This morning the race started at 7:30 am so I set my alarm for 5:30 to give me time to get up and wake up a little before we walked down there. So my alarm goes off and I go downstairs to the Starbucks to get myself a latte to try to kick start my morning. There were tons of people in the lobby already! What are they doing hanging out downstairs 2 hours before the marathon? We both took our time getting dressed and eating and then headed down to the lobby to the mass of runners hanging out there. I was wearing capri running pants, hat, 2 long sleeve shirts and my running gloves. Dave was wearing shorts and one long sleeve shirt, running gloves and a running hat. Looking around there was a vast number of ways in which people were dressed for the cold. From just wearing their tank tops and shorts all the way to wearing full sweatsuits and scarves and hats. I guess we were maybe somewhere in the middle perhaps (on Daves side) leaning towards the more sparsely dressed. It was damn cold outside for sure. We finally left the hotel and made the walk to the start area and I was trying to convince myself I still wanted to do this....I think this happens with every marathon I run but with the cold added ..it seemed a little worse. I hated the cold this morning!! and I hated the fact that I still had 26.2 miles ahead of me. This put me in a grumpy mood for sure. We got down to the start area and dave cut off to get into the 'A' corral....which means fast...while I continued to walk with all the regular people down to the open corral. I finally found the general area where I was to be but they had fences blocking off the sides of the road and all the runners were supposed to be in the middle. There were already a ton of people in the middle but it seemed like just as many people were wandering around on the sidewalk outside the gates like me going.. "where the f** do you get in?" literally that is what I was saying in my head and sometimes outloud to no one in particular. It was a GIANT cluster that just made me more irritated. Runners were walking along the sidewalk..both ways trying to figure out how to get in. Some people just hopped the chain link into the street so they could get lined up. Really?.. before a 26.2 mile race I'm supposed to spider-man my ass over the fence? I figured it was best not to chance ripping my pants before I was running 26 miles so I wandered towards the 'end' of the line-up area hoping to find the opening which I eventually did but it was a small openining in the gate and there were a lot of us trying to get in. So here I am..pissed off about the cold, irritated that its so damn hard to get IN and now I'm stuffed like a sardine with all these other people getting through a one person sized hole. Yeah... my thoughts of bailing are increasing. I keep saying outloud.. this is f***ing ridiculous but I couldn't get anyone to jump on my bandwagon so I just shut up. Finally I made it and and was wedged in a a spot waiting for the gun to go off. People were cheering and clapping and I kept thinking 'um... you realize we are at the START of 26.2 miles, right"... I save my cheers for after I'm done. So, the gun goes off at 7:30 and I can only tell because I hear a bunch of people ahead start cheering. It takes the area I am in 25 minutes to cross the start line...that is how many people there are. Let me say though that having that many people packed into the street does help with teh cold so by this time I'm ok with the temps and I've moved on from that and am now just thinking that I have 26 miles to run and what is my strategy. So I see these Nike pacers all around and decide I'll start out with the 4:45 pace group knowing I will no way finish in 4:45 but at least I can start that way. It turns out to be a good starting pace and I'm in a groove until I start to feel my bladder filling and pushing against my spibelt. Hmm, at 3 miles I run towards the bathrooms and see the line is LONG so I ask when the next set is and learns its just 2 miles ahead so I decide to wait. I get to 5 miles and stop to wait in the lines. I have to go at this point and it doesn't matter how long the line is. I guess A LOT of other people had to go too because it takes me a solid 15 minutes to get to use the potty and then I'm back on the course.
Now I'm sad though because I lost my 4:45 family. Now I'm way in the back with the 5:45's and its a lot more sparse. So I decide to try to fun 'fast' and get back up as far as I can so I do that and make some ground to the 5:30's and feel pretty solid. I do ok for a while and then I have to potty again at 9 miles so I stop and the line is only 5 minutes long which isn't too bad. Then again I had to run run to try to gain some more ground. I get back to 5:30 and even a little ahead of them and am doing good. Its weird... in downtown Chicago I kept smelling whiffs of cocoa and then later on the smell of sewage.. so strange. I guess they have a chocolate factory around there which is where the cocoa smell comes from and well I guess the sewage is just a downtown thing???not sure. So I move up some more and have to use the bathroom again at 18 miles so I do that but the line is really quick so I barely lose any ground. I make it to the 5:15 ground and I stick it out for the rest of the marathon. I did it in 5:14 something which is my fastest yet!
Then it was back to the hotel and the walk back to the hotel in the coldwind felt like a really long walk when I know in fact it wasn't very long at all but I couldn't wait to get back!! A hot shower and a nap are a perfect way to end the marathon. Ok.. then followed by hotdogs at portillo's :)
