Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2013 - Part 3

Rob's alarm woke us at 5:00 on race morning. I was surprised to have slept through the night, save for waking up once to mistakenly think Jordan was missing. Never before had I slept so well the night before a distance race. A sign of good things to come? Possibly. There was no time to think about that, though; I jumped out of the couch bed, grabbed my gear, and took my turn getting dressed in the bathroom. I slightly adjusted my bib pinned to the left leg of my shorts, ate half of a Banana Nut Bread Clif Bar (Dare I say that it was better than White Chocolate Macadamia Nut?), laced up my shoes, grabbed my Fierce Grape Gatorade Prime, stuffed my Strawberry Gatorade Chews and Strawberry Clif Shot into my above-the-butt zipper pocket, and then we piled into Rob's cousin's car and drove over to where Tammy, Alex, and Steve were staying.

That's Rob leading the way to check our gear.

The seven of us walked about a mile and a half to gear check at Grant Park. Before we went through the security checkpoint Jordan snapped a photo of us at what is probably some iconic Chicago tourist spot.

Cheesy tourist photo

We were cutting it a lot closer on time than Tammy and I would have liked. By the time we separated from Steve, who was in the second wave, and waited in line to get our bags checked it was 7:00 and we needed to be in our corral (D) by 7:20. Tammy and Rob wanted to hit up a toilet but the lines were crazy long. I pressured them to wait until we got into the corral, where I was certain there would be port-a-potties. I was wrong, but it was too late to leave and get back before they'd close off the corrals. On our way over to the corral I drank my Gatorade Prime. That combined with the cold temperature quickly gave me the urge to pee, but I convinced myself that if I didn't think about it it would just go away.

Pre-race announcements took place and some music played. The music was really lame for a race. Glass City and Columbus did a way better job at pumping me up--ACDC sticks in my memory. Maybe it's because Chicago is a hipster town, but the pre-race music was the kind of Death Cab for Cutie stuff that they play on Alt Nation. There was redemption when they played Born to Run (the only Bruce Springsteen song that I enjoy) for the start, which got my adrenaline flowing by 7:37 when we finally crossed the start mat.

Tammy, Alex, and I took off a little bit ahead of Joe and Rob. Throughout the first mile I started to float ahead a bit just because of the crowd and flow of traffic. I found myself out of reach of Joe and Rob and thought about backing off to run with them for a few more miles at least, but the crowd had me amped up and moving happily from the get-go. I think it was at the mile three water station where I totally lost Tammy and Alex. Again I thought about backing off to try to hang with them, but I figured it would be a pain in the butt to try to get through the mass of runners. There were more than 40,000 of us running, after all.

5K: 27:58

The atmosphere of this race was incredible. I can't imagine there is better crowd support at any race--not even the coveted Boston Marathon. For the entire first half of the race I remember fighting off laughing for no reason other than being happy and amazed due to the awesome spectators. Their signs, their chants, and their high fives had me totally high on life. I ate six of my Gatorade chews in mile 8.

Half: 1:52:11

Miles 13 and 14 were my fastest at 8:09 and 8:08 respectively. I was feeling good and I knew at the time that could have been very good or very bad. Initially when I saw my pace in mile 13 I tried to pull myself back in order to conserve energy and strength that I'd absolutely need later in the second half of the race. When I started mile 14 I told myself "Screw it" and that I'd burn some gas in the tank just because it felt good. In mile 15 I got realistic. Also, I noticed that my feet felt a lot more then as they should have in miles 18 through 20--heavy and tired. My energy was high, my legs were moving great, but my feet felt like cinder blocks. I decided then to have my last six Gatorade chews.

30K: 2:39:36

This is when I started trying to do math in my head. I'm so bad at math. Also, it's when The Blerch was creeping uncomfortably close behind me. My pace over the past few miles slowed to something more reasonable (perhaps realistic?)--about 8:40. What would I need to maintain to finish under four hours? Match my past two marathons at 3:53 and some change? I don't think I was entertaining the idea of a PR. Somehow I decided that I could do 9:00+ miles and be safe. Even right now I don't know if that's accurate. I do remember being content when I was under three hours at mile 20. I think that was also what I deemed a good time to take my Clif Shot. This is the point at which I started walking through water stations, only because I was pretty sure that I was good for time. I saved the Clif Shot for last because it had a caffeine boost. I had never raced with a caffeine gel or chew, but I did use the same Clif Shot later in my two 20-milers for this round of training. I'm pretty sure I've perfected my marathon fueling.

40K: 3:37:31

Here is where I started getting all pumpy-pumped up again. I don't look at course maps before races much the same way I don't watch roller coaster POVs before I ride them. I don't want any surprises to be spoiled! The crowd had grown on both sides of Michigan Avenue and I felt like everyone was there for me--have I mentioned that the spectators are freaking awesome?!

As I crossed the mile 25 mark I got butterflies. I realized that, excluding the previous three water stations, I hadn't walked at all, nor did I ever have the urge to walk (unlike at Glass City and Columbus). Because I was so proud of myself and the spectators were killing it, I told myself to go as hard as I could. In full disclosure, I almost cried a few times in that final full mile. I was about to finish THE Chicago Marathon and with a good time to boot, even if not a PR. Or would it be a PR?

I made the right turn onto Roosevelt to be greeted by a short bridge. Yay! Uphill at the end of a race! Exactly what I wanted. I knew that getting to the top of that little hump, which looked and felt like a mountain, would mean that I'd get to run downhill. A sign read "300 Meters"--good! I was almost there! The left turn onto Columbus Drive revealed the finish. I realized that 300 meters was a lot farther in reality than in my head. Or maybe it's the other way around. Whatever the case, I was so stinkin' happy. As I neared the finish mat I could see that the clock was still under four hours. Given that I started seven minutes after gun time, my happiness jumped up like, seven notches.

I crossed the mat and looked down at my Garmin.

Garmin at the finish: 3:49:12

Official time: 3:49:11

That's a PR of 3 minutes and 52 seconds! Although I didn't know my official time yet, I knew that my Garmin couldn't have been too far off and that I had definitely PRed. Knowing that got me through possibly the most trying part of the day--making my way through what felt like the longest finish chute ever. I accepted a Mylar blanket and my medal, took a bottle of water, fought off the desire to fall over so that medical staff would just carry me away to comfort, passed on snacks, Gatorade, and protein drinks, and then did something that I was incapable of doing at any of my other marathons. That's right, I took a beer. That 312 tasted glorious.

After the race I got my gear, changed out of my sweaty clothes, and took off my shoes and socks to find one of these on each foot:

Pardon my crusty nail polish.

It was an hour and a half later when all six of us were finished. We took pictures before I hit up the medical tent to pop those liquid-filled skin bags.

Team Non-Elite, minus Jordan

Although that wasn't the end of the fun for the weekend, it was a hell of a morning. I will never ever forget that race. I used to think that I'd never run the same marathon twice, but I do see at least one more go-around at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon!