Race Report: 2025 Chicago Marathon

On October 12, I ran the Chicago Marathon.  I’ve run this race six times before.  When I ran the Chicago Marathon in 1999, it was easy to get in.  If you registered in a timely manner, you were in.  I don’t know if they even had a field limit.  The next five times, I was able to get automatic entry with a qualifying time.

This year, for the first time, I was able to register as a legacy runner.  To be considered a legacy runner, you need to have completed at least five of the previous ten Chicago Marathons.

I was intending to fly to Chicago Saturday morning and fly home Monday afternoon.  On Thursday, Deb saw that I had a notification from Delta that it was time to check in for my flight.  That caught me off guard.  I usually don’t get that notification until 24 hours before my flight.  It turns out I booked my flights for the wrong days.  I was scheduled to fly out on Friday and come home on Sunday.

Flying out a day early wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  It would insulate me against flight delays.  I was worried about that, as some airports have been experiencing delays because of the government shutdown.

I called my hotel to see if I could arrive a day early.  After they confirmed that they had availability, I changed my reservation.  My flight home was still a problem.  There’s no way I could run the marathon and get to the airport in time for a 1:48 PM departure.

I called Delta, and I was able to reschedule my flight home for the same time on Monday.  That’s what I thought I had booked originally.

Friday, October 10

I flew to Chicago Friday morning.  My flight boarded on time, but after we pulled away from the gate, the captain informed us that there was an air traffic control delay.  No flights to Midway airport could depart for the next 45 minutes.

It could’ve been worse.  On Wednesday, flights to O’Hare were on hold for five hours.  The delay would’ve been more stressful if it was the day before the race, but I had plenty of time.

My hotel in Chicago was the Palmer House.  This hotel is just one block from Grant Park, where the race starts and finishes.  When I got to the hotel it was almost lunchtime.  I was planning to drop off my bags at the hotel and return later to check in.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could get into a room right away.

I love Chicago-style pizza.  For me, race weekend in Chicago is as much about the pizza as the race itself.  For lunch, I went to Pequod’s.  Their lunch special on weekdays is a 7-inch deep-dish pizza.

After lunch, I went to the expo, which was held at McCormick Place.  From Pequod’s, I needed to take two trains and then walk about half a mile.

Packet pickup was fairly efficient, but it took time to get around in the expo hall.  It was one of the biggest expos I’ve seen, but it was crowded.  I hate to think how crowded it would’ve been if I waited until Saturday.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I needed to get off my feet.  I rested at the hotel until dinner.

For dinner, I went to Lou Malnati’s, which is another of my favorite restaurants for deep dish pizza.  Getting a last-minute dinner reservation on the weekend of the marathon is almost impossible.  I went early, and I was able to find a seat at the bar.  After dinner, I went to a nearby brewery, where I was joined by two friends who were on their way back from the expo.

As I was walking back to the hotel, I randomly bumped into three more friends, including two who had just arrived from England.  They invited me out for drinks at Navy Pier, but I had already been up since 2:15 AM, and I was about to turn into a pumpkin.  Regrettably, I needed to walk back to my hotel and get to sleep.

I slept well that night.  It helped that I didn’t have to set an early alarm.

Saturday, October 11

Because I arrived a day earlier than I originally planned, I didn’t have any plans for Saturday.  I spent the morning at the hotel.  I had a leisurely breakfast, I did a workout in the fitness room, and I organized my clothes for the race.

I had already been to two of my favorite pizza restaurants, but I also wanted to try someplace new.  I had read good reviews of the deep-dish pizza at an Italian restaurant called Labriola.  The smallest pizza at their main restaurant is 12 inches, which is too much for one person.  They also have a location in a food court called The Pizza Joint.  There, I was able to get a miniature deep-dish pizza.

I spent much of the afternoon walking around town.  I explored the loop, the river, and Millennium Park.

It would have been nice to wander around in Grant Park, but the park was fenced off in preparation for the marathon.

I knew getting a table at any pizza place would be difficult the night before the race.  For dinner, I went to Gino’s East.  I arrived early and found a seat at the bar.  I ordered a 9-inch deep-dish pizza, which was the smallest size they had.  That was too much food.

It took me longer to get to sleep that night.  I slept for about four hours.  Then I woke up with horrible indigestion, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  One of the toppings on my pizza was garlic.  They used fresh garlic and lots of it.  It tasted good at the time, but it wasn’t sitting well in my stomach at 1 AM.

Sunday, October 12

Sunday was race day.  I don’t generally eat much for breakfast before a race.  I had picked up a yogurt parfait the day before, but I had mixed feelings about eating it.  On one hand, I still felt full from the night before.  On the other hand, I thought the yogurt might settle my stomach.  Reluctantly, I ate my parfait and had a cup of tea.

The race is divided into three waves.  The first wave starts at 7:30 AM.  I was in the second wave, which didn’t start until 8:00.  Nevertheless, I still had to get to Grant Park early.

Runners in wave two are advised to arrive at Grant Park by 6:00.  I’ve learned from experience to take that advice seriously.  If you get there early enough, you can get into the start area quickly.  If you wait too long, you can get stuck in a long line trying to enter Grant Park.  They have security checkpoints, and they need to inspect everyone’s bags at the entrances.  These checkpoints can be major bottlenecks.  I’d rather arrive early and have a long wait inside the park than arrive too late and stress about getting to my corral on time.

Because I arrived early enough, I got through the checkpoint quickly.  Then I made my way to Buckingham Fountain, where there are some benches.  I found a place to sit, and I was talking to two other runners until I needed to get into a bathroom line.

The port-o-potties closest to the start corrals always have insanely long lines.  After looking around, I found some port-o-potties that were farther away, but had shorter lines.

At 7:15, I took off my warm-up pants and checked my gear bag.  Then I made my way to the start corrals.

They close the corrals 15 minutes before the start of each wave.  I’ve found that it’s best to get into the corral at least 30 minutes early.  After that, there’s a huge bottleneck at the entrance to each corral.

The temperature was in the upper 50s.  I had a flat course and favorable weather, but I was tired.  By the time race started, my digestive system had stabilized.  I didn’t know how much the lack of sleep would affect me.  Sometimes you don’t know how your body will respond until you start running.

Each wave was divided into several corrals.  I was assigned to corral F, which was the first corral of the second wave.  By the time we started, all the runners from the first wave had cleared out, so the only runners in front of me were runners from my own corral.  That helped.  This is a huge race, so the first few miles can be congested.  To my surprise, I felt like I had plenty of room to run at my own pace as soon as I crossed the starting line.

