What a weekend!!

We woke up on Friday morning and headed out pretty quickly. Dropped the dogs off at Barking Hound Village and headed to the airport. We had crammed everything into our bags so that we could just do carry-on and thank god for that – it made things much easier!

We woke up at 5:00 on Sunday morning. I lay in bed for a minute just shocked that I was running a marathon. It just didn’t feel like it. I didn’t have the normal race day jitters. I slowly got up because I wasn’t sure how my back was feeling, but it felt surprisingly good. I got dressed and pinned my race bib on and then put my jacket on over my shirt. I felt like I had a ton of stuff with me, my gear check bag and some extra warm clothes.

I ate a Luna bar and had a little bit of Gatorade. We were ready pretty quickly, so we headed down to catch a cab around 6:00 AM. I knew it would be cold, but it still shocked me when we walked outside and the wind was whipping around. Brrr!! The cab ride was a lot shorter than we thought it would be, so we ended up at the race around 6:20. It was so cold, but I didn’t want to walk all the way to a hotel to sit, so we put our sweatshirts on and found a curb to sit on near the gear check. We huddled together for a bit and then around 6:45 I headed over to find the Galloway group from Chicago. Paul took one last picture of me (good thing, because it was way to cold at the finish to get a finish picture!).

I found a few of the Atlanta runners near the fountain and met up with them while we waited for the Chicago people. I found a 6 hour pace group, so I was pretty relieved, I thought I’d have to run it on my own. I quickly made friends with the girls that I was running with and it felt good to know a few people in a very crowded corral! We made our way to the back of the line, literally. I think we were in the last 100 people to cross the start line! (If I had to do it over, I’d have started a bit further up, it would have made it a lot less stressful as far as the clock time).

We heard people cheering and figured that the race had started, and then eventually we were able to start walking. We walked about 20 minutes until we got to the start and then crossed the mats and I started my watch. It was amazing to see all of the discarded clothing and knowing that there were so many runners and that they had already started their journey.

We started on Mile 1 – going under the tunnel for a short bit of time and then coming out to more cheers. The city lay out in front of us, ours for the taking. The wind was pretty crazy and I remember wondering if I’d ever take my jacket off. I was wearing some awesome ear warmers too and was so glad that my friend had picked them up the day before. We were keeping a pretty comfortable pace and I was so excited! We crossed the river for the first time and boy was it cold! Then we turned onto Grand and Mile 1 seemed to come up pretty quickly as we ran through the city. There was a smell of chocolate wafting past us and I kept wondering where it was coming from. There were people on the sides of the road cheering for us, and I remember being so grateful because they had probably been standing there for a good 30 minutes since we were so far back. Little did I know that this trend would continue!

We continued running through the loop, and I remember running over the water again and marveling at how beautiful the city looked, even on a cloudy day. The windy city was living up to its name! We hit Mile 2 just before turning to run on LaSalle and we were keeping good time. I was thinking 6 hours might be possible but the pace felt a little fast for me. We ran down LaSalle for a long time, but we passed time by looking for the kilometer signs. Those came interspersed with the mile markers and were just one more landmark to look for. We continued running through The Loop and I loved seeing the different areas of Downtown. We headed into River North and I started recognizing the area from past vacations. Paul and I once walked from Carsons to an Improv Show and we had walked along the same street. I think we hit the porta-potty near Mile 3 and it was welcome! I felt like a new woman! As we headed into Lincoln Park I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I felt like I was running a little fast, but I was keeping up okay, so I figured I’d just see how I felt. There were some really strong headwinds and I remember putting my head down and just telling myself to keep moving!

Around Mile 5 we ran past Lincoln Park Zoo and I smiled, remembering it as a kid. We were staying at a condo in Lincoln Park so I kept an eye out for that too. Running along Lakeview was probably the coldest part of the run as we passed Mile 6 and headed towards Wrigleyville. In my mind I kept telling myself that I was ¼ of the way there (almost!). The fans were awesome as we started to get into the neighborhoods and I had taken my wind jacket off so that people could see my name on my shirt. I felt like I had all of my friends there with the amount of people yelling my name! Chicago is a great city and the people are so wonderful. This was around Mile 8 and I started feeling a little tired. I thought that was weird because normally I have a great first half and then I start to hit the wall. I guess I wasn’t really paying attention because I don’t remember much of this part of the run. I do know that we were heading back through Lincoln Park and that it was probably one of the biggest areas for people cheering for us. We had walked through that area with our friends the day before so it felt very recognizable and comforted me a bit.

At this point I was just trying to get to the halfway point. I kept telling myself that if I got to 13, I would just be running home. We headed through Old Town next and were almost to Mile 10. I can’t remember if this was where I saw them, but at one point we passed by a Senior Citizen’s home. This was my favorite point throughout the race. I looked up and every window was filled with faces. They were cheering us on with signs and waving. I started crying at that point. That gave me so much energy and I was just so touched that they were still there, and probably didn’t move until every last person had passed.

