I had run the Kettle Moraine 100 mile relay(31 miles) over the summer and the Ragnar Relay in August, but Chicago was the big race of 2008.
In fact, it was my first big race since Tecumseh of 2007. So, 10 months without any racing! 
After racing nearly every month in 2007, this was quite a bit of time off for me. Of course, I had the IT/hamstring issues that had stuck with me since the past winter—this being the main thing that kept me out of competition. However, this did give me time to reevaluate my training and develop myself a bit more as a runner. Training pretty much began in May when I started “preparing” for Kettle. Matt and I ran a 20 miler at Clinton 2 or 3 weeks before Kettle and then did the race. June training was moderate with a couple long runs, but things did not get really interesting until July. During July, I put in two 70+ mile weeks, only took 4 days completely off, and started doing work on the track—mostly mile repeats. Unfortunately, all this effort led to shin splints and a near stress fracture to start off August. Matt got me back and running in September when we started pounding out 20 milers. We did 3 of the in a span of one week and I also managed to fit in a few track work outs with the rest of the tri club.
From this training, I could feel the improvements. I had more energy on longer runs and my short distance speed was certainly improving. I had a significant amount of pep in my stride and covered short distances running the majority of the distance hard. Some of the training may have been a bit excessive and may have led to further shin splints, knee issues, and other IT problems, but . . . I certainly felt ready and confident on race day.
Matt, Jon, Travis and I all met in the A Corral for race start where we joked around with each other and did our last minute prep for the race. We caught up with Zach Gingerich, who once again claimed to be using Chicago as a training run. At this point, I was unaware of just how fast Zach actually was and figured that I could keep up with him for the race. Had I realized that he would go on to run a 3:12 50K (Chicago Lakefront ‘09), I would have not given keeping up with him a second thought. The fluke of Tecumseh last year was not going to happen again today.
With 5 minutes to our race start, the elites were lined up and sent off. Shortly afterwards, it was our time to go. It was really something to be situated in the ‘A’ Corral as it only took me 10 seconds to get to the starting line, compared to the 8 minutes in 2005. We took off at what I thought was a conservative pace. Due to the weather, I had changed my pre-race goal from 2:45 to 2:50, meaning that I would be shooting more so for 6:30 miles than the original 6:18 pace.
Although Jon and Travis had planned on to run with the 3 hour pace group, they were right next to us as we crossed mile 1. We crossed exactly as 11:00 showed up, meaning that our clock was at 6:00. Take the 10 seconds it took us to get to the start and we had just run a 5:50 first mile. 40 seconds too fast. Ouch.
At this point, Matt and I pulled ahead of Jon and Travis and took over the lead (for the club). I knew that we might be going a bit too fast, but we both still felt really good. After all, Matt and I started out too fast for all of our 20-milers so I figured those runs would have prepared me. Of course, I did not take the heat into account. Bank temperature readings were already showing temps in the low 70’s.
At the 5K mark (18:56, 6:07/mile), I felt that we may have been going too fast. I was getting warm and although my legs still felt good, I knew I would have to slow down if I wanted to cross in under 2:50. I mentioned this to Matt, but he said he was still feeling good so shortly afterwards, he started putting distance on me. This was so tough for me to do. The two of us are extremely competitive with one another and it killed me to let him get ahead of me so early. But the thought of catching up later kept me motivated.
For the next couple miles, I was able to keep Matt in sight and passed the 10K mark (38:30, 6:13/mile) only 20 seconds behind. Although I still felt strong, runners were passing me at this early stage in the race. I caught up with another runner and we both agreed that we would save ourselves for later in the race and allow people to pass us now. We worked with each other for a bit and from time to time, one of us would pull ahead while the other would catch up later.
Soon after, I heard somebody shouting my name and looked over to see Annie in the crowd! It was great to see her there since I had not even talked to her @ ISU in some time. Of course, now that both of us were over 2 hours away from campus we were finally reuniting. At least for a few brief moments.
From here to the halfway mark, I really screwed up any chance I had at going under 2:50. I was so concerned that I was not going to catch Matt that I let it get into my head and affect my race. Once he left my sight, it was very difficult for me to stay motivated. I felt as thought I would catch him, but as the miles passed and I grew more tired myself, the doubts kept creeping up.
Also, this part of the course went through many neighborhoods and everybody seemed to be blasting their music. Plus there were many sections that were heavily crowded and the noise + the people got me overly excited. I would start running harder in these sections and be winded further down the road. I also let this get the best of me and left the runner I was with earlier fall off behind me. I crossed 15K in 58:33 (6:31/mile) only 1:01 behind Matt, but that was enough distance for me to be unable to catch sight of him and still had no idea where he was on the course.
