Or so I was led to believe when I got to work today. My office is at a mall, and the giant wreath has been hung over our conference room window as of this morning.
Maybe we can just start hanging it on Labor Day?
Monday, October 30, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
Chicago Marathon 2006
(Note - splits and pictures to be added when I have them)
Everything pointed to a rough day. I hadn't been able to get my head in a good state for running over the last few weeks. I was so focused on getting through the last 20 mile training run that when it was over, I had a tough time remembering I still had one more run to go: the marathon itself.
We arrived in Chicago to find it a little chilly, with worse to come, according to the forecast. Saturday was to be rain all day, with it tailing off to a rain/snow mix during the race on Sunday. Meredith had helped me pick out some new cold-weather gear before we left, but I still needed a few more pieces. We hit the expo Saturday morning, and I picked up a new hat and gloves. I found it amusing that in a 40,000 participant race, my bib number was 41542.
Also at the expo was a booth allowing you to buy a tech shirt with your name/message on it for $20. We all jumped on that opportunity, and I went for "Run Dave Run". I figured if I was going to run a race with 1.5 million spectators, I might as well take advantage of it, and get some people cheering me on.
Meredith and I napped and watched football in the hotel room most of Saturday afternoon, and went out for a pasta dinner with our group in the evening. The restaurant was in the bottom floor of an office building, and was so crowded that we were actually at tables out in the building lobby. They refused to separate our checks, so a bunch of us had to run outside across the street in the rain to hit an ATM. Thanks, Rosebud Restaurants! (I will admit, their lasagna was very very good.)
Sunday morning found us facing a 40ish degree forecast, still with possible rain, according to the news. I decided on a long sleeve shirt with my "Run Dave Run" shirt over it, mesh shorts, a baseball cap, and my new gloves. Like many other runners, I brought a trash bag to put over my gear at the start line to stay warm. Unlike many other runners, mine was grabbed at the last minute before we left, and happened to be scented. Sadly, I received no compliments at the start line regarding how good I smelled.
I managed to work my way up to about to the 4:30 pace group in the starting corral, but couldn't proceed any further due to the solid wall of humanity ahead. From what I had heard, the first few miles were pretty chaotic in this race anyway, so I didn't worry too much about it. We spent the time in small talk; everyone fighting nerves and wishing each other good luck. It seemed like most people around me in the start were also second or third time marathoners. About ten minutes passed before I reached the start line after the gun sounded. (At least, I assume it sounded, I couldn't hear it.)
Mile 1: We ran up Columbus Drive out of Grant Park, passing under a bridge full of screaming spectators. That was the first moment I really realized just how many people were out on the course. It did get pretty hectic as we dipped under that bridge and over the river as the runners all dodged around people who didn't line up with their actual pace and were jogging or walking.
Mile 2: I saw Meredith's mom, which would be the only time I managed to spot anyone I knew for the entire race. I also heard my first "Run, Dave, Run!" It was certainly not be the last time I heard that.
Mile 3: Mile 3 took us back through the city as we crossed the river twice more. It was really loud through this stretch. I had a hard time keeping track of where we were, as it was overcast, and I didn't remember which street went which direction very well. The last turn in this mile faced us to the north on LaSalle St., where we would be headed for quite a while.
Mile 4: By this point, the racers started falling into better organized paces. I didn't have to keep weaving as much, although there was some amount of dodging people throughout the race. We passed a really entertaining drill team here, though I was on the wrong side of the road to get a really good look.
Mile 5: This mile continued up LaSalle St., and ended where it dropped us into Lincoln Park. That was one of the landmarks I remembered from the course map, so it let me get some bearing on where I was. I pulled out my first gel packet at this point. It was chocolate, and pretty difficult to swallow after being used to some of the thinner gel types recently. In retrospect, I was going too fast at this point, but it was tough to fight the adrenaline and desire to catch back up to my pace.
Mile 6: We curved through the park during this mile, passing a live band who sounded good. There were more people than I expected out along this stretch of the course.
Mile 7: This seemed like a pretty residential area, with a fair number of people out on the sidewalks. I started running over to the side of the road here, and got a lot of people yelling for me in return. At this point in the race, I was trying to thank everyone who yelled for me.
Mile 8: Addison Drive, the turn-around point for this longest leg out of the downtown area, was during this mile. I was feeling great at this point, but was still glad to hit another major landmark and know that I wouldn't have to run any farther from the finish line than I was here.
Mile 9: We were sort of funnelled into a smaller area of the road along this stretch, which made for a tight squeeze, but also added to the noise. It kind of reminded me of the scenes from the Tour De France where the crowd is all over the athletes, parting at the last second. The entertainment on this mile was a western theme. This was the first mile that I finally saw a pace team, the 4:00 pace group. I decided I'd try and stick with them for a while, since we were at about the same pace.
