Chicago Marathon 2012: Part 1

The first thing I did when I updated the blog today was update my PR to the right side of it & I added it below with my "excuse" for the time.  The only bad thing I can say about my training was that I didn't do any organized/structured speed work.  That will change with marathon number 11.  When I do marathon 11 is another question. I'm taking this week off from running.  I'll most likely run on Sunday...nice n' easy & it will be considered a "recovery" run.  Every run has to have a "purpose".  ;-P  This week will be all about the stationary bike, yoga, ab ripper, P90X Stretch, ab ripper, & walking.  I'm taking it day by day.  I'll decide on my next marathon after I do some research.  My goal is to bring the time down to a 3:50-3:54.  I'm a VERY long way from that, obviously.  It's going to take some hard work & my husband is going to help me.  He qualified for Boston 2014 with a time of 3:22.  If he had been born about a month early he could've registred for 2013.  Can you believe there's still slots open?!  So, I have until about mid-Sept 2013 to do this....hey, stranger things have happened, right!

I bought a groupon a month ago for a 1 hour sports massage. The dude is downtown (I don't know what I was thinking....). Anyway, we flew back about 8:15am today. I've done laundry, grocery shopping, gone to the chiropractor, & had the massage downtown.  He was awesome & he focused on every single little ache in my legs & hips.  The groupon was for an hour but he worked on me for an hour & a half without charging me extra. How cool is that?  I honestly think he got sidetracked because we chatted nonstop about the marathon & football the whole time. LOL!

My apologies for the randomness of this report. I'm watching "Ellen" as I type it.
 ;-P

Sunday morning, we left the hotel about 6:30am.  We anticipated being squished into the elevator with a bunch of runners & we were right.  In NYC last year, the elevator seemed to take forever so we walked down 12 flights of stairs.  In Chicago we were on the 9th floor of the Travelodge just around the corner from the Hilton which faces the corrals.  We had less than a half mile to walk. It was awesome.  I could see our hotel from my corral & I could see it after I crossed the finish line.  We prepaid for this hotel & got it really reasonable.  It was no frills but clean & plenty of room for us. 

We did the drop bag thing & walked to Joe's corral.  We posed for a couple of pictures on the way.  There were people everywhere taking photos.  So many volunteers! They were everywhere doing things you would never think of...directing traffic, offering race/course advice, reminding you the cut off time for corrals, etc. No stone was left unturned by the volunteers.

There is seriously no excuse to miss your cut off time to get in your corral. You had to be in by 7:20am & they kept announcing it like every 2-3 minutes. I read a few reports where they supposedly closed early & people had to jump the fence. That fence was pretty damn high.  LOL!

I read probably two dozen Chicago marathon race reports & everyone raved about the organization.  It's so true!  The Expo is just as organized as the race itself.  We did that on friday as soon as we got there.  It was a breeze & it wasn't crowded either.  We probably spent about 2 hours there & we spent plenty of money.  We bought North Face pullovers & long sleeve tech shirts.  We loved the North face NY pullovers so much that we looked at those first.  The Nike stuff didn't appeal to me at all.  The actual race shirts are ok. They're red, nothing really special about them.  The finisher medal is cool.  I'll have to take pics of that stuff & post it when I have more time.

As I waited for the start, I struck up a conversation with a late 20's/early 30's Alabama guy who was doing his 1st marathon. He & I stood between the 3:55 & 4:00 hour pacers.  We were literally shoulder to shoulder in there by the time we started moving forward.  "Alabama" & I ran off & on together almost the entire race. He would scream at me, "Hey, Tennessee, nice pace!" & several miles down the course, I'd see him & I'd scream, "Hey Alabama, how's it going?"  He overhydrated & ended up taking like 4 pottie breaks but he kept catching up to me.  I think he beat me by 30-45 seconds.  This is the reason I don't run with music. You miss so much of the experience by running with music. 

The only real complaint I have is that the corral at the front of wave 2 is the "charity runner" corral.  No matter what your pace, you're in that corral, apparently.  I dodged charity runners from mile 1 until about mile 8.  Some walking 2 & 3 across.  Some holding hands, etc...  I love that every marathon has charity runners but they all need to be in their corrals per their paces just like the rest of us.  That IS my ONLY gripe, really. 

What would I have done differently? 
I think I should've ate more before my long runs & more on race morning.  I was eating a banana & one organic energy waffle cookie before every long run then fueling as I ran.  I really need to eat a little more than that before I take my first steps. 
By mile 16, I felt the energy slowly drain & I had been eating shot bloks & sports beans religiously.  I think if I start out with more food in my belly, that might help later in the race.  I don't know how Joe survives on what he eats pre-long run.  I eat more than he does in the mornings before our long runs. 

We started carb loading on Wednesday & never really stopped until Saturday night.  We had our fair share of deep dish pizza & spaghetti while in Chicago.  I'm definitely sick to death of pasta overall if you really want to know the truth.  I'm eating lots of protein this week while my body heals.  I'm not even going to comment on the garlic bread we ate last week & over the weekend. Let's just say that we were properly carbed up before the race.  Race morning, though, I should've had a half a bagel with my waffle cookie & banana.  I weighed today & I weighed 113 lbs.  That's not too bad considering all the pasta we consumed.  I think at my height that shaving off a few more pounds wouldn't be all that unreasonable.  So that's my goal BEFORE #11.  The smartest thing I did was losing weight before marathon training actually began.  Joe was 7 lbs lighter than in NYC & it apparently helped him, too.

I should've sandwiched myself between the 4:00-4:05 pacers.  It was around mile 16 when I saw the last of the 3:55 pacers run out of my sight.  I knew I didn't have that kind of pace in me but for some reason, I held on to them until about mile 16.  I remember thinking to myself that I didn't even start breathing hard until mile 16.  It was odd.  I run WAY better in cold then I'll EVER run in the HEAT & that will never change.  The entire way, I took short walk breaks through every other fuel station.  They just became more frequent later on in the race after mile 16.  LOL!   I really didn't do any significant walking until about mile 20-21.  It's very evident if you look at my splits but by then I knew I had my PR in the bag.  I just didn't know by how much.  Weeks ago I put my training times in the race predictor websites.  One said 4:14 & another said 4:10.  I knew if my IT Band held together, I'd be somewhere around that.  The 4:12 was no big surprise but I guess I just didn't have confidence I could do it.  I now have the confidence that I am going to get better.  I just have to pick the right course with the right weather & do the right training to get the time I want.  Simple, eh? LOL! 

I'll finish this race report tomorrow if I have time.  I will say a few more things...my husband ROCKED the socks off that course.  I thanked God the entire week & weekend for the weather.  I thanked God while running Sunday morning for allowing us both to be healthy enough to even be there & I prayed that Joe would go sub 3:25.  God is so good to us!  

We had tons of family & friends tracking us in Tullahoma, Nolensville, Michigan, etc.....  Again, we feel so blessed.

AND finally, we have the BEST little run club in middle TN hands down.  It felt like they were there with us via the magic of facebook.  LOL!