Notes
2014 Chicago Marathon
Pre-Race
Did carb-loading the 2 days prior to the race with lots of mini bagels, fruit, and pasta for dinner on both days but made the day before less extreme on carb intake and closer to my normal diet which seemed to work perfectly; the day of the race started early with a 5am wake-up but I was running on plenty of adrenaline; ate a banana and 2 mini bagels for breakfast right after I woke up so about 2.5 hours before the start-also took a water bottle with me for the drive to the race that I sipped on up until I walked over to Grant Park; my mom, dad, sister, and I stayed in a hotel in Hillside, a suburb of Chicago about 15 miles away, so we expected the drive to take a long time trying to get into downtown on race morning due to traffic but, somehow, traffic was flowing smoothly all the way into downtown so we got to our parking garage within 15min of leaving our hotel so we got there way early and decided to just stay in the car for a while to stay warm before walking over to Grant Park; once we got to gate #1 where I had to go to get to my corral, I had to shed my toboggan and jacket and immediately started freezing in just my t-shirt but this really nice Asian guy, who was standing in line with me to get to the Wave 1 corrals, saw me shivering and gave me his mylar blanket which kept me nice and warm right up until start time; planned on doing some sort of warm-up jog but there were just too many people around so just got to do like a minute or two of shuffling with one short stride along with some stretching; once I entered into my corral, it was so crowded that I wasn’t even able to do anymore stretching and just had to stand stationary for those 15min prior to the start but I was pumped and ready to go!
In-Race
Absolutely perfect weather for racing-50 degrees with a 39 dewpoint; it took me about a minute and a half to get across the start line from where I was at the very front of corral B and was passing people like crazy at the beginning but I only had to do a lot of weaving in the first mile; I was making sure to keep the effort super easy and stay relaxed and comfortable the first few miles mainly just enjoying the experience and doing plenty of smiling to stay positive; the miles were clicking off so easily and rhythmically and I wondered how this pace ever felt hard in training but I sure wasn’t going to get overly excited early on; there were quite a few longer stretches on the course that had a significant headwind so there was a ton of runners packing up to get wind blockage but I was on my own for most of the race since I was passing people throughout the entire race; there was only one mistake in the early miles-my gels that I put where the waistband is on my shorts in the back slipped down into my shorts around mile 3 so I had to put my hands way down into my shorts to grab them out and then just held them one in each hand until miles 6 and 12 when I had to take them but it wasn’t too big of a deal; when I hit halfway (and saw my family cheering me on there) with my watch showing 1:23:16, it started to sink in that this could be a big time breakthrough race for me; coming into the race, my “A” goal and best-case scenario was barely sneaking under 2:50 and would have been super happy with anything under 2:55; I kept on trying to stay focused and in a rhythm continuing to click off miles around 6:20 relatively easily until about 18 or 19 miles in; I knew it would get tougher but I had saved enough mental energy for this part of the race and was prepared for it with all the training I had done; as far as fluids go, I just took them whenever I felt like I needed them, sometimes taking Gatorade and sometimes water (basically, whatever I happened to grab is what I drank); also, I thought it was weird to see so many people walking toward the end of the race and seeing elite guys on the side of the road deciding to drop out and having to call someone to come pick them up; for me, the real grind began around the 21 mile mark when I was taking my 4th and final gel-this gel was much more liquidy than I anticipated so it went down the wrong pipe and I choked on it BAD to the point that I was having trouble breathing for a few seconds and I thought I was going to have to walk some to catch my breath but thankfully, after about a half mile of constant coughing, I was fine again but had to continue to mentally (and physically) push hard to the finish; around mile 22 or 23 my hamstrings were starting to become really tender and fragile and I got super scared they were going to give out and either get pulled or torn but they held up the whole way-hamstrings are insanely sore now though; the last long stretch on Michigan Ave. into downtown seemed to take so long but I pushed with all I had left and even ran with a lady the last mile that helped me push through as we both passed a lot of walkers along that stretch; the only significant hill on the course just happened to be about 400m from the finish line which felt like a mountain at that point as I crawled up it then made that final left turn onto Columbus Drive and cruised it into the finish so I could begin to soak in what I had accomplished on my debut marathon; once I crossed the finish line, I was so incredibly happy that I couldn’t help but smile even though my legs were trashed and I could barely walk through the finishing area; the race in general was amazing from the 1.3 million spectators cheering you on to the atmosphere being around a lot of other serious runners the whole way; it definitely makes me want to come back and makes me want to run some more marathons; also, I was the first finisher from TN and earned a free engraved medal for placing 3rd in my age group with 1st being an East African “18” year old that ran 2:09; overall, loved my first marathon and couldn’t be happier with the result! Now time to take a little time off to get rested up then keep training to continue developing…
Thanks
First, I want to give thanks to God for providing me strength to be able to do this; I also want to give a big thanks to coach Scott for all the advice and training in order to set me up for an awesome race and also to my family and running friends for all the support-it means a lot! Definitely couldn’t have done this alone!