Chicago Marathon

So I spent the Saturday before the race doing very little. I went to the Expo (which was pretty awesome). Everyone was taking pictures in front of the 10-10-10 signs (fyi - this date won't happen again until 2410- I learned this fact from Ms Margarat Taylor) and it was all very exciting. I spent the night watching the marathon portion of Kona. It was actually very inspiring and motivating.
Sunday morning was exciting but unfortunately it was already warmer than what I wanted. I was hoping to wake up and need a long shirt or gloves but it didn't happen. The race was only a short distance from the hotel so we walked to the Elite Development Tent. At 0705 we began walking to our corral. We had to walk thru all the other corrals and the oddest thing happened. I saw more men peeing EVERYWHERE. On sidewalks, in bushes, on fences. I mean everywhere. I just couldn't believe it. Why do people think that's okay. It's not. There were port a potties everywhere.
So the race began right on time. I was in a crowd of people. I've never been surrounded by so many people. Very fun! We started off running and I realized that someone had lied to me. Chicago is not flat. We immediately began running up and down over bridges and hills. I was really excited for the race to begin. I'd been training and racing for months all to prepare for this one race. I knew that my goal was to qualify for the trials. Play it safe and qualify for the trials. Besides I already knew it was going to be too hot for me to take any chances. Around mile 7 I kind of found myself alone. I had a group of people ahead of me. I decided I would catch up to them and see what the pace was like. Once I caught up with them my garmin said 6:06. Oops too fast. I knew I had to options I could take a chance on the pace or I could slow down. I opted to slow it down back to my planned pace. At mile 10ish my Italian guy caught back up to me. (I had decided earlier in the race that this was my guy - and I was afraid he had let me down). We ended up running the rest of the race together. He didn't speak much English but we were able to communicate enough that we took turns getting each other water/Gatorade. And every time I fell off pace (mile 21-23 were a little tough for me ) he yelled something at me and pointed beside him. At the halfway point I was right on 1:22:38. Yay. Right on cue. At mile 20ish I passed Joan Benoit Samuelson. The crazy thing was that she was smiling. Still smiling and she ran a 2:47. She's amazing.
Also at this point I knew that it was going to be a very hot rest of the race. Very hot. It was already very warm. Like I said there were a couple of miles that were a little rough but the crowd kept cheering for my Italian running mate (Italia!!) and that kept me going as well. Mile 24 was beyond sweet b/c this is when I knew all I had to do was run 2 .2 very consistent miles. The finish for Chicago is uphill. Once again, this isn't a flat course. But it was amazing. It's been such a long time since I ran a fun marathon so it was great to finish. The announcer said my name and city as I crossed the finish line and he welcomed me to the Olympic Trials which was pretty cool.
The finish line was very smooth. The massage tent people were pros. I've never seen the massage tent run so smoothly. Very cool.
We had to fly back to VaBch that evening. I would have loved to have spent more time in Chicago but it was back to reality and real life.
Real life means Coach made me run 7 miles the next day with him while he rode the bike. Coach actually has a different take on post marathon running. I usually take at least a week off from running. He doesn't believe in that. So I even went to track last night. Yay for me. I actually feel good. So, I'm already looking forward to my next marathon and hoping I get faster
After mile 20, it started getting very hot. I realized that