In my last three races, I’ve run times in the low 3:50s.  I wanted to see if I could get under 3:50.  Ideally, I wanted to run the first half in 1:55 and then speed up in the second half.

If there was a 3:50 pace group in my corral, I would’ve started with them.  There were two 3:50 pace groups, but one started in corral G, and the other started in corral H.  I could’ve moved back, but then I would’ve experienced more congestion in the early miles.  I chose to stick with my corral assignment and set my own pace.

In the first mile, I felt like I might be going too fast.  I wouldn’t know for sure until I reached a mile marker.  For the first few miles, we were surrounded by tall buildings.  Signals from the GPS satellites can reflect off the buildings, confusing your watch.  Early in the race, I had to pace myself by checking my time at each mile marker.

To run the first half in 1:55, I needed to average 8:46 per mile.  I ran the first mile in 8:39.  That wasn’t that much faster than my target pace, but it felt more tiring than it should.  I immediately had doubts about hitting my goal.

There are 20 aid stations along the route.  I was originally planning to skip the first one, as it tends to be the most congested.  When I got there, I didn’t see any runners in front of me heading toward the aid station.  When I realized I could grab a cup of Gatorade without bumping into other runners, I went for it.

I’ve run hundreds of different marathons, but I’ve never seen another race with such good aid station volunteers.  They really know what they’re doing.  They know exactly how much to fill each cup, so you can grab it without spilling.  They’re also really good about standing far enough apart and holding out the cups so you can easily get a clean handoff.  At most of the aid stations, I was able to grab a cup and drink without slowing down.

In mile two, I kept up the same effort, even though it felt too fast.  That mile was about five seconds faster than the first one.  Then I eased up a bit.

During the second mile, I ran right past my hotel.  I’ve stayed in the same hotel for this race before, but somehow, I never noticed that I was running past the Palmer House.  Add this to the long list of races where I’ve run right past my hotel.

There were four sharp turns in the first three miles.  After that, we were mostly heading north.  I didn’t have any trouble with congestion in the early turns, but it was still a relief to know that we would be running mostly in one direction for the next five miles.

For corral seeding, I submitted my fastest time in the last year.  That was on a downhill course, so it was faster than I could run on a flat course.  Most of the other runners in my corral were faster than me.  In some miles, I was able to throttle it back and run at about the right pace.  In others, I was influenced too much by the runners around me, causing me to start going too fast again.

Once I was out of the downtown area, my watch started giving me accurate splits.  I didn’t pay too much attention to them.  I continued to do “old school” pacing.  I read my time at each mile marker.  Then I added 8:45 to get my target time for the next mile.  I usually came in a few seconds faster.

There was a lot of music along the course.  Sometimes it was live; other times it was recorded.  Somewhere around five miles, I heard music that had a familiar beat.  I couldn’t hear the singing yet, but from the beat alone, I recognized it as “Eye of the Tiger.”

In the major marathons, I often see runners from several other countries.  I saw runners wearing shirts indicating they were from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Slovakia.  I saw several runners from Brazil.  They were all wearing gold shirts with the Brazilian flag on the back.

We were in mile eight when we reached the northernmost point on the course.  After two turns, we started coming back toward the downtown area.  I was almost to the eight-mile sign when I was passed by a pace group.  It was the 3:40 group.  They must have started in a different corral.  There’s no way they would have been behind me for eight miles if they started in corral F.  Seeing a 3:40 group this far into the race was a reminder that the runners around me going pretty fast.

We were running through neighborhoods with really good crowds.  Coming back towards downtown, I continued to run just a little bit faster than my target pace.  It always felt like I might be working too hard, but I was getting pulled along by the fast runners around me.

The halfway point was in the downtown area.  At halfway, I was on pace for about 3:47.  I had no illusions about speeding up in the second half.  I’d be lucky if I could hang on.  I expected to slow down eventually, but I was hoping to hold the pace for as long as I could.

When my watch gave me a split for mile 14, it was insanely fast.  We had just gone through an area with tall buildings, so I knew I couldn’t trust my watch.  I had to wait and check my time at 14 miles.  It was a long time before I reached the 14-mile sign.

In the second half, I was still running about the same pace that I had run in the first half.  Now, we were running a segment of the course that took us to the west.

I was at about 15 miles when I was passed by another pace group.  This was a 3:35 group.  I asked one of the pace leaders which corral they started in.  They started in corral G.  Apparently, there was a stagger of several minutes between corrals.

After reaching the westernmost point on the course, we made two quick turns and headed back toward the downtown area.  When I saw the downtown buildings ahead of me, I realized I was about to pass a Church’s Chicken restaurant.  It’s funny what things you remember about a course.  I remembered that, but I forgot that the street I was  running on is part of Route 66.

In any large race, there are spectators holding up signs.  My favorite sign in this race read, “Run flat. Eat deep dish.”

I wanted to make a bathroom stop, but I didn’t want to stop while I was still on a good pace.  For one mile at a time, I held out.  I ended up holding out for the rest of the race.

Before reaching downtown, we turned and headed south.  Then we began a loop through the neighborhoods that are southwest of the city center.

By 18 miles, I was starting to feel the sun.  It was getting warmer.  At the aid stations, they had flags indicating the alert level, based on the current weather conditions.  We started the race with a green flag, which means low risk.  When I got to the next aid station, I saw a yellow flag.  We now had moderate risk.

In the next few miles, we ran through a few ethnic neighborhoods, including a Mexican neighborhood and an Italian neighborhood.  The spectators in the Mexican neighborhood were playing music and waving Mexican flags.  I also saw a beer stop there, but there’s no way I was going to do anything to disrupt my race when I was still hanging on to a good pace.

So far, every mile had been 8:46 or faster.  That ended in mile 21.  That mile included a sharp turn where I had to slow down because of congestion.  It also ended with a slight climb up to a bridge.  This is an amazingly flat course.  You get so used to every mile being flat that even a small hill can take you out of your rhythm.

Next, we ran through Chinatown.  This is my favorite part of the course.  Aside from being the most colorful neighborhood, it also has the best spectators.  There were large crowds and they really made some noise for us.

I could no longer stay on my target pace, but I was keeping it close.  The last major part of the course was along Michigan Avenue.  First, we turned right and ran farther south.  Just past 23 miles, we did a small loop, which brought us back to Michigan Avenue to run north.

When we got back onto Michigan Avenue, we were finally running back toward Grant Park and the finish.  I have a love/hate relationship with this part of the course.  I love that we’re on the final stretch, but I always start to run out of gas before I get to this stretch.

