Chicago Marathon Race Report...

**This is going to be long, I had free time at work to write most of it**

I was fortunate enough to participate in the 34th Annual Chicago Marathon on Sunday.  This was my 2nd Chicago Marathon and my 7th marathon overall.  Chicago puts on a great event in a great city.  I may just repeat this marathon every year as long as timing permits.

I was hesitate to set any time goals for this marathon, since I was sidelined with a stress fracture back in May and did not have a ton of training.  I kept my training consistent, I was just unable to run many long runs.  My longest run was 18 miles on the treadmill.  I was reminded of that fact around mile 21 when my legs were taking a beating.

The forecast was a little warmer than I was hoping for, but not as bad as last year.  We were fortunate enough that it was in the upper 50's/lower 60's when we started.  I believe it was in the upper 70's when I finished.  My Chicago Marathon time from last year, 3:56, qualified me for a seeded starting coral this year.  I did not really think this would make a difference, but it really did.  It was not as crowded at the start. 

My morning started at 3:00 am when some jackass on a motorcylce thought it was appropriate to rev his bike up over and over again for about 15 minutes.  How considerate of him.  I had slept very well until this point and then slept on and off until I woke up at 5:15, had some coffee and a power bar and got ready to go.  I was prepared to take a cab down to Grant Park, but a nice guy named Steve hopped on the elevator after me and guided me to the train.  He was even kind enough to allow me to use his CTA card, so I did not have to purchase fare.  It is so refreshing meeting nice people.

I rarely have to pee once I get to a race, but I did not time things correctly this time and was going to have to use a porta potty.  I was in line at the porta potties inside the seeded start area and realized there is no way I would make it thru the line.  I noticed a tree with a group of girls huddling around it and saw that they were blocking each other while they were peeing.  I figured why not?  I grew up in Southwest Missouri, I have peed outside a time or two.  I went over to the tree, talked with a nice girl, she blocked me, I blocked her.  I did glance over to see a man body gliding his, uh you know uh junk.  I may have done a double take.  Call me shocked, small town, whatever, but I could not help but look.   I mean, he was a black man and I have heard a lot about black penises, so I wanted to see if what I heard was true.  So, after me looking for what was probably considered an unacceptable amount of time, I came to the conclusion that it is true, very true and I was on my way.  :)

I had taken my Garmin off of auto lap, since it loses the signal inside the tunnel during the first mile.  My plan was to run the first two miles around 9:15 and then try to maintain nine minute miles after that for as long as I could and maybe toss in a few 8:50's to make up for slowing down at the end.  My first mile came in at 9:08.  A little fast, but I was happy with it.  My second mile was 9:07.  Perfect I thought.  Third mile, 8:44.  Holy Moly, I remember thinking!  I am not even winded.  I totally rock!  The next mile was 8:40.  I was thrilled.  The sad thing is, I knew better.  I knew I would feel like a million bucks to start with and should just slow my ass down.  What did I do?  I kept on truckin, knocking miles off in the 8:xx's thinking how totally awesome I am not to be winded and to barely have trained for this thing.

1- 9:08
2- 9:07
3- 8:44
4- 8:40
5- 8:44

My mom, Ken, and Ken's parents were planning on meeting me just after mile three.  I expected to see them on the right side of the road for some reason.  They were on the left side and I did not see them until I was already passed them.  I tried to run over and shouted in my loudest Keri voice "Ken, Ken!".  Although, I am sure it sounded more like "KIN, KIN!".  They did not see me.  I fiddled around trying to call him to tell him that they missed me.  Yeah, talk about wasting energy here.  I looked like an idiot trying to get my phone back into my IFitness belt.  Oh well.  He did not even answer.  I kept moving along, hoping I would be able to see them just after mile 11. 

My one goal this year was to see Wrigley Field.  I had completely missed it last year and made it a point this year to find it on the map in advance to know where to look for it.  So when we turned the corner onto Addison, I was looking all around, just waiting to see what I had missed last year.  Um, yeah, next thing you know, we are back in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and no Wrigley Field.  You have got to be kidding me, I said to myself.  I missed it again!  Apparently, I will be running Chicago again next year with a third try to see Wrigley during the race.

6- 9:03 (this was my ideal pace)
7- 8:33 (waaaay to fast for a marathon!)
8- 8:57
9- 8:52
10- 8:48

Once back in downtown, I was able to see Ken, my mom, and Billl and Linda.  I gave them the double thumbs up, to let them know I was feeling great!  Of course I was, it was mile 12.  I could have been doing cartwheels at mile 12.  I hit mile 13 in 1:55:XX, basically in the same neighborhood as I ran last year.  Heck ya, was what I thought.

11- 8:56
12- 8:48
13- 8:59
14- 9:08 (I forgot to hit lap, so this one is long)
15- 8:37 (this was a little short of a mile since mile 14 was long)

I was still cruising along, feeling fine up until around mile 18.  I was still fine physically, but for some reason, I had convinced myself that we were at mile 18 when we were really only at mile 17.  Boy, that was a crushing blow.  It was like someone told me I was not going to be able to have a birthday cake this year.  I thought, wow, what idiot put a 17 mile marker twice?  I looked at my Garmin and saw, yep it just rolled to mile 17.  Son of a....

16- 8:55
17- 8:59
18- 9:25 (getting tired)
19- 9:04 (there was still hope)
20- 9:37 (started walking thru an aid stations)

I was cool, told myself to man up and stop being a pansy.  Just make it to Chinatown at mile 21, was what I kept thinking to myself.  Not sure what was going to happen at Chinatown, but I was using it as a must make it to point of the race.  I think I was looking forward to the Chinese music that would be playing over the speakers.  Um yeah, talk about a let down.  It was some current pop song.  Great, just great, Chinatown was ruined and to top it off, there were very few Chinese people in Chinatown.  Quite a change from what I remember from last year.  Talk about bursting my bubble. 

At this point, I was allowing myself to walk thru the aid stations.  My legs were killing me!  This is when I knew only running 18 miles one time on a freaking treadmill was haunting me.  I was still happy though, I mean I was maintaining a good pace for being undertrained.  I let go my secret, secret goal of 3:55 and decided that I could still come in under 4:00 if I could maintain about 10 minute miles from the remaining 5.2 miles.  I knew my watch was measuring off by .2 miles and when I realized that I would be really close to missing the 4:00 mark, I decided not to push it.  I reminded myself that I have a little race called the New York City Marathon coming up in four weeks and that I should swallow my pride and just not push it the last few miles.  Save the legs is what I told myself.  I texted my friend Tara around mile 24.  Bless her heart, it was not a nice text, but she responded back with words of encouragement and told me to keep going. 

21- 10:01
22- 9:42
23- 10:48
24- 10:20
25- 10.17
26.2- 12:42 (I forgot to lap my watch at mile 26)

I kept cruising along down Michigan Ave, just waiting to turn to head to the finish line.  I tried looking for Ken in the bleachers, but did not see him.  I was unable to sprint but did kick it up a bit to pass a few people.  It is amazing what see the finish line does to you.  There it was, the end, I crossed the finish line in 4:03:06.

Garmin time:  4:03:07 - 26.48
Official time: 4:03:06 - 26.2

Marathon #7 finished!  I was very pleased with my time.  How can I be disappointed for finishing my 7th marathon?  I am so excited about running New York next month. 

Thanks for reading!  I have a ton of pictures to post from our trip.  I will be doing that over the next few days.  Happy Running!