The Amazing Race that is the Chicago Marathon: race recap part 2

Hi everyone! I'm back for the last part of the race, as promised!

When we left off, I had just loaded up on Biofreeze. But the truth is, for almost the last half of the race, FOR 13.1 MILES, all my body wanted to do was quit. When I realized I was definitely not going to hit my goal time unless I sprouted wings, the negative thoughts threatened to take over:

I started to question my sanity about running, and ability to run, the distance:

By the way, this always happens when I get past 20 miles.

I was having kind of a hard time staying positive.

Things were not great.

Erika could tell I was struggling, so she revised our plan to get to the finish.

I had a fairly fully-formed sentence in my head, but all I could muster was this gesture for her to interpret.

Erika thought I was really angry but I was just preserving my energy so I didn't fall on my face.

She tried everything in the book to keep me motivated.

Encouraging words:

Stern talking-tos:

Dancing in Boys' Town:

I used a couple of other fingers to respond that time.

But honestly, how come she had so much energy??

There was nothing to be done. I just had to keep moving through the misery. As Sir Winston Churchill apparently once said:

Sure, he was probably talking about war, but whatevs.

For the last 2 miles until close to the end I think we did something like a 4:1 walk/run, then we ran the last half mile in.

My finish time was 5:14:34, which is 4 minutes slower than my previously slowest marathon, but I was so relieved to be done!

I received my finisher's medal and got my picture taken.

That photo sure is a keeper.

Then I found a spot of pavement and tried not to pass out or vomit.

Thankfully I did neither, and once we I gathered ourselves myself, we wandered back to the hotel, showered, and limped to the restaurant next door for dinner.

We did actually eat too.

We  did a bit of sightseeing that night and before heading to the airport the next day, we even made it to the Bean!

So, here are my final thoughts on the race:

1. While I had really wanted to come in under 5 hours, I am happy that I pushed myself to finish. The thing is, my marathons never live up to my training.

I *should* be racing faster, based on my training paces. Mere seconds are lost per mile but over hours they add up and the number in my head goes right out the window.

2.  Hurting my IT band definitely had an effect on my training, and I'm certain that one 16 miler was not enough to prepare me. But, that was the best I could do with the time I had left.

3. No matter how rough it was, running with my best friend is one of my favourite things to do!

4.  The Chicago Marathon has great volunteers and unbelievable crowds. I never turned on my music because there was always something to see and hear. It would be a great first marathon!

5.  Yup. I'm retiring from marathons.

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UPCOMING POSTS: Plans for the upcoming year--Will I race more? Will I blog more?? 

The Amazing Race That is the Chicago Marathon: race recap part 1

On October 8th, I ran the Chicago Marathon.

The day beforehand I flew to Chicago, met up with my bestie Erika and went to the expo, where we got our packets and played fun activities.



In my defense I...yeah, I have no defense.

And, after obsessively googling for weeks, I found a place that had plain chicken for our pre-race dinner:

As you would expect, we went to bed early that night. However, Erika's home team was playing their nemesis and it was a very exciting game!  She tried not to hoot and holler during her team's football game while I slept.

If you've ever observed someone try to scream in excitement silently, you'll know it's pretty entertaining!

We woke up the next morning having both slept surprisingly well. We reviewed our race strategy, and  despite the fact that I had only done one 16 mile run as my longest run, I decided that a sub 5 hour finish was completely within my reach.

The start of the race was great. The spectators were amazing and helped make the mile markers feel like they were 5 minutes apart.



After 6 miles Erika and I were pretty sure that I could average an 11:30 pace for the rest of the race, which would net me a sweet PR.

By mile 13 I started feeling tired but my pace was alternating between about 10:30 and 11:30, likely because I was walking every 2 miles for 30-60 seconds to take in my nutrition, and another 30 or so at the water stations.

I was still holding on, but fading.

By mile 18 things had taken a definite turn; I was firmly riding the struggle bus. My knees were hurting.



My hips were hurting.