When we turned back onto Michigan Avenue, we were at 31st Street.  We had to go to Roosevelt, which is the equivalent to 12th Street.  I started counting down the blocks before we would turn.

My time for mile 24 was 9:00.  It was a bit discouraging that I was no longer keeping my pace under nine minutes, but I only had a couple miles to go.  If I could keep it anywhere close to nine minutes per mile, I would break 3:50.  I was pretty confident I could do that.

I saw another beer stop.  It looked refreshing.  Ordinarily, I would’ve been tempted, but I knew we would get a full can of beer at the finish.  I could wait.

Up until now, I had always been drinking Gatorade at the aid stations.  My mouth was feeling dry, so I switched to drinking water at the next aid station.  That was a refreshing change of pace.

In mile 25, I managed to pick up the pace a little.  After that, there were numerous signs to tell you how much you have left.  This is one of the few races that has a one mile to go sign.  When I got there, I did a time check.  If I ran well in the last mile, I could break 3:48.

At 41K, I had 1200 meters to go.  That’s equivalent to three laps around a track.  I knew they also had signs at 800 meters to go and 400 meters to go.  I lifted my effort and focused on 400 meters at a time.

When I reached 13th Street, I just had one more block before the turn.  I was annoyed when we were forced to move to the left side of the street, since the next turn would be a right.  They had a place where spectators could cross the street, halfway at a time.  Sometimes runners were diverted to the right.  Other times, runners were diverted to the left.  I just had bad timing.  As soon as I could, I started angling toward the right, in anticipation of the turn.

When I turned onto Roosevelt, I started climbing “Roosevelt hill.”  We had to go up a ramp to a bridge over some railroad tracks.  It’s not a big hill, but it comes near the end of the race, when you’re already fighting to hang on.

The 400 meters to go sign was halfway up the hill.  I focused on getting there first.  Then I focused on the 300 meters to go sign, which was at the top of the hill.

After the road leveled off, I reached the final turn on the course.  As I made the turn, I saw a 3:40 pacer.  It didn’t seem possible that he could be on pace for 3:40.  He should have been way ahead of me.

With 200 meters to go, I was determined to pass the 3:40 pacer.  I did.  With 100 meters to go, I noticed it was slightly downhill to the finish.  That allowed me to finish strong.

I crossed the line in 3:47:57.  I ran positive splits by about a minute, but I didn’t look at it like that.  My plan had been to run the first half in 1:55 and then run the second half faster than 1:55.  My first half was too fast, but I still kept the second half under 1:55.

There’s a reason why I wanted to break 3:50.  I recently moved into a new age group for Boston qualifying.  The qualifying standard for my new age group is 4:05.  The standard for my former age group is 3:50.  I wanted to prove to myself that I can still beat the qualifying time for my former age group.

After I got my finisher medal, I took a heat sheet.  I didn’t feel like I needed one, but I knew it would be a while before I got back to my hotel, and I didn’t want to risk getting cold.

Post-race food included bananas, apples, popcorn, and chocolate mini-donuts.  I had a banana and a donut.  That was enough.

Post-race beverages included water, beer, and Muscle Milk.  I skipped the water, but picked up a can of beer and a bottle of Muscle Milk.  I needed to finish the beer before leaving the park.  I could bring the Muscle Milk back to the hotel.

As soon as I exited the food area, I headed for the nearest bathroom.  Then I made my way toward the gear retrieval tents.  Along the way, I bumped into my friend Glen.  Glen and I are in the same age group, and we both had BQs.

After retrieving my gear bag, I headed to the post-race party area.  I wanted to see if I could spot any other friends.  When I got there, I saw that it was much too crowded to have any hope of spotting someone I know.  I didn’t have my phone with me, so I had no way of finding out where anybody was.

I went straight through the party area to get to the exit, and I made my way back to the hotel.  Along the way, I was comparing notes with a runner from Germany who started in corral E.  She found the early miles to be too crowded.  I’ve had that experience in other years.  There’s a big difference between the last corral of one wave and the first corral of the next wave.

I spent the rest of the afternoon recuperating at the hotel.  For dinner, I went to Pizano’s Pizza.  They have an individual size for their deep-dish pizza.  Also, they’re only a block away from my hotel, and that was an important consideration.

Monday, October 13

My flight home wasn’t until the afternoon, so I was able to eat breakfast and do a workout before taking a train to the airport.  I got to the airport in time to have lunch there.  It was my sixth deep-dish pizza in four days.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  3:47:57

Average Pace:  8:42 per mile

First Half:  1:53:24

Second Half:  1:54:33

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  29

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  564

Consecutive Boston Qualifiers:  5

Lifetime Boston Qualifiers:  184

World Marathon Majors:  29 (14 Boston, 7 Chicago, 4 NYC, 2 Berlin, London, Tokyo)

Race Report: 2025 Twin Cities Marathon

On October 5, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon, which starts in downtown Minneapolis and finishes in front of the State Capitol in downtown St. Paul.  This is one of my favorite races.  It was my first marathon, back in 1983, and I’ve run it 15 more times since then.

I belong to a club called the 50sub4 Marathon Club.  Its members all have a goal of running marathons in all 50 states with times under four hours.  I’ve completed two circuits of 50sub4.

The 50sub4 club has two club reunions each year.  The spring reunion is always at the Boston Marathon.  The fall reunion moves around.  This year, the club chose the Twin Cities Marathon for their fall reunion.

I live in the Twin Cities area, so I usually sleep in my own bed on race weekend.  My usual routine is to drive to St. Paul on race morning and park my car in a lot that’s near the State Capitol.  Then I walk over to the Radisson to take one of the free buses to the start.  After the race, I only have to walk a few blocks to get back to my car.

This year, I decided to stay in a hotel.  The obvious choice would’ve been the Radisson, but they were already fully booked by the time I checked on availability.  Instead, I stayed at the St. Paul Doubletree.  It wasn’t as close to the finish line, but it was only a few blocks from the Intercontinental, which was another location where I could catch a free bus to the start.  I paid extra to get a 2 PM checkout, to make sure I would have time to shower at the hotel after the race.

The expo was held at RiverCentre in downtown St. Paul.  RiverCentre is only about half a mile from Doubletree, so I checked in at the hotel first, left my car there, and walked to the expo.

Some of the other 50sub4 members had dinner at a restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.  I was tempted to join them, but it would have been a pain to have to travel to downtown Minneapolis and then travel back to St. Paul later in the evening.  I opted to have dinner in St. Paul and hope that I would see most of the same friends at the post-race party on Sunday.

