Notes
Chicago Marathon Part 3. Weather was decent. Temperature was perfect but wind was pretty crappy for most of the race. Really only miles 3-7 felt like you were with the wind. Everywhere else felt like a head wind or cross wind. I got to the corral right before it closed so I ended up starting near the back of the corral. Had to go around a lot of people the first mile and was really unsure of my initial pace but I actually ended up hitting goal pace. Once I got going north, I was very much in a rhythm and the 5:40s felt very easy. Coming back south brought the wind into play but I just held my rhythm. I took my first GU at 10k. Stomach was a little funky but it really felt like I had to pee, so I stopped around mile 10 and took a 20 second pee break, no harm, no foul. Around mile 12 though, I could feel my stomach starting to feel weird. On the other side of 14, I finally cracked and stopped to poop. Wasted about 40 seconds there. Took my 2nd GU but realized, here we go again and stopped to poop at 18 (1:00 here). Had to make the same decision as last year and not take my last GU. Luckily, my legs weren't feeling too bad at this point. Got to 20 not feeling too bad, maybe a little tight. Between 23-24 was when the wheels came off. Totally hit the wall and crawled home the last 2.2 miles. I was pretty upset at myself here and allowed a lot of negative thoughts to come in. As I came to the final turn, I heard some Calvin people cheering for me and realized I couldn't let them down so I mustered everything I had left up the bridge and to the finish. I don't know where the stomach issue came from today, I'll have to really look at my pre-routine to fix something.
Right after the race, I was pretty upset. My stomach issues cost me another good race as I'm positive I could have ran 2:33-2:34 today if my stomach cooperated (2:00 minute losses for bathroom stops plus probably another 2+ minutes with the bonk). Besides the wind, the conditions were great and I couldn't take advantage. But after awhile, I realized this was an ok race that definitely had some positives. I felt great running 5:45-5:50 pace and I was in shape to hit my goal today after coming in with a lot of doubts about my fitness. I also didn't have any big cramps. My groin twinged a few times but never fully locked up. Everything else didn't twinge at all. After not being able to break 2:40 in my first two marathons, I ran two sub-2:40 marathons in the same year plus a big half marathon PR of 71:04. And an "ok" marathon for me is still 6:00 average.
Mile splits:
5:54-5:45-5:45-11:29 (2 miles)-5:46-5:50-5:50-5:49-5:53-6:09 (20 second pee stop)-5:48-5:51-5:51-6:44 (1st poop stop)-5:47-5:45-5:57-6:52 (2nd poop stop)-5:54-5:58-5:58-6:10 (strong headwind)-6:00-7:33 (Let the bonk begin!)-7:12-1:20 (.2)
Splits from the website:
05K 07:49:43AM 00:18:00 18:0 05:48 10.36
10K 08:07:42AM 00:35:59 17:59 05:48 10.37
15K 08:25:43AM 00:54:01 18:02 05:49 10.34
20K 08:44:12AM 01:12:29 18:29 05:57 10.09-Pee break
HALF 08:48:10AM 01:16:27 03:58 05:50 10.31
25K 09:03:13AM 01:31:30 15:03 06:13 9.67-Poop stop
30K 09:22:28AM 01:50:45 19:16 06:12 9.68-Poop stop
35K 09:40:47AM 02:09:04 18:20 05:54 10.18
40K 10:00:59AM 02:29:16 20:12 06:30 9.23
Finish 10:10:34AM 02:38:51 09:35 07:02 8.55