By the halfway point, it was getting real warm and I could feel the heaviness start to sink into my legs. There was one last crowd that really pushed me up the hill to the halfway mark (1:23:36), but by the time I reached the top I really could feel my body starting to lose it. I heard my friend Hannah call my name and was really excited to see her at that point, but at the same time the disappointment from the way my race was unfolding kept me from enjoying that as much as a I normally would have. I could run the final half in 1:26:24 to reach my goal—a time that should have been more than attainable, but by starting out so hard, I knew that there was no way I still had that finish in me. By now, I was setting my sights on 2:55 and eventually 3 hours flat.
The next couple of miles got really tough. I remember slowing down around mile 16 and feeling completely spent. I kept running, but by now people were regularly passing me. Some of the women from the top 100 spots now moved past me—and it looked as though they were in for a very close race. Of course, they were not with the elites, but this was the second group of female runners and they were looking at a sub 2:50 finish.
I saw my old friend Margaret, who was an old member of the Tri Birds. Her cheering was very encouraging and it was great to see another familiar face. By now, however, I knew my goals were out of the question and was seriously lacking motivation. I kept running however because I knew that walking would put me considerably behind and would be the final step in the deterioration for the race. I caught Shauna soon after, but barely noticed her. I was too out of it to really give anybody much attention. I just had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.
Around mile 20, the guy that I had been running with earlier finally passed me. He was the one who properly paced himself and would pull ahead of me (along with hundreds of other runners on the course). Finally, just after mile 21 I started walking. My legs were so heavy that I thought I might collapse if I kept running. Besides, I was barely lifting my legs when running and any efficiency I had from earlier was out the window. Also, temps had reached 80 degrees and I was boiling! I started looking behind me, expecting Travis to catch me at any moment. I tried running every so often, but could not get back into a rhythm.
On top of all this, my IT band, hamstrings, and knees were becoming issues. I had to run a lot of the course on the side of the road earlier in the race, which is severely slanted for drainage purposes. I had to do this to stay in the shade as the sun made runners quite vulnerable in the center of the road, but was now paying the consequences for the cooler air.
Around mile 22, the 3 hour pace group caught up with me. I started running with them, but this only lasted for about 30 seconds. They were moving fast and no matter how badly I would have liked to salvage a sub-3 finish, it just wasn’t in the cards for me. Plus, the little running I did with them left me feeling dizzy and completely unmotivated. With 2.5 miles to go, I was walking in a daze, searching behind me, waiting for Jon and Travis to come flying past me. At least then I could see a friend on the course. As I was looking for them, I caught sight of a familiar face, Michael Davenport. I had stayed with Michael during our trip to the ’06 Western States and we had also shared rooms for the Ice Age 50 and McNaughton Park run. I had not seen him since I caught up with him during 2007 IM Wisconsin on the bike section so it was quite a surprise to see him at this point. He shouted to come with him and I decided this was not a terrible idea. He was stronger than me at this point, but seeing an old friend was motivating and I decided to keep running. The final 2 miles were very brutal as it is basically a straight shot back to the finish line. I passed mile 25 feeling relieved that there was only a mile to go, but still wondering if I could actually make it that far while maintaining a sub 9:00 pace. A half mile from the finish, I saw the guy I had run with pre-13.1 miles and who had passed me around the 20-mile mark and it looked like he was out of commission. Two spectators were holding him and helping him to the finish, but it wasn’t looking like he was actually going to make it there. In fact, it seemed like he was barely conscious and I am pretty sure he did not recognize me as I shouted his name once I passed him, but I really hoped that he was OK. Both of our “strategies” apparently failed miserably, but he definitely made a stronger effort than myself.
I left him with the two other guys and made my way to the finish. The marathon finishes up a minor hill (didn’t seem minor then!!) and then follows with a 200 meter straightaway to the finish. I was so thrilled to be finishing that I pumped my fist as I crossed, despite being well behind my goal time. I was done and did not have to run any more. Finish time was 3:09:40 meaning I qualified for Boston! But really, the race does not mean very much to me so qualifying really was just a minor perk to an overall disaster of a race.
My legs were absolutely cashed so I took my time in the finish area. On top of my legs, everything else in my body was completely useless. My stomach was not feeling too great and breathing-wise, I was way out of wack. I laid down in there for probably over an hour—too exhausted to even care about finding the rest of my group.
I ran into Zach who had a “bad” race with a 2:47 or 2:48, but he looked like he had just finished a pleasant jog. Jon came in shortly afterwards and we sat down on the sides-both of us were in some serious pain. Jon came in 5 minutes behind me at 3:15—a great time for his first (organized) marathon.
The rest of the day was just as interesting as the race. Because I had failed to make plans to reunite with anybody from the club that had my belongings, I was forced to ask random people to borrow their phone to call mine so that I could get a hold of either Liz or Justin. I spent two hours of searching for the group (this mostly included me walking 100 yards, sitting down for 15 minutes, complaining, and then resuming the search). After what seemed to be a lifetime of looking for everyone, I randomly ran into everyone. It was just as relieving as finishing the race as I did not have the money to catch a train ride home nor the energy to walk (don’t want to think about that one). I took the train back early, showered up, and relaxed. Chicago ’08 had reached its conclusion.
The misery ends!!
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