I was so incredibly burned out after IM Santa Rosa that I had no desire to get on the bike any time soon. I tried to pick it back up for a few weeks, but it was not working at all. Thankfully, I can fall back on running. My colleague got me a spot in the Chi-town marathon and it was just what I needed. The simplicity of the running training is so captivating... It just felt right. I started training in early July.
Of course, life interferes. Injuries crept up out of nowhere. Bumped the left knee accidentally, pulled the right right hammy playing ball with my pointer dog... stuff like this just kept coming up. Nonetheless, I put in about 14 weeks of good to great training, averaging about 45 miles per week. No week had more than 55 miles in it. I focused on easy mileage to help with the injuries, but every other week I'd throw in a bit of tempo running. The longest run logged was about 18 miles.
All in all. I felt ready.
Pre-race
Got into Chicago on Friday night. It was pissing rain with thunderstorms when we were landing. I had to walk to the hotel from the train station in a pitch dark humid wall of sparse water. Felt very ritualistic. Got to the hotel, has a simple dinner with a sandwich and some salad and a glass of beer.
Got to the room, and feel asleep very quickly.
Got up the next morning at around 8am local time, had some coffee and went for a run. Rosemont does not have a ton of exciting options in terms of running routes, but I used the opportunity to discover the places to grab some food and just get some basics. I brought my Hoka Claytons with me and since they are about 1/2 size too small, I was worried about the effects of humidity... but the feet felt good. Neither the left knee or the right hammy bugged me.
I got to the hotel, changed, showered, ate some breakfast and headed to the Expo. The ride was pretty simple, although the connection to the other line was as confusing as they come (many tunnels to walk through, lots of escalators/etc). I met a fellow out of town runner on the train who was also trying to get to the expo from my station... he was going for the top 20 in his M60-64 age group. We got to the expo while chatting about the strategies for tomorrow and then went our separate ways.
The expo was very well organized, and I got my bib in no time. The only odd thing was the goodie bag station located in the back of the hall. That forced you to walk through the vendor village twice - which I guess worked, since I bought a pair of Vaporflys at the Nike's area.
Sampled some gels, skipped the beer bus, also grabbed some BioFreeze samples and headed out. Was back in Rosemont by noon. When I got off the train, the drizzle was back on and it sure did not look like it was going to end any time soon. I stopped by the 7-Eleven, grabbed some peanut butter/bread/Gatorade/bananas and on the way back got some Chicken Parm sandwich from a local restaurant. Stayed in the room the rest of the day, stretched and watched college football. Got a call from the team I was on at around 7:30pm - the lady told me that I had forgotten to pick up my hospitality tent pass at the expo. I was totally dumbfounded as I thought that the sticker on bib would work as a pass but I guess I was wrong. I told her that I would pick it up on the way to the starting line from a hotel near the Grant Park. Was in bed by 9pm, but hardly slept.
The Race Morning
Got up at 4am and had coffee and 2 slices of bread with peanut butter and bananas. Headed out at 5am to get on the 5:15 train. The platform was pretty tightly packed with the other runners and their entourage. It was still drizzling and the air was fairly cold with high humidity. The train ride went quick, although I kind of struggled to stay warm. Got off at Jackson with the rest of the runners who by that time had packed the train. It was raining a bit harder in the downtown area and the wind was pretty strong too. Got to the Congress entrance to the park at 6:20am and at that point decided not to risk it and skipped the pass pickup.
Got through the security checkpoints, dropped off my gear bag, hit the portapotties a couple of times. By that time it was 6:55am and I had realized that I was not at the right wave entrance - I was located by the wave G entrance and yet had to get to the wave B. That turned out to be a fairly difficult task as one had to cross a narrow passage that separated the wave D and E corrals to get to the A/B entrance which was off to the side. I did not get there until 7:15am which was 5 minutes prior to the cutoff time. Phew.
The corral space was pretty packed. I positioned myself a bit to the side, and stretched a little more. Finished my Gatorade, sneaked a quick pee into the bottle, disposed of my throwaway hoodie, applied the last layer of Vaseline to the chest and the privates... and we were off to the races.