Since I was already in downtown St. Paul, I had dinner at Cossetta’s.  Cossetta’s is a family-owned Italian restaurant that’s been in business for more than 100 years.  It’s near RiverCentre, so I often go there for dinner after the expo.

The disadvantage of staying in a hotel is that I rarely sleep as well in hotels as I do at home.  I slept OK for about half the night, but I woke up at 1:15 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I spent the rest of the night resting in bed, but never getting back to sleep.

The buses to the start were leaving continuously from 5:00 to 6:45 AM.  The earlier buses were mostly for runners doing the 10-mile race, which started at 7:00.  The marathon didn’t start until 8:00, so I could take one of the later buses.  I waited until 6:00 before leaving the hotel to walk over to the Intercontinental.  Then I got in line to board a bus.  Fewer runners take buses from the Intercontinental.  At the Radisson, you can easily spend 15 minutes in line waiting to board a bus.  At the Intercontinental, I was on a bus right away.

As the crow flies, it’s only 10 miles from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis.  The buses took the freeway, so it didn’t take long to get to the start area.  When I arrived in the start area, I still had an hour and a half before the race.  When I wasn’t in a bathroom line, I sat on a bench inside the Viking ship that’s outside the football stadium.

When it comes to weather, one day can make a big difference.  On Saturday, it got up to 90 degrees, which was a record high for St. Paul.  Had the race been a day earlier, it might have been cancelled.  By Monday morning, it’s supposed to cool down to 49 degrees.  Had the race been a day later, we would’ve had ideal temperatures.  Instead, we got something in between. When I arrived in the start area, the temperature was in the upper 60s, and it was forecast to climb into the upper 70s by noon.  That’s obviously much warmer than ideal, but I tolerate warm conditions better than most runners.

It was a little windy, so I wore a light jacket to keep warm in the start area.  I could tie that around my waist, so I didn’t need to check a gear bag.  That saved me some time both before and after the race.

I saw a few runners I know before the race.  One was Jeff Hill, who was the founder of the 50sub4 club.

I was in the first of three start corrals.  They had several pace groups, including a 3:50 group and a 4:00 group.  Between the warm temperatures and the lack of sleep, I didn’t think it was a good day to set an aggressive goal.  I want to break four hours if I could, so I was planning to start with the 4:00 group.

From what I read online, I expected there to be 3:50 and 4:00 groups in both corral one and corral two.  I saw a 3:50 group in corral two, but the slowest group I saw in corral one was 3:45.  That was too fast, so I started on my own.

As I was running through downtown Minneapolis in the first mile, I spotted Eliot, who is also a 50sub4 member.  I sped up a little to catch up to Eliot, but that led me to run the first mile too fast.

In the second mile, there’s an uphill section where’s we’re running past the Walker Art Center and then turning onto Douglas Avenue.  On this section, I eased up and let myself drift back in comparison to the runners around me.  After running mile one in 8:30, I slowed to 8:55 in mile two.  That was still faster than the pace I needed to break four hours, but it was much more reasonable.

The next few miles were relatively flat.  I settled into a pace that was between 8:45 and 8:50.  I wasn’t trying to go this fast, but I was influenced by the pace of the runners around me.

Midway through mile three, we turned left to head toward the chain of lakes in south Minneapolis.  For the next four or five miles, we had a headwind.  I was partially sheltered by the trees and the other runners, so I never found the wind to be too tiring.

Running past Lake of the Isles, I saw some spectators who set up a mimosa stop.  It was much too early in the race to indulge in something like that.  I stuck to the official aid stations, which had water and Nuun.

A couple miles later, near the southwest corner of Bde Maka Ska, I saw another mimosa stop.  This one also had pancakes.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen pancakes at a marathon before.

I felt the wind the most as I reached the north end of Lake Harriet.  Here, the wind was blowing across the lake.

After Lake Harriet, we quickly reached the Minnehaha Parkway.  Now, we were heading east, so the wind was at our side.  Along the parkway, I found the wind to be helpful.  It kept me from getting too hot.

The Minnehaha Parkway is mostly flat, but there are a few small hills in mile nine.  On these hills, I again allowed myself to drift back in comparison to the runners around me.  That mile was a little slower, but it was still fast enough.  So far, every mile was faster than nine minutes.

Just past the nine-mile mark, we ran under the Nicollet Avenue Bridge.  As usual, there was a band set up under the bridge.

The next mile was fairly level, and I got back into a nice rhythm.

For the second straight year, the Minnesota Vikings were playing a game in London on the day of the Twin Cities Marathon.  It was an afternoon game in London, but in our time zone, it was an 8:30 AM kickoff, so the game was going on at the same time as the marathon.  Along Minnehaha Parkway, I started seeing spectators holding up signs with the score.

After 10 miles, I asked myself how I felt.  My pace was taking some effort.  The question was whether it would be sustainable for 16 more miles.  I felt OK for the time being, but I expected it to get warmer in the second half.  In particular, I expected to feel the sun more as it got higher in the sky.

Just before 11 miles, we turned onto Cedar Avenue to begin running around Lake Nokomis.  It was here that I noticed a pace group catching up to me.

The leaders of pace groups carried signs that listed their goal time on one side and their average pace on the other side.  This was a 3:50 group.  Their pace was 8:46 per mile, which was pretty close to the pace I had been running.

I had seen a 3:50 group in corral two, but they started five minutes after I did.  I didn’t expect them to catch up to me until much later in the race.  I asked the pace leader if she started in corral one or two.  This group started in corral one, just like I did.

I wanted to run with a group, but I didn’t know if 3:50 was realistic.  As we ran around the west side of the lake, we were running into the wind.  Against my better judgement, I kept up with the group, even though I was fighting a headwind.  Then I got ahead of them.

The 12-mile mark was near the south end of the lake.  I saw the pace group next to me again, but a different runner was carrying the sign.  I didn’t realize it at first, but this was a different pace group.  This was a 3:45 group, but they started in corral two.

Without realizing this was a faster group, I kept running with them.  That led me to run the next mile in 8:29.  That was my fastest mile of the race.  When I realized this was a 3:45 group, I eased up and fell behind them.

On the east side of Lake Nokomis, we had the wind at our backs.  That may sound good, but I started to get hot.  When I had a tailwind, I missed the cooling effect of the wind.

At the halfway mark, I was on pace to finish in 3:51.  I expected to slow down in the second half, as it got hotter and sunnier.

