that, you can check it out under Virtual Boston. Covid had other plans for me, so instead I was fortunate enough to get a bib through the lottery my first try, and we made plans to travel as a family to the Windy City. I went into this race knowing that I was slotted to run the NYC marathon 4 weeks later, and I thought my training was rock solid. My plan was to “take it easy” and run around 3:30 so that I could “save my legs” for New York, where I would really drop the hammer.

This experience humbled me dramatically and taught me many incredible lessons about running a marathon. It was a blessing to run another major 4 weeks later, and immediately apply my take-aways, and not have to wade in my sorrows for months on end. I’ll share what I learned in the hopes that it helps others learn from my mistakes.

Lessons Learned

Spend the extra money for direct flights

Traveling with four bodies can add up, and we decided to “save some money” by getting cheaper tickets with a lay-over going both ways in Detroit. A few hundred dollars in savings, ended up adding over 7 hours to our trip, with relatively long lay-overs going and coming back from Chicago. Instead of spending that time in Chicago or back home, we slow roasted in the airport trying to find ways to keep the children entertained and not miserable. Bottom line: we won’t be making that mistake again.

Don’t overdo the day(s) before you run

We were blessed by my cousin living in downtown Chicago, less than a mile from Millennium Park where the race starts and finishes. We had never been to Chicago as a family, and we wanted to do some exploring and make sure the kids had something to remember other than seeing me run by once in five hours. The first mistake I made was deciding to walk back from the expo to my cousin’s place, which was 2-3 miles away. It was a gorgeous day and I was only thinking about being able-bodied and wanting to enjoy the city.

After I reunited with my family we decided to check out the amazing (and free!) Lincoln Park Zoo and it did not disappoint. The only downside was my little guy has small legs and tired out in the heat. With that, he was looking for a piggy back ride, and that’s one of my favorite jobs. I plopped him up on my shoulders and off we went. After almost two hours of checking out the zoo, we went and grabbed something to eat up near Wrigley Field.

More driving in neighborhoods brought us to Montrose Point, which had an absolutely gorgeous backdrop of the downtown. After a lovely walk to the shoreline and back, I could tell I had overdone it and was overdue in “shutting it down”. That was the last stop of the day, but in total I had racked up over 7 miles of walking in each of the previous 2 days leading up to race day. Needless to say, I felt those 14 extra miles on Sunday.

It’s ok to stop and drink at hydration stations

Even though I had never run an in-person marathon before, I had watched countless times as the pros (noted) would take their bottles (also noted) in stride and drink without slowing down. This was the approach I was convinced I would take as well, except for two minor details: 1) I’m not a professional, not even remotely close and 2) Cups are given out for real people, not sport bottles. What this reality looked like is that I had about a 5% success rate in getting any of the liquids into my intended target (my mouth). Not only is it mildly unpleasant to have gatorade all over your extremities, it is also very unhelpful when the temps are in the 70s and you are burning calories rapidly.

The medic tents are there to help you, and it’s very unlikely they are going to pull you from the race

Once the dehydration really ramped in after the halfway point, soon followed the lightheadedness and then the cramps. I had to implement a solid combination of walking and running in order to keep moving, and in my elongated travel began to see a wild scene unfold. At a somewhat regularly interval, other runners near me would suddenly fall down on the ground as if they had been shot and start screaming and writhing in pain. I saw a handful of ambulances responding to these incidents and started to feel like I was in somewhat of a situation.

At some point I convinced myself that if I were to stop in at a medic tent to ask for help they would pull me from the race, and I wouldn’t get my ultimate goal of getting my first major. In hindsight it’s completely laughable that I ever thought I was in bad enough shape to get fully pulled from the course. In actuality it would have likely been a huge help to stop and get any kind of help from the medic tent, and could have had me “back in the game” much sooner.

Just keep going no matter what

At no point was I planning to stop running, in particular given the investment of time and money to train for and travel to Chicago. As humbling and demoralizing as it felt to have to walk for the better part of 8 miles, it would have been worse if I had not crossed the finish line. While I certainly didn’t feel victorious and like a marathoner, it broke the ice on my “career” and gave me something to improve upon.

You don’t know until you actually do it

As listed at the beginning, I fully anticipated that I would “take it easy” and do 3:30 in order to save myself for NYC four weeks later. Based on my training runs, I figured 3:30 was a cake walk and that 3 hours and change was right there for me. Weather aside, it was pretty alarming how far off I was in my thinking, and a realization that this whole distance running endeavor may take a lot more than I originally expected to figure out.

People watching post-marathon is pretty fantastic

With over 40,000 runners coming to Chicago each year from all over the world, and another 1.7 million estimated spectators, the entire city is electric. Given the enormity of the crowds, and the meaning of this race to so many runners, there is an incredible array of people watching available. After eating some fantastic deep-dish pizza from Giordano’s, we went and got some incredible donuts and then stopped over at the bean.

It was easy to spot the other marathoners in action by either their finisher gear, medals or both. Understandably, people wanted to commemorate the experience with a photo in front of an iconic backdrop – and the bean sculpture is arguably the most notable. It was fun to watch everyone in great spirits with smiles and a strong sense of pride for finishing the race. We couldn’t help but be captivated by one finisher who took somewhere around 250 photos of herself, with no less than 5 different photographers. An impressive feat, to say the least.