Marathon Race Report (very late)

This year I ran my second annual Chicago Marathon (second marathon total).  After last year's race went better than expected, I decided to make this a yearly thing.  I also decided that I would try and take my training seriously, and see if I could shave a few minutes off my off my time.  I stuck to my training schedule, and even got some protein powder for recovery.  As the weeks progressed, so did my optimism.  I started to think I could actually qualify for Boston.  It may be a pipe dream, but it seemed possible.  Lets review the numbers (because I'm a nerd):

When you look at these numbers, you'll immediately notice that I did not get any of my times down to Boston qualifying times.  I do, however, have many excuses I told myself as to why.  During the half marathon, I had post alcohol stomach issues, and after my training run, I still had gas in the tank. With these excuses to bolster my attitude, I thought that the pipe dream of qualification had a 5% chance of happening.

Queue race day.  I had my fancy new Garmin watch, a full play list with no Whitney Houston (random music on shuffle killed me last year), and all my gear ready to go.  Remember that protein powder I referenced earlier?  It also came with a trial of Cellucor C4 Exteme.  Apparently, C4 Extreme provides the following:

I don't know what "Unbelievable Muscle Pumps" are, but they sound fast to me!!!  It also has 135mg of caffeine per scoop.  The trial had 2 scoops, so I limited myself to 2 scoops.  I broke the first rule of fight club racing and changed my routine on the day of the race.  I mixed up the over chemicaled concoction in a water bottle and head for the train.  The weather was fairly cold when I left the house, but by the time we started running it was mid 40's, and shot up into the 50's pretty quickly.

Last year was my first marathon, and I ran as such.  I started with a sub 7 mile, and then got gradually slower from there, ending in the mid 9's.  This year, I was bound to do it differently.  I would have some discipline, slow my start, and be more consistent.  I kept an eye on the 7 min pacers just in case Boston really was going to happen, but vowed to run comfortably.  I huddled in my corral (wave 1 this year), and waited patiently.  After the elites and semi-pros, I started the tracking on my watch and we were off.

Mile 1
As I finished my first mile, I checked the time and realized that I was at just about 7 min.  I had 2 simultaneous reactions: 1. I'm running Boston speed! 2. Oh shit, I'm running too fast again.  The plan was to run consistently, and here I am running the same fast speed as last year.

Mile 3.1
After the first 5k, you're out of downtown, and into the north side.  It was nice to be back on the roads I run the most (I work and live near this part of the route).  My 5k pace was 7:07 per mile - a few sec short of qualification, but consistent with my first mile.  It turns out I wasn't over reaching; I really had gotten faster.  Pipe dream remained intact.

Miles 4 to 12
Running the north side has become second nature to me, and is therefore no longer noteworthy.  I ran through Lincoln Park (again), I saw Wrigley (like I do 4 days a week), and I ran down Clark (but without drunk people falling out of bars).  What was noteworthy was my watch buzzing with text messages from my wife!  She told me I needed to slow down so it didn't burn out, and I was going to fast she had to hurry to her spot so she wouldn't miss me.

Mile 13.1
I finished the first half of the marathon in 1:33:42.  I immediately came to two conclusions: 1. I was running really fast! 2. I was 1:12 over time to be on qualifying pace.  Running the second half 2 minutes and 24 seconds faster than the first was not going to happen.  The pipe dream was dead. From here on out, I was just running for me, to see what I could do.

Mile 14
There is one thing that I look forward to every race: seeing my family.   High fiving my kids, seeing my sister, mom, and grandma, and kissing my wife is something that I think about for miles.  It breaks up the monotony, and give me a nice warm fuzzy boost.

Mile 15
This is where things got interesting.  Remember the C4 EXTREME (I think all caps better describes it)?  Well, at this point it was wearing off, and I feel compelled to describe my nutrition in the race so far.

In the 15th mile, I notice that my arms are starting to feel numb.  I'm still running, and my speed is good, but dammit, my arms are tingling, and I was pretty sure it was getting worse.  As I tried to figure out what was going on, I noticed that I wasn't breathing enough.  I was obviously breathing, but it was shallow, and I was slowly hyperventilating.   I guessed that it was caused from my body coming down off of my caffeine high, and like any good addict, I knew what I needed to do.  I downed another Double Latte Powergel, and ate some caffeinated jelly beans (yes, I carry those). One of 2 things was going to happen: 1. I would feel better, and finish the race, or 2. I would have a minor heart attack and stop at one of the many friendly med stations.  By mile 16, I could move my limbs, and was still going strong - yay chemistry!

Mile 20
At about mile 20 or so, everybody seems to hit the wall.  The general saying is that you need to break through that wall.  This is a misnomer - I don't think that anyone breaks through the wall, or that it's really a wall at all.  Its more like a net.  You run straight into a net, and pull it with you.  You don't break it, you just have to dig deep for the strength to drag it behind you and keep going.  My wife's texts we good reminders that people were tracking me, and I had to do everybody proud.

Mile 24
This is the crap part of the race.  The crowds are thin, and you're still a couple miles from the finish. Just suck.  I did slow down a bit, but kept it below 8:30 per mile.  I powered through, and I finished.

Mile 26.2
3:16:50.  And I'm happy with that.  It's not 3:05:00, but hey, I need something to work towards, right? The best part of finishing the Chicago Marathon is beer.

Wonderful Goose Island beer beer is thrust upon you, and while it didn't make the pain in my legs stop, I pretended it did, and I felt better.

Overall, it was a very good race, and a great day.  I met up with Caroline and we headed home.  Once again, we looked for a car, and then decided to walk to the train.  Whats another half mile walk, right?  At the L station I noticed a sign that made me smile.  I started all of this ridiculous training on a dare from Jenny, and she sent me a message on the platform.

Jenny's favorite quote was Gandi's "Be the change you want to see in the world".  I'm trying to change myself for the better with my training.  And what do you see over my shoulder?  That message is out there for everyone to see.

Post race day note
Several days after my my race, my left calf was still sore.   As time progressed, I thought that I may have pulled something.  Alas, after a full week, it started to feel better, and that made me irrationally happy.   I wasn't just happy that I didn't have an actual injury; I was happy that I left it all on the course.  If it took me an entire week to recover, I really gave it my all.  In the end, I don't really care how fast I run.  I just want to know that I trained hard, and I ran hard, and I know exactly what I'm capable of.  Now, with the extra 5 minutes for being 35, I just need to be capable of finishing 6 minutes and 50 seconds faster next year :)