The Run itself
The goal was basically to run by feel with the general target of anywhere between 3:00 and 3:15. The pace out of the gate was roughly in the 6:55 min/mileish range, which was a little bit too fast for my fitness level but I decided to give it a whirl and see how I'd feel after 10 miles. The first 2-3 miles were basically all through the downtown area with the tall buildings messing with the GPS signal. I was hitting the lap button every time I'd cross the mile marker. The drizzle was on and off but the air was pretty warm, so running in a singlet was not an issue at all.
One thing about this course was the crazy number of turns one has to make. Thankfully the organizers painted a consistent blue line that was a huge help with taking the right tangents. I mostly followed it to the finish line and managed to clock about 26.3 miles which is a really really good result.
We headed out over the bridge and then descended into some sort of a subterranean garage/road, running through a tunnel for a little bit. Then we re-entered the world of the living again! The next 4 miles or so were all through the downtown area, pretty tightly packed with the crowds doing the LOUD cheering. By mile 5 we were in Lincoln Park and running through the faithful imitations of the great London parks. The drizzle turned into rain and crowds have thinned out quite a bit. What was bugging me was the humidity. It was so high that my running headphones were swimming in the liquid in my earholes and either I would hear the music that sounded like it was coming from a pack of dolphins or at times it'd seem like it was being played through some severe wah wah pedal distortion. By the end of the run I could not hear anything and it was really messing with the running rhythm, so I turned the music off.
By mile 7 were running north along the shore and it was also pretty packed with supporters. Had my 1st gel and felt pretty good. I was trying to draft as much as possible since the wind had picked up considerably. Miles 10 and 11 were through what looked like a typical mid-Western town's business district stretching for blocks and blocks with little to see. I started to feel a little bit more fatigued and by mile 12 I got caught by the 3:05 pacer group. I ran with them for about a mile and then decided to give this one more go... and picked up the pace.
However, this turned out to be a bad move. I downed some more gel but the speed was slowly dropping. By mile 16 the 3:05 group reconnected with with me and I got dropped. Right then I knew that a 3:05 was not in cards that day. The rain would start and stop, and the scenery that we were moving through was pretty drab... just your typical non-descript suburbia. We ran along some freeway for a while and then turned into Chinatown - which was fun and had some nice decorations along the water stations, but also with long stretches of totally gloomy streets... basically the butt end of the course. Had 1 more gel but from the mile 23 I REALLY slowed down and was just hoping to come in under 3:10. Once we turned left on Indiana avenue, the surroundings got brighter and much more festive, with the crowds visible again and cheering loudly. I was focusing on the steady breathing and the miles started rolling by a bit quicker. Eventually we got to the last right turn of the course and cut back into the park - where we hit one real incline of the course (kind of a joke, but still). Hit the finish line... could not even sprint! The official finish time ended up being 3:08:28. The Garmin data is here.
Post run
Had to walk about 5 blocks until I got back to the entry point to the gear check. Got some grub, and a special 26.2 edition Goose Island IPA beer.
The finishers looked pretty rough, lots of people barely able to walk, someone would barf randomly here and there... the organizers had lots volunteers on hand to help, so things were moving smoothly. Got to my gear bag, changed, walked to the train station, got on the train... it was pretty painful, and the ride back seemed to take forever. The walk back to the hotel was not super pleasant either, but at least I moving a bit better... Got to the room, showered, headed out and grabbed some McDonalds and some beer from a liquor store, went back to the room... watched the NFL the rest of the day.
On the way the next day the airport was full of zombie-like runners, carrying all kinds of swag. I chatted with a few of them, commiserated and/or praised their results depending... all good. By the way, every bathroom at the O'Hare airport carries this sign 😀
The main takeaway from this race - do not go out fast. The course feels easy but with the landscape being so flat you can never cruise on a downhill - it is basically a track race. In a race like the Los Angeles marathon you can actually try to bank some time up front because the last 4 miles or so are downhill and you can cruise down while using the muscle groups that haven't been utilized all that much ie as fatigued. In Chicago you don't a chance to clear the lactic acid and the fatigue can get you if you exceed your fitness, with the wheels coming off suddenly. I'd like to go back and re-do this race one more time - with the right strategy, I can probably get closer to the 3:03 mark... have to do it right.