Just past the halfway mark, there was an aid station that had pickle juice, in addition to water and Nuun.  I drank a small cup of pickle juice and then followed it with Nuun.

As I was leaving Lake Nokomis to get back onto the Minnehaha Parkway, it suddenly got cloudy, and I felt some light sprinkles.  That was a game changer.  Now, I was no longer hot.  It remained cloudy for the rest of the race, and we had intermittent light rain.  It was just enough to keep me reasonably cool.

Between 15 and 16 miles, we left Minnehaha Parkway to get onto the West River Parkway.  We followed the west bank of the Mississippi for the next few miles.

At 16 miles, I once again asked myself how I felt.  I wasn’t any more tired now than I was at 10 miles.  With the change in weather, I was much more confident that I could sustain the pace.

At 17 miles, there was an aid station that had gel packets filled with maple syrup.  I had a syrup packet and then followed it with some water.  That was a nice treat.

In mile 18, I slowed to 9:00.  That surprised me, because I didn’t feel like I was going any slower.  As I thought about it more, I realized I wasn’t working as hard.  I had inadvertently allowed myself to relax.  After that, I picked up my effort again.

When I reached the 30K mark, I knew I was getting close to the Franklin Avenue Bridge, where we would cross the river.  Before I got there, I saw a runner ahead of me wearing a 50sub4 shirt.  I couldn’t recognize him from behind.  I yelled, “50Sub4, I see you.”  Then he turned his head, and I recognized him.  It was Rainer, who I met earlier this year.

I ran up the ramp to Franklin Avenue and crossed the bridge.  As I got onto the East River Road, I knew the next mile would be slightly downhill.  At 20 miles, I reached the lowest elevation on the course.  The next three miles were each uphill.  This is the make-or-break part of the course.

I didn’t slow down much in mile 21.  Then I turned the corner to begin a long gradual hill where we climb away from the river and up to the University of St. Thomas.  My pace going up this hill was slow, but steady.  I kept up with the runners around me, but most people slow down on this hill.

When I reached the top, I knew the toughest hill was begin me.  I turned right, ran half a block, and then turned left onto Summit Avenue.  Summit Avenue was still uphill at first, but it was more gradual.

Mile 22 was my slowest mile of the race, but I expected that.  I needed to average 9:09 per mile, and this was the only mile that was slower than that.  It was 9:12.

Just past 22, I saw another pace group coming up on my side.  Was this the same 3:50 group I had seen earlier, or was it the one that started in corral two?  I didn’t know, and I didn’t ask.  What I did know is that their target pace was 8:46.  I challenged myself to stay in front of them.  I had one more uphill mile.  Then it would get easier.

At 23 miles, I knew I had reached the highest elevation on the course.  I was still in front of the 3:50 group, and now the course was leveling off.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen a score for the Vikings game since halftime.  The game might be over by now.  I later learned from another runner that the Vikings won.  For what it’s worth, they’re 5-0 in games played in London.

In mile 24, I sped up by 15 seconds.  I was still in front of the 3:50 group, and I was motivated to keep up my effort.

Just past 24, I saw a large sign on the left that said “Free beer.”  It was late enough in the race that I was willing to indulge in a beer stop.  I almost bumped into another runner as I angled over to the left side of the street.

When the spectators with the beer saw me heading their way, they got excited.  I may have been the first runner to stop there.  One asked me, “Do you want a beer?”  Another opened a cooler and took out a 16-ounce can.

I was expecting beer poured into a small cup.  I wasn’t expecting a whole can.  I told them I couldn’t drink that much, and I continued running.  Instead, I drank water at an aid station that was a few blocks away.

After another half mile, I saw a beer stop on the right.  These people had poured beer into several plastic cups.  I happily drank a small cup of beer and continued running.

The last three miles have a slight downhill trend, but it’s not all downhill.  The last hill on the course comes just before the 25-mile mark.  I know this hill well.  35 years ago, I walked this hill, and I missed a Boston qualifier by 11 seconds.

Knowing it was the last hill, I was able to keep up a steady pace.  Then I just had to grind it out for a little over a mile.

Just before 26, the street bends to the left, and we ran by St. Paul’s Cathedral.  From there, it’s downhill, and you can see the capitol in front of you.

I saw someone holding up a 50sub4 banner in the crowd.  As I got closer, I saw it was Gwen.  She ran the 10-mile race, so she had been done for hours.

I continued running down the hill, finishing in 3:51:30.  I slowed down in the second half, but only by 32 seconds.  Mile 22 accounted for most of that.

The finisher medal featured a maple leaf.  Autumn colors used to be a regular feature of this race.  In recent years, the leaves have been changing later.  Ideally, this race should be held two weeks later.  That would also ensure cooler weather.  This year, we got lucky, got it could easily have been hotter.

As luck would have it, the sun came out right after I finished.  I had my phone with me during the race, but I didn’t want to stop to take pictures.  As I continued walking through the finish area, I stopped to take a picture of the capitol.

Not checking a gear bag made it easy to get out of the finish area quickly.  I picked up a few post-race snacks, but then I started walking back to my hotel.

I got back to the hotel little earlier than I expected.  I had time to take a hot bath and do some stretching.  My Achilles tendons both felt tight.

After changing into clean clothes, I packed up and checked out.  Then I drove to St. Paul Brewing for the 50sub4 post-race party.

I arrived a little bit early, but Gwen and Jayde were already there.  Eventually, several other 50sub4 members joined us, and we traded stories for most of the afternoon.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  3:51:30

Average Pace:  8:50 per mile

First Half:  1:55:29

Second Half:  1:56:01

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  28

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  563

Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  115

Consecutive Boston Qualifiers:  4

Lifetime Boston Qualifiers:  183

Race Report: Buenos Aires Marathon

Two and a half years ago, I traveled to Antarctica with Marathon Tours & Travel.  Our itinerary included three days in Buenos Aires before flying to Ushuaia to board our ship.  I ran a marathon in Antarctica, but I didn’t run a marathon during my time in Argentina.

Six months ago, a friend of mine did that same trip to run the Antarctica Marathon.  When I saw her photos from Buenos Aires, it reminded me how much I liked that city.  That was the motivation I needed to go back to Buenos Aires to run a marathon there.

Before I could register for the race, I needed to get a medical certificate signed by my doctor.  I’ve done other marathons in countries that required a medical certificate, but you didn’t need to provide the certificate until packet pickup.  In Argentina, you need to upload a copy of your medical certificate as part of the registration process.  I checked to see how soon I could get a doctor appointment.  As luck would have it, I was able to get an appointment that same day.

