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.
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