Mile 10: I passed a high school marching band that was playing "Hang On Sloopy" here, and made sure to give an O-H-I-O with my arms. My legs were still feeling great at this point of the race, and I wasn't having any of the knee issues that I sometimes have when I hit the double digit runs.
Mile 11: At this point, we could see that we were approaching the downtown area again. Somewhere in here, a girl near me tripped on a bump in the road and took a nasty fall. However, she managed to get up and keep running without looking too much worse for the wear.
Mile 12: The crowd really started getting dense at this point again, with people up on top of staircases and planters to see over the front lines.
Mile 13: Here, we came around a bend downtown to cross the river and hit the halfway point. I was really feeling good, and gave myself a little clap to get myself ready for the second half.
Mile 14: After we crossed the Dan Ryan Expressway, the crowds thinned out pretty quickly. There were still some spectators, but not nearly as many as before. Though my legs were feeling good, it was a little bit of a mental letdown to lose that level of support.
Mile 15: Mile 15 took us to our westernmost point. I was hoping this would be another good landmark for me, but I felt like I was starting to falter for the first time here. I started concentrating on staying with the pace group, rather than just running the pace that felt right.
Mile 16: We headed back toward the city during this mile. I started feeling a little better and regained the few seconds I had let the pace group advance on me.
Mile 17: The route twisted through Little Italy here, and the crowds picked up again. Again, I concentrated on keeping a short distance between myself and the pace group.
Mile 18: I don't honestly remember much from this stretch, other than feeling like I was experiencing a little bit of tunnel vision. I started getting sort of dizzy around here when we would go from daylight to the darkness under a bridge. So, I walked through my first water stop during this mile to try and give my body a little break. I don't like walking through water stops, as I find it hard to get my legs moving again, but thought it might work here.
Mile 19: Getting harder to stay with the pace group. We continued down toward the south side of town during this mile. I stopped to stretch out my hamstring that had given me trouble in the last 20 miler here. When I headed back out, I was amazed to see another 4:00 pace leader nearby, and fell back in near him.
Mile 20: Dave, meet wall. After getting caught behind some people walking during a water stop, I fell significantly back of the 4:00 pace group for the first time. This was the first firm realization I had that I didn't have the gas left to catch back up to them.
Mile 21: I continued to fall apart. Multiple walking and stretching breaks weren't helping my time any. My ankle began to hurt somewhere around this point of the race. We crossed the river for the last time during this mile.
Mile 22: Mile 22 took us through Chinatown. The crowds were pretty good here, though I had expected a little more based on hearsay from others who had run Chicago before. I did enjoy the dragon dancers at one of the turns. I started calculating how slowly I could run for the last few miles to reach different target times.
Mile 23: At this point, I was just hoping that each corner held a water stop around the bend so I could take another walking break without feeling bad about it. Of all things, I was getting these twinges from my elbows up my forearms at each step. Guess my form was getting pretty bad here, as I was probably landing on my feet pretty heavily.
Mile 24: I started to regret wearing that shirt around here. Hearing someone yell "Run, Dave, Run!" is a lot more fun when you aren't on the curb trying to stretch out your quads. From here on, it was pretty much a straight shot up Michigan Avenue, so you had a good view of what was ahead, for better or worse.
Mile 25: The streets started to be completely lined with people again during this mile. Great for encouragement, but didn't leave anywhere to stretch out. I ended up jogging backwards a few steps early in this mile since my quads were threatening to seriously cramp up here.
800m Remaining: Was that seriously only half a mile? Felt more like two. I resolved to try and run the rest of the way, cramping muscles or not. That worked pretty well until...
400m Remaining: What better to turn the corner and see than a steep (for this course) uphill climb? I was *not* excited. I made it about halfway up, but had to walk a little bit before I could reach the top. I kept stealing glances over to my left to see if I could get any encouragement from seeing the finish line, but no luck. Finally, when I reached the top and made the last turn of the course, the finish line was revealed, along with rows and rows of bleachers full of screaming people. There was no way I could keep from running with that much support out there.
I crossed the finish line at 4:10:28, approximately 34 minutes faster than I had done in Columbus the year before.
Though I had some dreams of breaking four hours, I realized that those were a best case scenario, and had set my goal at 4:15. I think I could have broken 4:10 if I ran a little slower pace for the first half, but I'm glad I took my shot at the four hour pace group. I think I could reach it if I try another marathonwith a little faster-paced training plan if I try another marathon. For this one, I had concerned myself mainly with staying healthy, rather than being a slave to my watch during every training run.
Next up is probably a half-marathon in the spring, where I'll try to break 2:00 for the first time outside of the first half of a full marathon. For some reason, my two fastest half-marathon times have come during marathons, where they don't really count.
