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I had a really tough five weeks prior to the marathon with my health. I fought something that kept traveling up and down my sinuses and throat. Fortunately, it hasn't reached my lungs and had relatively little effect on breathing through my nose. However, I still ended up on antibiotics three times, tried homeopathic treatments, and suffered through some horrible bouts of sore throat and sinuses. It also meant I had to cut way back on my running. I still did my Saturday long runs, but I skipped all of my Tuesday runs and a few of my Thursday runs to try to recover. I didn't run one bit for 8 days before the marathon. Psychologically, I wasn't in the best place.
Unfortunately, Kristina's commitment to her yoga teacher training program (every Sunday except holidays for 6 months) prevented her from coming out to cheer me on. She had to do all her support watching Nathaniel while I went on long runs every Saturday for 4 months. Kristina confided to me a few days before the marathon that she was feeling sad that she wasn't going to be out there cheering for me. I had to admit I was sad, too (but understanding). However, we made plans for our Friday trip to the Expo and a night out of carbo-loading (i.e., eating yummy Indian food).
Fast forward to that Friday morning. I received an email from my sister sent early that morning telling me she was told my present would arrive at school by 5pm. She has made a habit of sending creative and useful gifts for my previous marathons. Well, Jennifer truly outdid herself because in the middle of my Animal Behavior class, she walked in saying, "Sorry. Am I late?" Apparently I had a pretty shocked look on my face.
Needless to say, I was thrilled she came to watch me run, but I told her I wished I was going into this with a better physical and mental state. However, I think her coming out gave me a bit of a boost! She joined Kristina and me at the Expo and we all carbo-loaded as originally planned. :-)
When the day of the race came, I left at 5 am to drive to Stephanie's place (a friend who ran the marathon with me last year and this year). We parked at her work and walked to the start. Jennifer's morning started a bit later with a walk to the Metra train with a well thought out list of directions, a sign, phone, and some supplies for me (she planned to meet me at miles 9 and 18 and at the finish). Perhaps I should mention this was her first time using the Metra and El by herself.
I'm going to cut out a bunch of stuff here, but let me just say that there was a little bit of drama/difficulty getting into our starting area...
The race started on time and we crossed the starting line 19 minutes after the gun went off. Because of the aforementioned difficulties, we were caught in a group running slower than we would have liked. So, we tried to sit back and relax and pass when we could. However, it did kind of set the tone for how fast we'd be able to run this race.
Other than the pacing issues, things were going pretty well, and we were looking forward to seeing my sister around mile 9. Unfortunately, we didn't see her. So, we kept going, but I was worried for the next 9 miles. Otherwise, this race was feeling better than my other previous marathons...probably because of the slower pace we had to do from the beginning. I became worried again when we got to the 18th mile and I didn't see Jennifer. We were just getting ready to stop so I could call when I saw her fluorescent green sign. I was relieved to know she was okay and to refresh my supplies (and get my hat). I would later learn what happened.
The last eight miles were as tough as one might expect, but they were better than my previous marathons. I started lagging a bit around mile 23 through 25, but Stephanie kept pushing us on (but not too much). Finally, during the last mile she started to push us harder, and we ran very fast the last 200 m. In fact our last mile was around a 9:30 min/mile pace (faster than any other mile we ran during the race). When it was all said and done we crossed the line 4 hours 53 minutes and 38 seconds after starting. We beat our time last year by almost 7 minutes. Given my state the last month before the race and the warm weather, I was pretty happy. On top of that, I felt better physically than I had after my two previous marathons, another happy accomplishment. In fact, I had no blisters or sore knees and feet. I was amazed. Later on, the only thing that ended up hurting were my thighs.
After the race, I got a call from my sister, and after a little coordinating, we found each other. I learned that she had quite an adventure, including losing her directions (recovered by a good samaritan), being escorted by friendly Chicagoans to her train stops, and being trapped on the wrong side of the street at mile 9 because she used the bathroom at the McDonalds. That's why I didn't see her.
After a long stretching, cooling and chatting session, Jennifer, Stephanie, Nancy (Stephanie's friend) and I headed back to the car. Nancy drove us to Stephanie's where we cleaned up, and all of us enjoyed a nice meal at a nearby restaurant. Jennifer had her own sort of marathon traveling all over the city and Grant Park. So, she was as hungry as we were. After dinner, Jennifer drove us back to our house where I dozed in my chair for a while before going to bed. Overall, I'd say this idiot had a pretty good run.
Stephanie and I are looking pretty chipper for two people who just ran 26.2 miles!
This is my surprise cheerleader and her awesome sign!
Christopher
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