I DESPERATELY wanted to sit down for *just a minute* but knew that would be the end of my race.

Looking at my stats, it's pretty clear that I hit the wall.

And I hit it hard.

Around that time, a girl suddenly appeared and started chatting excitedly with Erika.

Who was she? Why did she look so fresh???

It turned out she was Erika's childhood friend who was spectating the race, but it was a very confusing few minutes for me.  Just after seeing her, we had a stretch of road leading into Chinatown where there was a huge vat of Biofreeze.

I applied some liberally to my knees, hips and back.

With my lower body  87.6% numb, I ambled past the dragons and into the last big chunk of the race.

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I'm already working on the second part of the recap, but this felt like a good place to stop.

I'll be back soon!

Portland Marathon 2014: I ran, I saw pirates, I crossed the finish line.

If you missed Part One, click here!

Christy and I ran the first few miles together.  We chatted,

and posed for some cameras.

I remembered (again suddenly) that in my rush to get out the door I had forgotten to put anti-chafe cream on the MOST important spot.  I hoped that by the time they were offering vaseline it would not be too late.

Thankfully, just a few miles in, volunteers were already handing it out at water stations.

No point in being shy right then; I was not going to risk 22 miles of chafing just to avoid momentary embarrassment.

When it comes to running, this is the least embarrassing of many possible mishaps in your derri-area.

If ya don't know, just ask one of your runner friends.

Christy soon pulled ahead as we moved into the 6 mile stretch of out and back beside the train tracks. The pirates were back again this year and one of them joined me for a bit.

Christy and I caught a glimpse of each other again at a turnaround point and waved like we had been apart for months.

For the rest of the race, it was me and my tunes.  I focused on using my glutes and on my nutrition. I had really practiced when and how much to take during my training runs.  I also started taking an extra cup of water because it was sunny and 80+ degrees out.

Last year  I ran up the huge hill between Mile 16 and Mile 17 and it really took a lot out of me.  This year I followed Bruk's advice to walk it.

It's an energy conservation thing. 

I was so happy with that decision; I had plenty of pep in my step and almost felt refreshed once I got onto the bridge.

I started even thinking that maybe I could finish this race in 4:59:59.

But then I started lagging around Mile 20.  I didn't hit the wall, I was just tired and would have preferred to no longer run.

But all of a sudden there were people with bananas and pretzels and candy corn!  Oh my! 

I scarfed down the banana,

sucked the salt off the pretzels,

and immediately regretted the candy corn.

I had a good hour left if I ran, and I did not want to spend any extra time on the course.

It was gut check time.

Run or walk.  Do or die! Now or never!!

COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS!!!

So, I dug DEEP and ran my last 5 miles as fast as my body would allow (which was between 10:30 and 12:30 minutes per mile).

I just focused on moving forward, trying to trick my mind by pushing a little bit harder every time I wanted to stop.

And I passed a few people, apparently.

I responded to the encouraging spectators with weak waves of acknowledgement.

In the home stretch I saw TriGuy and mustered a real smile.

After the longest 0.2 miles in the history of EVER, I crossed the finish line!

So did another girl right behind me, with the ironic (?) name "Thug Lyfe" on her bib.

She is in almost every one of my finish line photos.

After I walked through the finish chute and collected my medal, my satchels, my rose, my finisher's jacket, and as much food as I could handle before feeling sick, I sat myself down on the corner and texted with Erika for a few minutes.  She immediately let me know that I had PRed!

Then I got up and found TriGuy.  As we were walking back to the hotel I stopped to get coffee.  The barista told me she had just started running a couple of weeks ago, then another one came up and asked me if I had qualified for Boston.

And I laughed, and laughed.

Um, no.

Once we got back to our room I lay down for a bit, then wandered into the shower.  I may or may not have done a little multitasking.

UPCOMING POSTS: MARATHON AFTERMATH, VOLUNTEERING AT BEAT THE BLERCH, TRYING OUT A BRA (seriously)