So, it was a good experience, and a great close to the summer/fall training season. Thanks to my parents and aunt and uncle who came out for the race, and to all the friends and family from Columbus for the support!
Everything pointed to a rough day. I hadn't been able to get my head in a good state for running over the last few weeks. I was so focused on getting through the last 20 mile training run that when it was over, I had a tough time remembering I still had one more run to go: the marathon itself.
We arrived in Chicago to find it a little chilly, with worse to come, according to the forecast. Saturday was to be rain all day, with it tailing off to a rain/snow mix during the race on Sunday. Meredith had helped me pick out some new cold-weather gear before we left, but I still needed a few more pieces. We hit the expo Saturday morning, and I picked up a new hat and gloves. I found it amusing that in a 40,000 participant race, my bib number was 41542.
Also at the expo was a booth allowing you to buy a tech shirt with your name/message on it for $20. We all jumped on that opportunity, and I went for "Run Dave Run". I figured if I was going to run a race with 1.5 million spectators, I might as well take advantage of it, and get some people cheering me on.
Meredith and I napped and watched football in the hotel room most of Saturday afternoon, and went out for a pasta dinner with our group in the evening. The restaurant was in the bottom floor of an office building, and was so crowded that we were actually at tables out in the building lobby. They refused to separate our checks, so a bunch of us had to run outside across the street in the rain to hit an ATM. Thanks, Rosebud Restaurants! (I will admit, their lasagna was very very good.)
Sunday morning found us facing a 40ish degree forecast, still with possible rain, according to the news. I decided on a long sleeve shirt with my "Run Dave Run" shirt over it, mesh shorts, a baseball cap, and my new gloves. Like many other runners, I brought a trash bag to put over my gear at the start line to stay warm. Unlike many other runners, mine was grabbed at the last minute before we left, and happened to be scented. Sadly, I received no compliments at the start line regarding how good I smelled.
I managed to work my way up to about to the 4:30 pace group in the starting corral, but couldn't proceed any further due to the solid wall of humanity ahead. From what I had heard, the first few miles were pretty chaotic in this race anyway, so I didn't worry too much about it. We spent the time in small talk; everyone fighting nerves and wishing each other good luck. It seemed like most people around me in the start were also second or third time marathoners. About ten minutes passed before I reached the start line after the gun sounded. (At least, I assume it sounded, I couldn't hear it.)
Mile 1: We ran up Columbus Drive out of Grant Park, passing under a bridge full of screaming spectators. That was the first moment I really realized just how many people were out on the course. It did get pretty hectic as we dipped under that bridge and over the river as the runners all dodged around people who didn't line up with their actual pace and were jogging or walking.
Mile 2: I saw Meredith's mom, which would be the only time I managed to spot anyone I knew for the entire race. I also heard my first "Run, Dave, Run!" It was certainly not be the last time I heard that.
Mile 3: Mile 3 took us back through the city as we crossed the river twice more. It was really loud through this stretch. I had a hard time keeping track of where we were, as it was overcast, and I didn't remember which street went which direction very well. The last turn in this mile faced us to the north on LaSalle St., where we would be headed for quite a while.
Mile 4: By this point, the racers started falling into better organized paces. I didn't have to keep weaving as much, although there was some amount of dodging people throughout the race. We passed a really entertaining drill team here, though I was on the wrong side of the road to get a really good look.
Mile 5: This mile continued up LaSalle St., and ended where it dropped us into Lincoln Park. That was one of the landmarks I remembered from the course map, so it let me get some bearing on where I was. I pulled out my first gel packet at this point. It was chocolate, and pretty difficult to swallow after being used to some of the thinner gel types recently. In retrospect, I was going too fast at this point, but it was tough to fight the adrenaline and desire to catch back up to my pace.
Mile 6: We curved through the park during this mile, passing a live band who sounded good. There were more people than I expected out along this stretch of the course.
Mile 7: This seemed like a pretty residential area, with a fair number of people out on the sidewalks. I started running over to the side of the road here, and got a lot of people yelling for me in return. At this point in the race, I was trying to thank everyone who yelled for me.
Mile 8: Addison Drive, the turn-around point for this longest leg out of the downtown area, was during this mile. I was feeling great at this point, but was still glad to hit another major landmark and know that I wouldn't have to run any farther from the finish line than I was here.
Mile 9: We were sort of funnelled into a smaller area of the road along this stretch, which made for a tight squeeze, but also added to the noise. It kind of reminded me of the scenes from the Tour De France where the crowd is all over the athletes, parting at the last second. The entertainment on this mile was a western theme. This was the first mile that I finally saw a pace team, the 4:00 pace group. I decided I'd try and stick with them for a while, since we were at about the same pace.