When I was here with Marathon Tours & Travel, we stayed at a hotel in the Puerto Madero waterfront area.  I loved that neighborhood, but hotels there are expensive.  Also, it’s a long distance from where the marathon starts and finishes.  This time, I stayed at a hotel that was outside that neighborhood, but still close enough that I could easily walk there.  I was a little closer to where the race starts, and the rate was much more affordable.

Thursday, September 18

When I fly overseas for a race, I usually arrive at least three days before the race.  For a Sunday race, I’ll typically leave on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday.  Since I had been to Buenos Aires before, I decided to leave on Thursday instead.  That would give me enough time, provided I didn’t have any major flight delays.  Naturally, I did.

I was on my flight to Atlanta when I found out that my flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires was going to be delayed.  It was originally scheduled to depart at 11:00 PM.  When I got to Atlanta, they were saying it wouldn’t leave until 12:30 AM.  Later, they pushed it back to 1:55 AM.  After I had been waiting in the Atlanta airport for three hours, they finally announced that the flight wouldn’t leave until 8:00 AM Friday morning.  It would’ve been nice to know that a few hours earlier.

I checked into a hotel for the night, but I didn’t get there until midnight.  I tried to get to sleep, but I was too wound up to relax.  I had been avoiding caffeine since leaving Minneapolis, but I still felt like I had 10 cups of coffee.

Friday, September 19

I kept trying to sleep until 4:30.  Then I had to get up to get back to the airport.  I wanted to allow plenty of time to get through security.  It can take much longer in Atlanta than it does in Minneapolis.

When I tried to go through security, I had a new problem.  TSA wouldn’t let me through, because my boarding pass had the wrong date.  I went to the Delta counter, where they told me my boarding pass was good, but I couldn’t use TSA pre-check.  They said I would need to use the general boarding lane.  I have Clear, so I asked if there was a lane for Clear without pre-check, and if I could use that lane.   There was, and I could, but it was on the other side of the terminal.  I eventually got through using that lane.

While I was eating breakfast in the airport, I learned that my flight was delayed another hour to 9:00.  I didn’t know why it kept getting delayed, so I had to wonder if there would be more delays.  Sure enough, they delayed it 9:40 AM, then 11:00 AM, then noon, then 12:30, then 1:00, and finally 1:46.  They were nickel and diming me to death.  If I knew the full extent of the delay sooner, I wouldn’t have needed to get to the airport so early.  Instead, I got no sleep, and I was waiting in the airport for hours, seemingly without end.

After we finally boarded, the pilot announced that the weather along our route had changed since the cargo was loaded, and they would need to rearrange the cargo to distribute the weight differently.  He said it would take 15-20 minutes.  It took two hours!  When we finally pulled away form the gate, we were 17 hours behind schedule.  I spent most of that time at the airport, and I didn’t get any sleep.

I rarely try to sleep on flights, but I knew I wouldn’t have much time to sleep when I got to my hotel, so I was desperate.  As soon as the meal service was done, I tried to get to sleep.

I was about as comfortable as I’ve ever been while trying to sleep on an airplane, but it took almost six hours to fall asleep.  We had turbulence for most of the flight, and the bumpy ride made falling asleep almost impossible.  Later in the flight, things smoothed out a bit, and I got a brief nap.

I was originally scheduled to arrive in Buenos Aires at 9:45 AM on Friday.  Because of all the delays, I didn’t get there until 2:45 AM on Saturday.

Saturday, September 20

I had a bad experience with a taxi the last time I traveled to South America, so this time I booked an airport transfer before I arrived.  That was before I knew about the flight delays.  I had to contact the taxi company more than once to let them know my flight was delayed.  It took about 30 minutes to get through the line for passport control, but when I was done, I spotted my driver.

It took about an hour to get to my hotel.  I had contacted the hotel before my flight to let them know I would be arriving late.  I also asked them to have the temperature turned down in my room.  When I got there, my room was nice and cold.  I immediately climbed into bed to take a nap.

It took me about an hour to get to sleep.  I got enough of a nap to be able to function.  Then I had breakfast.

I lost a whole day, so everything I was planning to do on Friday got pushed to Saturday instead.  That included packet pickup for the marathon.  The earliest I could do that on Saturday was 10:00.  In the meantime, I did a workout in the fitness room.

Packet pickup was held in a park that was on the other side of the city.  I could get most of the way there on the Subte (subway), but I had to walk the last mile.

To pick up my race packet, I needed my passport and a QR code that they emailed to me.  I didn’t know if I would need my medical certificate, but I brought it just in case.

The race shirt was a tank top, which is always nice, since I don’t get as many of those.  Besides my race bib and shirt, my race packet included several product samples.  Some were useful, such as protein bars and other food.  Others were not so useful, like a half-liter bottle of mouthwash.  One interesting item was a package of maté, which is an Argentine herbal drink that has its own subculture.

It took me an hour to get to the park and another hour to get back.  When I got back, it was lunchtime, but I decided to skip lunch in favor of going for a run and then having an early dinner.  Ideally, I would’ve run on Friday and rested Saturday, but I spent Friday in an airport and on a plane.

From my hotel, I ran through Puerto Madero to reach an ecological reserve that has some trails.  That’s the same place where I went for runs the first time I visited Buenos Aires.  I was hoping to run a trail loop, but the reserve was closed.  Instead, I ran out and back on a wide sidewalk that’s adjacent to the reserve.

I wanted to get to bed early, so I had an early dinner.  In Argentina, people often don’t eat dinner until 9:00.  Restaurants often don’t open until 7:30.  I knew there were restaurants in Puerto Madero that are open all afternoon, so that’s where I went for dinner.  Argentina has a large Italian minority, so it wasn’t hard to find a restaurant with pizza.

I’m happy to say I slept well that night.  I really needed that after getting so little sleep the previous two nights.

Sunday, September 21

Sunday was race day.  The race started at 7:00 AM.  The only negative about my hotel is that it was four miles from where the race starts.  Buenos Aires has good public transportation, but race morning was problematic.  The subway system doesn’t operate that early on a Sunday morning.  There’s a bus route that goes right there, but I didn’t know if that route would be affected by road closures.  Without knowing for sure if the bus would be running, I decided to just walk.  I had to leave early, but my route was fairly direct.

I left the hotel at 5:00.  It was still dark, but I was following streets that were well-lit.  Leaving that early gave me enough time that I could walk at a casual pace and still get to the start area with plenty of time to make it through the bathroom lines.  Along the way, I passed a few landmarks.

