Notes
67F - 87F. The official temperature at the start was 67F. At the 20 mile mark at the famous bank thermometer it read 86 when I went by, but others saw 87. Plus there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was brutal. That combination means that what the runners were actually feeling was in the mid to upper 90s. I was number 12644.
Needless to say it was a disaster. I tried to pick up the pace in the first couple of miles but when I would do so my heart rate would start to rise too much so I just backed off and just keep this slow 11:00ish pace. I knew it was going to get really hot so I thought I would just treat it as a fun run. But trying to keep the same heart rate wasn't doing me any good. It didn't dawn on me 'til later, but as the day warmed up, the same heart rate resulted in slower and slower miles. What I now realize is that more and more energy was being used for body cooling, leaving less for propulsion. So, even though I was applying the same effort, I was going slower and slower.
At about the half way point one loses all shade from the buildings, so pretty much the rest of it is in blazing hot sun. I was drinking LOTS of water, but my energy was still fading. Misting stations really helped. One firefighter out there had a regular fire hose and it wasn't on "dribble" but was putting out quite a volume of water. I took the full force of that in both the front and the back and the shock of that REALLY cold water jolted me back to my senses. I picked up the pace and was OK for a bit and felt fine. Problem is, that I needed one of those firefighters about every half mile.
The course got really crowded with people doing the death march. There were times that people were walking and stretched all across the road so you couldn't really even get by -- there was no opening. But at least I could bask in the satisfaction that I was ahead of my daughter, Sue, Unfortunately, that wasn't to last.
At about mile 24 I felt this hand on my shoulder and it was Sue. She said "What are you doing way back here? I'm going for a PR." and she took off and flew by me. In another quarter/half mile there was a guy with a bag of ice standing in the middle of the race course. I grabbed a handful and stuck a bunch in my mouth and it made a GREAT difference. I picked up the pace and tried to catch Sue. I thought I had her in my sights and was sprinting to beat her, but it turned out that I was targeting the wrong orange shirt. She was already way past that person.
There were a couple of times that I thought I could have gone a lot faster, but I know how badly heat affects me and was worried about being one of those statistics that collapses on the course. As it was, I got woozy a couple of times after the finish.
It was great seeing my two sisters, Pat and Karen, at a couple of places on the course cheering Sue and me on.
After the finish line there was another guy handing out ice. He was calling out "Ice cold ice." Well, doh......
I understand that about 9,000 people didn't show up for the race. It is assumed that temperature was the reason.
So, this turns out to be my second to worst marathon ever. My worst one was my first one, also in Chicago, when the temps were about three degrees hotter and I was under trained. Also, on this race I had turned off the gps on my Garmin because I knew that building reflections screw it up at a couple of points on the race. So I was using my Garmin foot pod for distance. It seems I didn't have it very well calibrated though, so I would probably have been better off just using the gps.
Today, I'm gonna pig out and then Wednesday start training for the next one. The weather has been great for the Snickers Marathon (Albany, GA) the last two years and was great for the Lake Wobegon Marathon last year, and I am registered for both of these.