Mile 10: I passed a high school marching band that was playing "Hang On Sloopy" here, and made sure to give an O-H-I-O with my arms. My legs were still feeling great at this point of the race, and I wasn't having any of the knee issues that I sometimes have when I hit the double digit runs.
Mile 11: At this point, we could see that we were approaching the downtown area again. Somewhere in here, a girl near me tripped on a bump in the road and took a nasty fall. However, she managed to get up and keep running without looking too much worse for the wear.
Mile 12: The crowd really started getting dense at this point again, with people up on top of staircases and planters to see over the front lines.
Mile 13: Here, we came around a bend downtown to cross the river and hit the halfway point. I was really feeling good, and gave myself a little clap to get myself ready for the second half.
Mile 14: After we crossed the Dan Ryan Expressway, the crowds thinned out pretty quickly. There were still some spectators, but not nearly as many as before. Though my legs were feeling good, it was a little bit of a mental letdown to lose that level of support.
Mile 15: Mile 15 took us to our westernmost point. I was hoping this would be another good landmark for me, but I felt like I was starting to falter for the first time here. I started concentrating on staying with the pace group, rather than just running the pace that felt right.
Mile 16: We headed back toward the city during this mile. I started feeling a little better and regained the few seconds I had let the pace group advance on me.
Mile 17: The route twisted through Little Italy here, and the crowds picked up again. Again, I concentrated on keeping a short distance between myself and the pace group.
Mile 18: I don't honestly remember much from this stretch, other than feeling like I was experiencing a little bit of tunnel vision. I started getting sort of dizzy around here when we would go from daylight to the darkness under a bridge. So, I walked through my first water stop during this mile to try and give my body a little break. I don't like walking through water stops, as I find it hard to get my legs moving again, but thought it might work here.
Mile 19: Getting harder to stay with the pace group. We continued down toward the south side of town during this mile. I stopped to stretch out my hamstring that had given me trouble in the last 20 miler here. When I headed back out, I was amazed to see another 4:00 pace leader nearby, and fell back in near him.
Mile 20: Dave, meet wall. After getting caught behind some people walking during a water stop, I fell significantly back of the 4:00 pace group for the first time. This was the first firm realization I had that I didn't have the gas left to catch back up to them.
Mile 21: I continued to fall apart. Multiple walking and stretching breaks weren't helping my time any. My ankle began to hurt somewhere around this point of the race. We crossed the river for the last time during this mile.
Mile 22: Mile 22 took us through Chinatown. The crowds were pretty good here, though I had expected a little more based on hearsay from others who had run Chicago before. I did enjoy the dragon dancers at one of the turns. I started calculating how slowly I could run for the last few miles to reach different target times.
Mile 23: At this point, I was just hoping that each corner held a water stop around the bend so I could take another walking break without feeling bad about it. Of all things, I was getting these twinges from my elbows up my forearms at each step. Guess my form was getting pretty bad here, as I was probably landing on my feet pretty heavily.
Mile 24: I started to regret wearing that shirt around here. Hearing someone yell "Run, Dave, Run!" is a lot more fun when you aren't on the curb trying to stretch out your quads. From here on, it was pretty much a straight shot up Michigan Avenue, so you had a good view of what was ahead, for better or worse.
Mile 25: The streets started to be completely lined with people again during this mile. Great for encouragement, but didn't leave anywhere to stretch out. I ended up jogging backwards a few steps early in this mile since my quads were threatening to seriously cramp up here.
800m Remaining: Was that seriously only half a mile? Felt more like two. I resolved to try and run the rest of the way, cramping muscles or not. That worked pretty well until...
400m Remaining: What better to turn the corner and see than a steep (for this course) uphill climb? I was *not* excited. I made it about halfway up, but had to walk a little bit before I could reach the top. I kept stealing glances over to my left to see if I could get any encouragement from seeing the finish line, but no luck. Finally, when I reached the top and made the last turn of the course, the finish line was revealed, along with rows and rows of bleachers full of screaming people. There was no way I could keep from running with that much support out there.
I crossed the finish line at 4:10:28, approximately 34 minutes faster than I had done in Columbus the year before.
Though I had some dreams of breaking four hours, I realized that those were a best case scenario, and had set my goal at 4:15. I think I could have broken 4:10 if I ran a little slower pace for the first half, but I'm glad I took my shot at the four hour pace group. I think I could reach it if I try another marathonwith a little faster-paced training plan if I try another marathon. For this one, I had concerned myself mainly with staying healthy, rather than being a slave to my watch during every training run.
Next up is probably a half-marathon in the spring, where I'll try to break 2:00 for the first time outside of the first half of a full marathon. For some reason, my two fastest half-marathon times have come during marathons, where they don't really count.
So, it was a good experience, and a great close to the summer/fall training season. Thanks to my parents and aunt and uncle who came out for the race, and to all the friends and family from Columbus for the support!
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