With about a mile to go, I started to see other runners who were walking or running to the start area.  I saw two runners getting out of a taxi.  I assume the driver got them as close as he could, but couldn’t go all the way because of road closures.

After making a bathroom stop, I tried to figure out where the start corrals were.  The start area was huge, and there wasn’t any signage.  I never saw a map of the start area on the race website, so I just had to find my way around.

When I spotted the starting line, I was on the wrong side of it.  There were barricades on both sides of the street, so I had to take a circuitous route to get to the entrance to the start corrals.  Making matters worse, it had rained during the night, so I had to detour around several large puddles.

I never walked through a puddle, but I did a lot of walking on wet grass.  By the time I found the entrance to my corral, my shoes and socks were wet.

Shortly after I entered my corral, my watch informed me that I had reached its arbitrary goal of 10,000 steps.  That’s a lot of walking to do before the race even starts.

I was in corral F, which was for runners with estimated finish times between 3:46 and 4:00.  I was puzzled when I saw a runner at the back of corral E with a sign that read, “5.30.”  I assumed he was the leader of a pace group, but if his target time was 5:30, he shouldn’t have been in corral E.

Then I wondered if 5:30 was the time limit, and he was the sweeper.  If that was the case, he should have been in the last corral.  He eventually moved to the front of corral F, but that still didn’t make sense.

Sometimes when I run in a foreign country, I experience a different pre-race ritual.  As we were waiting for the race to start, I saw a large sheet passing over the runners in front of me.  As it reached us, we each reached up and grabbed it to help pull it back.  Then, as it passed over us, we kept our arms extended, so it glided over our fingertips.

This sheet was as wide as the street, and it was more than a block long.  It took so long to pass over us, that it may have been two blocks long.  It was divided into three stripes of equal width.  The outer two stripes were light blue and the middle stripe was while.  Those are the colors of Argentina’s flag.

When the elite runners started, I heard a loud cheer.  I was so far from the starting line that I couldn’t even see it.  It would be several minutes before my corral started.

Before my corral started, I started to feel a fine drizzle.  The temperature was in the 50s, but I opted to wear tights, knowing it would be windy.  With the drizzle, I felt more confident in that decision.  I also put my gloves on.

In front of each corral, there were two lines of volunteers holding hands to create a barrier across the road.  They waited until the corral in front of them had started before they let the next corral move up.  Then they brought us forward slowly, ensuring a stagger of at least a minute between corrals.  By the time my corral was allowed to cross the starting line, seven or eight minutes had already elapsed since the first runners started.

I was near the front of my corral.  As soon as I crossed the starting line, I was able to run at my own pace.  The stagger between corrals was sufficient to give us plenty of space to run.

At first, the runners around me were all going at the same pace.  Eventually, we caught up to runners from the back of corral E, even though they started at least a minute ahead of us.  Now, I had to start passing people, but it wasn’t that difficult to get around them.

This is a huge race, but we were starting on a road that was six lanes wide.  The stagger between corral starts was enough to ensure that we got spread out a bit before we caught up to the corral in front of us.  Most of the people in that corral were faster, but not everyone starts at the same pace, and some people start in a corral that’s too fast for them.  A certain amount of congestion is inevitable, but we weren’t packed in like sardines.

I felt like I might be starting fast, but I didn’t know for sure until I got a split from my watch.  I ran the first mile in 8:37.  That was fast, but not crazy fast.

As we got mixed in with runners from other corrals, I had to run at my own pace and not at the pace of the runners right in front of me.  In the first few miles, I did a good job of that.  My next two splits were 8:38 and 8:37.

At 5K, we reached the first hydration station.  This one just had water, and it was in bottles.  I grabbed a bottle, removed the cap, and drank about half of it.  It was a large bottle, and I couldn’t drink that much at once.  When I couldn’t drink any more, I tossed the bottle to the side of a road, where I saw a volunteer collecting the discarded bottles in a trash bag.

My next mile was a little slower.  I attributed that mostly to slowing down at the aid station.

The next time I reached an aid station, they had Gatorade in paper cups.  That station didn’t have any water.  Drinking a cup of Gatorade was easier, but that mile was slower than the previous one.

My pace was getting erratic.  The runners around me were still going at different paces.  How fast I ran in any particular mile seemed to depend on who I was following and how fast they were going.  I was no longer doing a good job of running at my own pace.  After running mile five in 8:59, I sped up to 8:23 in mile six.  The scary thing is that my pace felt about the same in both of those miles.

At 10K, there was another aid station with water bottles.  I decided to skip that one.  The aid stations were frequent enough that I didn’t need to drink at all of them.

I eventually noticed a pattern.  Every 5K, they had a water station.  Halfway between those they had Gatorade stations.  For most of the race, I only drank at the Gatorade stations.

We started out running west, but we eventually looped back and returned to the same park where we started.  This time, we were on the other side of a divided street.

By now, the drizzle had stopped.  I briefly saw the sun come out, but it wasn’t long before it was overcast again.  Thankfully, the drizzle never returned.

More than half of the runners were wearing their green race shirts.  At times, the runners in front of me looked like a sea of green.  I can’t say or even think “sea of green” without getting the song “Yellow Submarine” in my head.  It didn’t stay there for long.  Shortly after passing through the start/finish area, I heard a large sound system blasting “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen.  If you know me well, you know I sped up in that mile.

We occasionally passed major landmarks of the city.  I had my phone with me, so I could’ve taken pictures, but I didn’t want to stop or slow down.  I started at a fast pace, and I wanted to keep that going.

As we were approaching 17K, I started to see large office buildings ahead of us.  I thought we were heading into the downtown area, but then we turned.

Right after turning, we started up a hill.  This course is mostly flat.  Up until now, the only hill was the ramp leading up to a bridge.  The hill in front of me wasn’t steep, but it was long enough that I had to be careful not to tire myself out.  I kept running with the same effort.  I didn’t worry if that mile was a little slower.

After the hill, I spotted the obelisk, which is another major landmark.  As we reached the obelisk, we turned right.  Then we had a nice downhill.

At 20K, we reached another water station, but they also had bananas.  As soon as I noticed that, I moved to the other side of the street.  The last thing I wanted was to step on a banana peel.  It was bad enough that some runners were dropping water bottles in the middle of the street.

After a couple more turns, we were running toward the obelisk again, but from a different direction.  This was an out-and-back section.  We ran toward the obelisk, but before we reached it, we made a U-turn.