This felt like a long stretch, but I knew we were running back towards the city, so that kept me going. We headed towards Wells and then took that for a bit after we passed Mile 11. After we made that turn and I saw the city again I knew that I could make it to 13. I remember passing Gino’s East and Ed Debevics and feeling happy that I knew where we were! We crossed the river again and the wind was crazy! It was pulling the mats up from the grates they were covering. There was the familiar chocolate smell again! I never figured out where it was coming from but it smelled soooo good!

Just before Mile 13 I heard my name and saw my friend Laura cheering for me. I was so happy to see her! She jumped in with me and ran through the 13.1 timing mats and then we said goodbye and I told her I’d see her at the finish. I was stoked that I was halfway there, but was dreading how long I still had to go.

Miles 13-17 were pretty bad for me. I could tell that the girls with me were tired and that seemed to make me feel tired as well. We talked about changing our intervals but decided to keep at it. We had fallen off of our 6 hour pace and I figured we’d be a lot closer to 6:30. We headed through Greektown and the West Loop and things were pretty dead as far as crowd support. We hit Mile 14 and I kept telling myself just make it to 17. I knew that if I made it to 17, I would finish. Once we hit 17, I decided that the rest was going to be all me. We had stopped for a bathroom break and the “official finish vehicle” passed us. Since we had crossed the start line 20 minutes after the official time, it put us at a disadvantage in terms of keeping up with the sweep crew. We managed to reach a lot of the mile markers as they were dismantling the clocks and clearing the water stations. I decided that I wanted to try and speed up and that I was going to have to leave the other runners. I felt bad, but they had started to break into smaller groups at that point as well.

I pulled out my shuffle and all of a sudden I had a second wind. I don’t know what happened since I usually have a great first half and a terrible second half. Usually the final 9 is a death march, but this time it was different. I guess it just all came down to me and I needed to run my own race. One of the first songs that came on was ‘I run for life’ by Melissa Etheridge. That song motivated me to finish. A couple of the other great ones along the way were Moby’s ‘Porcelain’(reminds me of the Mardi Gras Half) and ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’. Who doesn’t get pumped with that one!

Miles 18 & 19 felt great, and when I hit 20 I remember yelling out ‘Just a 10K!’ I got so excited because I started picturing the Peachtree route in my head. I tried to map out where I was along that route, knowing that I have run it so many times and that I would finish no matter what. This was a pretty boring stretch until I hit Chinatown. I could tell that things had died down, but there was still a little bit of crowd support. Once I ran through Chinatown, it really got dead. We were running parallel to the highway and it was cold and windy! I saw a bus that was picking up injured runners and I kept telling myself ‘At least you aren’t on that bus!’ and it kept inching along. It was funny, in a weird way. I passed a girl handing out Starburst and I could have hugged her. It was a little treat right when I needed it. Mile 23 came and I kept telling myself, just a little further. It’s a 5K…keep going. Anyone can run 3 miles! At Mile 24 I stopped at a porta-potty and called Paul to tell him I was getting close. He missed my call and called me around Mile 25, but it was great to talk to him. I just kept chugging along. I think I put the shuffle away once I passed 25 because I knew that I could finish. I wanted to relish in the fact that I was running a marathon and that the finish line was close! There were a few people along the road at this point and the police officers were even cheering for us. One cop told me how proud she was of me and I almost started crying again. I saw the 800m sign and just grinned. I was so excited! I scaled that last ‘hill’ thinking about all of the huge hills in Atlanta that I run up and smiled for the camera. I turned the corner and couldn’t believe how close the finish line was. I thought that I could probably give it one last kick but I just didn’t have anything. I was trying not to cry and was just so unbelievably proud. I crossed the finish and looked at my watch and was so happy that I finished. Ahead of the limit. Just barely!

I got my mylar blanket, they cut my chip off and I got my medal. Took a finisher’s picture and grabbed my gear bag. I even grabbed a beer for Paul since I knew he’d been waiting for awhile. It was so cold and windy that we pretty much headed for a cab right away. It took us a good hour to get one and I just sat in the cab feeling so happy that I’d done it.

It’s odd because the ending was a bit anti-climactic because of the weather; they were tearing down the race stuff pretty quickly. Who can blame them, the poor volunteers had been out there for a long time!

It was a great race. Some of the things swirling around in my head are my goals for the future and for the next race. One thing is for sure; my next marathon is going to be much faster. I plan on dropping the excess weight and running a few more half marathons. I want to experience the things that I missed in Chicago because I was so far back. And I look forward to it. I am so proud of myself because I have come so far. That knowledge is what pushes me to keep at it. I ran 26.2! And you know what? I’ll do it again.