Notes
Illinois Marathon
April 11, 2009
Race day was finally here, after the past 4 weeks of fighting off sickness between the flu and still suffering from bronchitis I think I was happy to make it to the starting line. My brothers joined me at the start were Brian ran the marathon and David did the half. It was really encouraging to have them at the starting line with me; we last ran a race together at the Chicago Marathon in 2002.
My goal for this race was to break 3 hours but I knew with the past 4 weeks that breaking 3 hours would simply be the best case scenario and I would just be happy with a strong finish.
The race started off just SW of Memorial Stadium, the morning was slightly cool, 36 degrees, and a NE wind ~ 10-15 MPH. They ran the half and the full marathon together so I knew for the first half of the race I should have some people to draft off of. They started us off and my biggest concern at the beginning was going out too quickly, I tried to duck behind some people and just hold back, the first mile clicked off at 7.01. Perfect, I needed to average 6.52 during the race to get a sub-3 and this was exactly what I needed at the start. The next couple of miles seemed to pass by rather quickly; I started to run with a couple of guys in the half marathon and got into a decent conversation with them about anything and everything.
1 - 7.01 - 7.01
2 - 6.52 - 13.53
3 - 7 - 20.54
4 - 6.5 - 27.44
5 - 6.42 - 34.27
I did start noticing that the course was running on a lot of concrete after mile 5, I was rather surprised about this and hoped that we would see some more blacktop as the race went along.
6 - 6.52 - 41.2
7 - 6.47 - 48.07
8 - 6.49 - 54.57
9 - 6.42 - 1.01.40
10 - 6.49 - 1.08.29
11 - 6.51 - 1.15.21
I remained with the half marathon pack until mile 11 where we went our separate ways; I could see people ~200 meters in front of me and decided I would catch up to them. In this pack there was the 2nd place female (how did I know that? Almost everyone on the side of the road reminded us of that fact). We ran together for the next few miles, I was really feeling good, my energy was very high and mentally I still felt good. I carried a granola bar with me and took in half of it ~mile 12 and that was exactly what I needed at the time. Miles 13-18 had us running primarily with the wind I knew come mile 19 we would be going back against it so I was cherishing the moment.
12 - 6.49 - 1.22.1
13 - 6.43 - 1.28.54
13.1 - 42.9 - 1.29.37
14 - 5.54 - 1.35.31
15 - 6.59 - 1.42.30
16 - 6.4 - 1.49.11
Mile 17 started to bring in a new challenge that I hadn’t experienced before in a marathon – physically beaten legs, at this point I could certainly tell the concrete started to take its toll on me. I didn’t feel physically tired but my legs were certainly starting to have some problems.
17 - 6.53 - 1.56.04
18 - 6.56 - 2.03.01
I got through mile 18 without loosing much with the pace but by mile 19 I started to slow, usually during a marathon I make a conscious choice to slow down, today my legs were giving me no choice. I walked for the first time at mile 20, my legs were shaking and blood was pounding through them. I suffered through the next few miles and started to complain to myself, I determined I needed to regain my focus and stop being a victim and finish the damn race.
19 - 7.2 - 2.10.21
20 - 7.31 - 2.17.52
21 - 8.02 - 2.25.54
22 - 8.31 - 2.34.26
After that beautiful pep talk with myself I struggled through the next couple of miles and managed to get a decent trot out. I did what I could and just pushed through the remainder.
23 - 8.51 - 2.43.17
24 - 9.18 - 2.52.36
25 - 10.13 - 3.2.5
26 - 8.56 - 3.11.46
We met up with the ½ marathon again at the 26 mile mark and we ran in together into Memorial stadium. We ran the last 150+ yards on the turf and finished on the 50 yard line.
26.2 - 1.26 - 3.13.09
I was happy to be done. I found my brother David, who finished off the ½ marathon in 1.42.57, he was happy with his time. We waited for Brian to come in and he made his way into the stadium for a finish of 3.57.35.