Along this street, there were people in the crowd in all kinds of colorful costumes.  One guy was on stilts.  There was a whole group dressed in yellow from head to toe and twirling yellow flags.

Shortly after the turnaround, I spotted the guy with the “5.30” sign.  He was only a minute or two behind me.  If he was a sweeper or someone with a target time of “5:30,” he shouldn’t be just a minute behind me.  I was on pace for a time well under four hours.

Then it dawned on me that 5:30 might be a pace rather than a target time.  I didn’t go the math precisely, but it occurred that a pace of 5:30 per kilometer would work out to roughly 8:40 per mile.  That was pretty close to my pace.

I got a split from my watch at 13 miles, but I never noticed the 21K banner.  I also didn’t see anything marking the halfway point.  If didn’t occur to me that I was more than half done until I reached the 22K sign.  My time there was under two hours, so I was clearly on pace to break four hours by a wide margin.  I started somewhat fast, but my only goal was to break four hours.

For the next several kilometers, I didn’t know which neighborhood we were in.  I was beginning to slow down, but I could afford that.  To break four hours, I needed to average 9:09 per mile.  Through the first 17 miles, all of my mile times were under nine minutes.  Then in mile 18, I slowed to 9:12.

If I ran that pace for the rest of the race, I would easily break four hours.  My fear was that I would keep slowing down.  I lit a fire under myself to keep up with the runners around me.  In mile 19, I sped up to 8:42.

We were almost to 31K when I saw a fountain I recognized.  We were in Puerto Madero.  I knew we would run through this neighborhood, but we entered it from an unfamiliar direction.

After two more turns, we were on a familiar street.  It’s the one that borders the ecological reserve.  I ran along here on Saturday, but I was on the sidewalk.  Now, I was running in the street.

My race packet included a gel.  I had been keeping it in my fanny pack since the beginning of the race.  When I saw that I was approaching a water station, I took it out and quickly ate it.  Then I grabbed a bottle of water and drank just enough to wash it down.

I didn’t know our route through Puerto Madero, but I knew everything would look familiar.  Two years ago, I spent three days in this neighborhood.  It’s the only part of Buenos Aires that was already familiar to me.

That made the next four kilometers easier.  By the time we left that neighborhood, we only had 7K to go.  That was roughly the same distance I walked to get to the start of the race, but our route would be different.  When I was walking, it seemed to take forever.  Running, it would take less than half as long to cover that distance.

I had been skipping most of the water stations, but at 35K, I was thirsty.  I didn’t want to wait for the next Gatorade station.  I didn’t like drinking from bottles, but I drank water at this aid station.

Next, we run underneath a highway.  For roughly two kilometers, there was another roadway above us.  Now, I couldn’t trust splits from my watch.  I didn’t have a direct line of sight to the satellites, so my watch couldn’t tell where I was.  It would extrapolate from my last known location, but it couldn’t tell me if my pace changed.

When we got back out into the open again, I had roughly 5K to go.  Up until now, I had kept every mile but one under nine minutes.  From here on out, I slowed down, but I was able to limit the damage.

Buenos Aires has two airports.  I flew into the large international airport.  Now, we were running near the smaller domestic airport.  I could see planes taking off.

We ran another out-and-back section.  I saw the 5.30 guy again.  If that was his pace in minutes per kilometer, it was reassuring that I was still ahead of him.

At 41K, we made our final turn.  Now we were heading toward the finish line, but I wouldn’t see it until the last 100 meters.  It was be hidden behind a bend, just as it was when I was lined up in the start corrals.

When I finally got close enough to see the finish line, I saw the clock.  By the time I got there, it read “4:01:05.”  That was the elapsed time since the elite runners started.  I knew my time would be several minutes faster.

I finished in 3:52:40.  Then I kept moving through the finish area as quickly as I could.

I saw volunteers handing out water bottles.  I walked past them to get to other volunteers with Gatorade bottles.  I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, and then I saw a volunteer with bananas.  I started eating a banana as I continued moving forward.  I was expecting to eventually see volunteers handing out finisher medals.

Soon, everyone ahead of me stopped moving.  There was a traffic jam.  When I reached the volunteers with medals, I understood what was causing the bottleneck.  We had tear-off tags at the bottom of our race bibs.  I didn’t know what those were for.  The volunteers had to collect those when they handed us our medals.

The design on the medal features the obelisk.  It was also featured on the shirts.

I had more options for getting back to hotel, because the subway was now running.  I had to get out of the finish area before I could get a good enough connection to use the maps app on my phone.  I already knew that I would need to walk for about a mile to get to the nearest Subte station.  When I pulled up transit directions to see how to get there, I noticed that it would take about an hour to get back to my hotel with a combination of walking and subway.  Just walking back would take an hour and 15 minutes.

Then it occurred to me that I had a third option that was faster.  I could run back to the hotel.  Additional running, at this point, would be a slow shuffle.  I also needed to take occasional walking breaks, as running was too tiring.  Still, it was the fastest way back to the hotel, so that’s what I did.

When I got back to the hotel, I was a train wreck.  I didn’t feel like going anywhere for lunch, so I ate the remaining food samples from my race packet.

When it was time for dinner, I still didn’t feel like going out.  That made it easier to decide where to eat.  I had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.  I didn’t feel like I gave up anything.  It’s a good restaurant, and they had some local foods, as well as local beer and wine.

I slept well that night.

Monday, September 22

I flew home on Monday, but it was an evening departure, so I still had some time for sightseeing.  After breakfast, I did a workout at the hotel.  Then I headed out to see a few things that were within walking distance of my hotel.

My first stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral.  I didn’t have time to visit this church when I was here in 2023.

The cathedral is next to Plaza de Mayo.

Casa Rosada (the government building) is at the other end of the plaza.

From there, it was a short walk to the obelisk.

The most colorful neighborhood in Buenos Aires is La Boca.  I would’ve loved to visit that neighborhood again, but walking there would’ve taken too long, and there isn’t a Subte line that goes there.  Instead, I walked over to Puerto Madero, where I had lunch.

After lunch, I relaxed at the hotel until it was time to go to the airport.  My flight back to Atlanta is another overnight flight.  Hopefully this one will be on time.

Race statistics:

Distance:  42.2 kilometers

Time:  3:52:40

Average Pace:  5:31 per kilometer (8:52 per mile)

First Half:  1:55:16

Second Half:  1:57:24

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  27

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  562

Consecutive Boston Qualifiers:  3

Lifetime Boston Qualifiers:  182

Countries:  57