Sunday morning brought woke me at 4:00 am to get downtown in plenty of time for the 6:30 am race start time. I prepared coffee the night before (because I can NOT do anything without at least one cup of morning joe...and I am not talking about my husband....) and made my PB & J to eat later in the morning. I geared up, and left the house with Joe around 4:45. We arrived downtown and parked around 5:30. The sun was coming up and the temperature, well, seeing as it was August 10th, was AMAZING!!! Beautiful light breeze coming off the lake, and 60 degrees!!! It was a beautiful morning to run! We walked over to the race start, I changed into my shoes, stretched a bit, and waited for the start. My friend Lori came to cheer me on, which totally made my day! Having two fans there really got my motivation going! All I had left to do was exactly what I came here to do - qualify for a starting corral for the Chicago Marathon....
At 6:30 the first wave went off. I thought I was in that wave, but much to my dismay, I was just about 10 feet too short. So, I waited for wave to to leave the start. Off we went, packed in like sardines! The first mile was fast then slow, then fast, then slow. I was going nutz. All I wanted was to get around those in front of me holding hands, and cheering to the crowd along the way. I thought I had started up far enough in front to avoid these types, but, I didn't. Anyway, we hit the McCormick place tunnel, ran along LSD, then finally, around mile 3, we were thinning out, and I really hit a great pace! So, off I went. I kept my pace going, and kept with my plan to gel at mile 4. When I finally hit the split, I was disappointed to find that those first two-three miles of slower paces were just slow enough to really throw off my goal end time. I was still in contention for a starting corral, but I had to keep my pace for the next 6.5 miles. I was determined! At mile 8 I did my next gel, just to carry my through on my pace to the end. I was feeling really good, but the wind coming off the lake was making things a little more difficult than I had hoped! So much for the "light breeze", it was definitely more like wind.
At about mile 9, I noticed that my left quad started to get a little sore. All I kept telling myself was to run through it - only 4 miles to go. I kept pushing my pace, trying to concentrate on staying steady, rather than the ache in my leg. At mile 12, I started to slow a little, and
starting thinking more about my quad. CONCENTRATE!!! So, push, push, push, just a little further, 1.5 to go...I finally rounded the corner with about .5 to go to the start, and there are Joe and Lori cheering me on! And Lori, what a godsend - she wore her running shoes! She jumped into the race with me and paced me until about 100 yards to go, talking me through the last portion of the race! I swear, I can't thank her enough!!! She dropped to the side, and off through the finish chute I went!! And, looking at my time, slower than I hoped for, but qualified me for the corral I had hoped for! YAHOO!! Collected my finishers medal, grabbed some water and grub, and there was Lori waiting to congratulate me! She took me to Joe where there was more congrats!! I am really glad this one is behind me. Now I can concentrate on Accenture in two weeks, then just the marathon after that!
Now, from what I have read on the Internet, many are saying the course was approximately .4-.5 too long....hmmm....if that's the case, then maybe my time would have been faster! Oh well. I can't dwell on this. Moving forward.......
At 6:30 the first wave went off. I thought I was in that wave, but much to my dismay, I was just about 10 feet too short. So, I waited for wave to to leave the start. Off we went, packed in like sardines! The first mile was fast then slow, then fast, then slow. I was going nutz. All I wanted was to get around those in front of me holding hands, and cheering to the crowd along the way. I thought I had started up far enough in front to avoid these types, but, I didn't. Anyway, we hit the McCormick place tunnel, ran along LSD, then finally, around mile 3, we were thinning out, and I really hit a great pace! So, off I went. I kept my pace going, and kept with my plan to gel at mile 4. When I finally hit the split, I was disappointed to find that those first two-three miles of slower paces were just slow enough to really throw off my goal end time. I was still in contention for a starting corral, but I had to keep my pace for the next 6.5 miles. I was determined! At mile 8 I did my next gel, just to carry my through on my pace to the end. I was feeling really good, but the wind coming off the lake was making things a little more difficult than I had hoped! So much for the "light breeze", it was definitely more like wind.
At about mile 9, I noticed that my left quad started to get a little sore. All I kept telling myself was to run through it - only 4 miles to go. I kept pushing my pace, trying to concentrate on staying steady, rather than the ache in my leg. At mile 12, I started to slow a little, and
starting thinking more about my quad. CONCENTRATE!!! So, push, push, push, just a little further, 1.5 to go...I finally rounded the corner with about .5 to go to the start, and there are Joe and Lori cheering me on! And Lori, what a godsend - she wore her running shoes! She jumped into the race with me and paced me until about 100 yards to go, talking me through the last portion of the race! I swear, I can't thank her enough!!! She dropped to the side, and off through the finish chute I went!! And, looking at my time, slower than I hoped for, but qualified me for the corral I had hoped for! YAHOO!! Collected my finishers medal, grabbed some water and grub, and there was Lori waiting to congratulate me! She took me to Joe where there was more congrats!! I am really glad this one is behind me. Now I can concentrate on Accenture in two weeks, then just the marathon after that!Now, from what I have read on the Internet, many are saying the course was approximately .4-.5 too long....hmmm....if that's the case, then maybe my time would have been faster! Oh well. I can't dwell on this. Moving forward.......
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