Notes
Never again Chicago (please remember this time around!!).
1:13:16/1:17:41
Not the day I imagined. Things felt a off from the beginning. I was running what I thought was reasonable goal pace (~5:27ish), but the effort level seemed too high. We headed north from around 1 to 8, and even though we had a good tailwind at that point, everything felt too fast (legs were struggling to turn over, muscles felt overly exerted, general effort level too high). When we turned back south, I knew I needed to pull the ripcord. The wind was blasting (~20 mph) and I found myself in no man's land (a theme for the day despite being in a 40,000 person race). I tried to ease back the pace to 5:35-40, with the hope of maintaining that pace and going after a good overall placement (as it seemed an obvious day for positive splits). By the halfway point my legs were really dead and the pace was slipping even further. Kept thinking there's no way I run slower than 5:45... no way I run slower than 5:50... no way I run 6's... no way I run 6+'s. Ugh... By 16, I was wondering whether finishing was even going to happen. Around 17, Deana Kastor went by, cooling sitting in the middle of a pack of 8-10 guys. I thought briefly about trying the latch on, but it really wasn't an option. We continued further south into the wind. Despite the slow pace, I was passing more people than being passed. I knew I could just get to Michigan Ave, the tailwind would finally return, but the miles were really crawling by. Finally, we turned over the highway and started heading north. I was pretty much at a breaking point, but at least with the wind, I felt like there was something positive going. I maintained pace and passed a few less fortunate guys (including MN great Ericksen, a 2:16 guy that faded to 2:32 due to the craptastic conditions). I got one more cheer from Candice and Paul (who did a great job of spectating at a bunch of different places) with a mile to go and finally knew that this race was going to end. I grunted my way up the final hill, which actually felt pretty great after the relentless flat of the rest of the course, and cruised downhill to the finish to make sure I got under 2:31. Miserable experience.
I don't think I've ever had a marathon go this far south. Not really sure what happened. I got good sleep all week. Good stomach during the race and fueling pre-race. Felt pretty fresh damn fresh by the end of the taper.
mile 1 - 5:28
mile 2 - 5:13
mile 3 - 5:25
mile 4 - 5:22
mile 5 - 5:23
mile 6 - 5:32
mile 7 - 5:30
mile 8 - 5:43 (queue the headwind)
mile 9 - 5:43
mile 10 - 5:34
mile 11 - 5:38
mile 12 - 5:37
mile 13 - 5:12
mile 14 - 5:34
mile 14.25 - 1:27 (watch confused it appears)
mile 15 - 5:43
mile 16 - 5:44
mile 17 - 5:51
mile 18 - 5:48
mile 19 - 6:01 (it's come to this...)
mile 20 - 5:59
mile 21 - 6:04 (even worse)
mile 22 - 5:58
mile 23 - 6:11 (and we're jogging now)
mile 24 - 6:11
mile 25 - 5:48
mile 26 - 5:54
mile 26.2 - 1:27