Of course, life interferes. Injuries crept up out of nowhere. Bumped the left knee accidentally, pulled the right right hammy playing ball with my pointer dog... stuff like this just kept coming up. Nonetheless, I put in about 14 weeks of good to great training, averaging about 45 miles per week. No week had more than 55 miles in it. I focused on easy mileage to help with the injuries, but every other week I'd throw in a bit of tempo running. The longest run logged was about 18 miles.
All in all. I felt ready.
Pre-race
Got into Chicago on Friday night. It was pissing rain with thunderstorms when we were landing. I had to walk to the hotel from the train station in a pitch dark humid wall of sparse water. Felt very ritualistic. Got to the hotel, has a simple dinner with a sandwich and some salad and a glass of beer.
Got to the room, and feel asleep very quickly.
Got up the next morning at around 8am local time, had some coffee and went for a run. Rosemont does not have a ton of exciting options in terms of running routes, but I used the opportunity to discover the places to grab some food and just get some basics. I brought my Hoka Claytons with me and since they are about 1/2 size too small, I was worried about the effects of humidity... but the feet felt good. Neither the left knee or the right hammy bugged me.
I got to the hotel, changed, showered, ate some breakfast and headed to the Expo. The ride was pretty simple, although the connection to the other line was as confusing as they come (many tunnels to walk through, lots of escalators/etc). I met a fellow out of town runner on the train who was also trying to get to the expo from my station... he was going for the top 20 in his M60-64 age group. We got to the expo while chatting about the strategies for tomorrow and then went our separate ways.
The expo was very well organized, and I got my bib in no time. The only odd thing was the goodie bag station located in the back of the hall. That forced you to walk through the vendor village twice - which I guess worked, since I bought a pair of Vaporflys at the Nike's area.
Sampled some gels, skipped the beer bus, also grabbed some BioFreeze samples and headed out. Was back in Rosemont by noon. When I got off the train, the drizzle was back on and it sure did not look like it was going to end any time soon. I stopped by the 7-Eleven, grabbed some peanut butter/bread/Gatorade/bananas and on the way back got some Chicken Parm sandwich from a local restaurant. Stayed in the room the rest of the day, stretched and watched college football. Got a call from the team I was on at around 7:30pm - the lady told me that I had forgotten to pick up my hospitality tent pass at the expo. I was totally dumbfounded as I thought that the sticker on bib would work as a pass but I guess I was wrong. I told her that I would pick it up on the way to the starting line from a hotel near the Grant Park. Was in bed by 9pm, but hardly slept.
The Race Morning
Got up at 4am and had coffee and 2 slices of bread with peanut butter and bananas. Headed out at 5am to get on the 5:15 train. The platform was pretty tightly packed with the other runners and their entourage. It was still drizzling and the air was fairly cold with high humidity. The train ride went quick, although I kind of struggled to stay warm. Got off at Jackson with the rest of the runners who by that time had packed the train. It was raining a bit harder in the downtown area and the wind was pretty strong too. Got to the Congress entrance to the park at 6:20am and at that point decided not to risk it and skipped the pass pickup.
Got through the security checkpoints, dropped off my gear bag, hit the portapotties a couple of times. By that time it was 6:55am and I had realized that I was not at the right wave entrance - I was located by the wave G entrance and yet had to get to the wave B. That turned out to be a fairly difficult task as one had to cross a narrow passage that separated the wave D and E corrals to get to the A/B entrance which was off to the side. I did not get there until 7:15am which was 5 minutes prior to the cutoff time. Phew.
The corral space was pretty packed. I positioned myself a bit to the side, and stretched a little more. Finished my Gatorade, sneaked a quick pee into the bottle, disposed of my throwaway hoodie, applied the last layer of Vaseline to the chest and the privates... and we were off to the races.
