Notes
Chicago Marathon, 2:20:26 (2:20:28 gun time), 48th place
Mile splits (manual splitting watch)
5:20, 5:23, 5:21, 5:14, 5:17, 5:19,
5:11, 5:18, 5:22, 5:22, 5:23, 5:19,
5:22, 5:24, 5:15, 5:19, 5:15, 5:25,
5:25, 5:26, 5:23, 5:20, 5:27, 5:24,
5:24, 5:29, 1:10
Official splits (diff, pace between)
5k: 16:37 (16:37, 5:21)
10k: 33:08 (16:32, 5:19)
15k: 49:34 (16:27, 5:18)
20k: 1:06:15 (16:41, 5:23)
Half: 1:09:53 (3:38, 5:20)
25k: 1:22:49 (12:57, 5:21)
30k: 1:39:31 (16:42, 5:23)
35k: 1:56:12 (16:42, 5:23)
40k: 2:13:04 (16:52, 5:26)
Finish: 2:20:28 (7:25, 5:26)
Pre Race
The day before the race I had I think 5 pedialyte powder packs, 4-5 additional water bottles, and a Maurten 160 before bed. Had a yummy pasta dinner cooked up by Chris and Jacqueline the night before and probably ate too much lol but it was delish and had to #carboload. Had my alarm set for 4:15 and rolled out of bed around 4:30 for the 7:30am race. Ate a pack of belvita breakfast bisuits and 2 pouches of instant oatmeal and drank pedialyte and coffee. Continued to sip a bottle of Maurten 320 the rest of the morning which I finished shortly before starting my WU jog. Jogged for a mile and did about a minute pick up at 6:45am before changing shoes and hitting up the bathroom way too many times. Got in line to enter the corral about 7:15 and ate a Maurten 100 gel at about 7:20. Lined up at 7:25ish and away we went at 7:30
First 10k
Got out well, took me maybe 2 seconds after the gun to cross the line. Dudes were out hard and I did a good job not getting caught up in it. Just settled in and ran what felt like the right effort for the first few miles since the GPS is such wack with all the buildings. I think it was around 5k when a pack started to form and shortly after a group broke off the front and I went with them for a bit but decided it was too fast (the pack that broke off ended up running 2:17-ish so it was a good call). Ended up in a pack of maybe 8-10 dudes and we just started clicking off miles between 5:15 and 5:25. It was feeling good.
10k- Half
Was doing my best to just chill in the back of the pack. Things would get a little dicey at the water stations with everyone lining up to get fluids, but we did a reasonably good job of staying out of each others way I think. Once we made the turn at the north end of the course to head back south I realized how important having a pack to run with would be, as the wind was strong out of the south. There were times where the gusts were so strong it would kind of throw us around on the road and make running straight pretty difficult. I was generally staying at the back of the pack, but a few times I found myself at the front taking on the wind. I made sure to never do more than a half mile at the front of the pack before moving to the back in order to conserve energy. Chris joined the pack a bit before halfway and it was good to see him up with us. Hit the half split in 1:09:53 which is the fastest I've gone through halfway by 40 seconds. Things werent feeling super easy, but I thought I was in a good spot.
Half -30k
Chris was rolling to catch our pack, so he kinda kept it going and went off the front with another dude shortly after halfway. They got a small gap on us but I made a move and dragged the rest of the pack back up to them. The pack just kept rolling through this portion, with miles both above and below 5:20. I was wearing a pace band with splits for a 2:18:57, and I think it was at mile 18 where I announced to the pack that we were 28 seconds above OTQ pace. This kind of took the air out of the pack and shortly after this it broke apart with some dudes taking off and a lot of dudes falling off the back. This was the point I knew the OTQ wasn't going to happen, but I still knew I had a chance at a big PR and a really solid time.
30k- Finish
After 30k when the pack broke apart it was then mostly solo to the finish. I didn't get passed by anyone in this stretch, but I was doing a lot of catching and passing which was a good motivator. Getting beyond 20 miles I started getting nervous, as it had always been somewhere between 20 and 23 where I would start dying in past marathons. While it felt hard, and my stomach felt destroyed, it never really came. I was able to continue a strong pace, and while I slowed a little bit, it was by far the best I have ever finished a marathon. I was able to continue racing the last few miles, as opposed to just surviving. My stomach felt pretty queasy though, and there were multiple times after 35k where I had to dial back the effort a bit to avoid puking. And as soon as I finished I puked my guts out, so I still didn't get the nutrition/stomach game quite right. But once I passed the 800m to go sign and realized I was going to run 2:20, I was pretty jacked. Everything hurt and I just wanted to be done running, but it was awesome to take in the crowd and enjoy that last quarter mile a little bit
Post race
As I said above, I puked a ton right after the finish. There was apple pieces from my oatmeal, veggies from dinner the night before, and a mix of gel and liquid. It was kind of an impressive amount of volume, imo. My stomach instantly felt better though, and I think I could have definitely pushed myself harder if I didn't have that to worry about for the last bit of the race. I took in a Maurten 100 gel at miles 4.5 and 9, and a Maurten 100 w/ caffeine gel at 15 and 20. I think the gels were fine, but my night before and morning of nutrition might have been more of the problem. Aside from that, this could not have gone much better. It was my fastest second half of a marathon by over 3 minutes (1:10:35) and I have never felt so strong the last 5k before. Last December after I ran 2:26:48 I wrote that I didn't think I had any shot at running 2:18:59 before 2020, but after today I really like my chances to prove myself wrong at CIM in December. Excited to recover then get back to work for 8 more weeks, and hopefully pick up a big half marathon PR at Indy along the way!