The Run itself
The goal was basically to run by feel with the general target of anywhere between 3:00 and 3:15. The pace out of the gate was roughly in the 6:55 min/mileish range, which was a little bit too fast for my fitness level but I decided to give it a whirl and see how I'd feel after 10 miles. The first 2-3 miles were basically all through the downtown area with the tall buildings messing with the GPS signal. I was hitting the lap button every time I'd cross the mile marker. The drizzle was on and off but the air was pretty warm, so running in a singlet was not an issue at all.
One thing about this course was the crazy number of turns one has to make. Thankfully the organizers painted a consistent blue line that was a huge help with taking the right tangents. I mostly followed it to the finish line and managed to clock about 26.3 miles which is a really really good result.
We headed out over the bridge and then descended into some sort of a subterranean garage/road, running through a tunnel for a little bit. Then we re-entered the world of the living again! The next 4 miles or so were all through the downtown area, pretty tightly packed with the crowds doing the LOUD cheering. By mile 5 we were in Lincoln Park and running through the faithful imitations of the great London parks. The drizzle turned into rain and crowds have thinned out quite a bit. What was bugging me was the humidity. It was so high that my running headphones were swimming in the liquid in my earholes and either I would hear the music that sounded like it was coming from a pack of dolphins or at times it'd seem like it was being played through some severe wah wah pedal distortion. By the end of the run I could not hear anything and it was really messing with the running rhythm, so I turned the music off.
By mile 7 were running north along the shore and it was also pretty packed with supporters. Had my 1st gel and felt pretty good. I was trying to draft as much as possible since the wind had picked up considerably. Miles 10 and 11 were through what looked like a typical mid-Western town's business district stretching for blocks and blocks with little to see. I started to feel a little bit more fatigued and by mile 12 I got caught by the 3:05 pacer group. I ran with them for about a mile and then decided to give this one more go... and picked up the pace.
However, this turned out to be a bad move. I downed some more gel but the speed was slowly dropping. By mile 16 the 3:05 group reconnected with with me and I got dropped. Right then I knew that a 3:05 was not in cards that day. The rain would start and stop, and the scenery that we were moving through was pretty drab... just your typical non-descript suburbia. We ran along some freeway for a while and then turned into Chinatown - which was fun and had some nice decorations along the water stations, but also with long stretches of totally gloomy streets... basically the butt end of the course. Had 1 more gel but from the mile 23 I REALLY slowed down and was just hoping to come in under 3:10. Once we turned left on Indiana avenue, the surroundings got brighter and much more festive, with the crowds visible again and cheering loudly. I was focusing on the steady breathing and the miles started rolling by a bit quicker. Eventually we got to the last right turn of the course and cut back into the park - where we hit one real incline of the course (kind of a joke, but still). Hit the finish line... could not even sprint! The official finish time ended up being 3:08:28. The Garmin data is here.
Post run
Had to walk about 5 blocks until I got back to the entry point to the gear check. Got some grub, and a special 26.2 edition Goose Island IPA beer.
The finishers looked pretty rough, lots of people barely able to walk, someone would barf randomly here and there... the organizers had lots volunteers on hand to help, so things were moving smoothly. Got to my gear bag, changed, walked to the train station, got on the train... it was pretty painful, and the ride back seemed to take forever. The walk back to the hotel was not super pleasant either, but at least I moving a bit better... Got to the room, showered, headed out and grabbed some McDonalds and some beer from a liquor store, went back to the room... watched the NFL the rest of the day.
On the way the next day the airport was full of zombie-like runners, carrying all kinds of swag. I chatted with a few of them, commiserated and/or praised their results depending... all good. By the way, every bathroom at the O'Hare airport carries this sign 😀
The main takeaway from this race - do not go out fast. The course feels easy but with the landscape being so flat you can never cruise on a downhill - it is basically a track race. In a race like the Los Angeles marathon you can actually try to bank some time up front because the last 4 miles or so are downhill and you can cruise down while using the muscle groups that haven't been utilized all that much ie as fatigued. In Chicago you don't a chance to clear the lactic acid and the fatigue can get you if you exceed your fitness, with the wheels coming off suddenly. I'd like to go back and re-do this race one more time - with the right strategy, I can probably get closer to the 3:03 mark... have to do it right.
