CHICAGO::My first marathon!

Hmmmm....  I'm not sure when I decided to run a marathon, but I signed up for the Chicago Marathon with my fiance, Matt on March 23rd.  I realized that in the last year and week, I've ran three half marathons (San Jose Rock N Roll Half, San Francisco Half, and You Go Girl Half in Tacoma just two weeks ago) and now, a marathon!  My training didn't go as well as I wanted to for the full marathon.  In fact, I had only ran a total of 13.5 miles prior to Chicago.  I anticipated that I was going to hurt a lot during the full marathon, but to my surprise, I felt great!  Next marathon, definitely going to train better and I'd like to run for a charity or cause for motivation.  Any suggestions?

First day in Chicago.

When I was in Tacoma a few weeks back, I ran the You Go Girl Half marathon.  It was rainy and kind of cold.  I had hurt my right foot a little bit and the pinkie toe was really sore.  So, I nursed it, literally, until Chicago.  Even walking on it hurt quite a bit.  I was nervous that I wasn't going to be able to finish the marathon.  I decided to tape up my foot for the race and I'm so glad that I did!  I did get a blister from my shoe rubbing up against the tape on the top of my foot, but after the race, my feet were in great shape and my pinkie toe didn't hurt! 

Matt and I arrived into Chicago on Friday afternoon.  We had three friends flying in on Friday as well to run the race; Seamus, Benny and Joan.  They are all from the Bay Area as well.  We met up for dinner with some of Benny's friends who live in Chicago.  We walked and walked, looking for a restaurant that was available for seven people.  I was a bit cranky because my foot was hurting so bad.  I was beginning to grow frustrated that my foot was hurting so bad and I was afraid I was going to injure it more while running the race.  I decided to "suck it up" and not focus on my foot. 

This was the sign hanging up in the Hilton Lobby.

The next day, we all met up to go to the Expo and I was so excited!  This Expo was HUGE!  I joined a pacing team in hopes to complete the race in 5 hours and 15 minutes.  It was a comfortable pace, would give me time to stop and use the bathroom if necessary, and walk through the water stations.  We then went and picked up our bib numbers and our dry fit Nike shirts.  They are red this year and so cute!  I saw that they were giving 5 minute foot massages and I stood in line for 15 minutes to get it and it was worth it!  Bank of America is the sponsor of the Chicago Marathon, and they were taking free photos of people in front of a green screen.  Matt and I had our photo taken together and it turned out so cute!  After the expo, Matty and I had a Jimmie John's Sub Sandwich and I was so happy because they don't have them in San Francisco.  :(  They are so freakishly fast, my sandwich was made before I even paid for it.  I enjoyed every bite!  We went back to the hotel and just rested our feet and then met up with Joan for Giordano's Chicago style pizza for our pre race dinner.  It was good!  We hit the sack and got up at 5:00am to eat our breakfast, drink our coffee and head off to the race.

Benny, me, Matt, and Joan on our way to the Expo.

My name up on the large sign (seen below).

This wall sign had every person's name who signed up for the race.  There were 45,000 entries.  38,132 started the race and 36,159 completed the race.

Matt's name!

We met Joan at her hotel and headed over to the gear check tent.  Matty went off to Corral A (yes, the corral right after the Elite runners).  Joan and I stuck together and decided we would run the first mile together.  We got in line to use the sani-can one last time before the race start and there was one sani-can that no one could believe what they saw.  Somebody had literally crapped the largest amount mooshy poo all over the top part of the toilet seat.  By this point in the morning, the sani-can's were running out of toilet paper.  The one that became vacant for me had run out, so I thought, well, I'll check the poo one that NO ONE would go in and it was all out too!  Can you imagine how that runner must have felt?  To have pooed the hugest mooshy poo with nothing to wipe with???  Seriously... GROSS!

After the sani-can situation, we got into the open corral in the pace we wanted to race in.  It took 25 minutes for us to finally cross the start line and we were off.  It was funny because one of the girls told another girl to take it easy at the start because it starts off on a hill.  Having lived in San Francisco and running the hills of Potrero, this little incline was nothing!  :)  Along the entire race, people lined the streets.  My favorite part was running through Old Town where there was a retirement home.  The people living there lined the windows and were waving out to all the runners.  That made my heart melt and I just wanted to blow kisses to everyone watching from the window.

I was actually hungry during a lot of the race.  As we ran through the different neighborhoods,  neighborhood restaurants were cooking food.  The aromas were incredible!  It wasn't very nice of them to tease me like that!  At mile 10, I stopped for the one bathroom break I took for the entire race, which I was happy about.  While I had stopped, there was a girl in her early twenties that had to quit the race.  She was so out of it and I felt bad for her.  It was only mile 10.  By this time, the temperatures had risen quite a bit since the beginning of the race.  Many runners were advised to quit the race due to the extreme conditions.  I have to say, I was quite encouraged by all the runners who had anticipated a 4:45, 5:00, 5:15, 5:30, and 5:45 race were all around me for the entire race.  It was quite obvious that the weather conditions were taking it's toll on all the runners.  My half marathon time was the worse ever and I couldn't quite believe it, but after crossing that mile, I knew I was in no mans land as far as distance.  See, I hadn't run more than 13.5 miles and so I had no clue how I was going to feel.  I ate snacks along the course, drank gatorade and water at every water stop, sucked down my GU every 45 minutes and even picked up a tossed banana on the side of the road that a runner discarded.  I just ate the unopened end.  They actually ran out of bananas and oranges at the first two food stops.  I finally got a banana at around mile 24.  People were out with their hoses throughout the race spraying runners down to keep them cooled off.  That was a life saver!  I felt great up until about mile 22.  I think that's when I hit the wall.  I walked for about 10 minutes talking to a couple of other fellow marathoners.  It was SO HOT and all I wanted to do was finish the race to get out of the heat.  Mile 23 came and I met up with a 5:45 pacer.  We ran for awhile together and then someone was passing out granola bars and I wanted one, so I went and got one.  Then, I met another runner and we were running around the same pace.  We hit mile 24 and it was about 30 minutes until the 6 hour mark.  I asked her if she thought we were going to make it under 6 hours and she said yes!  So, I kept running.  A medic was passing out ice cubes at the last water station and I took the ice and kept running through the water station, knowing I was almost done.  Mile 25 came and went and I was on the home stretch!  I wanted to start crying because I couldn't believe I had ran this far!  People were cheering us on and I know that had they not been there, I wouldn't have been as motivated to keep running.  My quads were burning soooo much at this time, but I kept running.  I saw the 26 mile marker and started to tear up some more.  I saw the corner towards the finish line and there was a big video screen up and I was waving away!  I turned the corner, ran up the inside of the hill, high fiving spectators and smiling ear to ear!  The feeling was so great!  I turned the last corner and there was the 800 meter marker, the 400 meter marker, crowds cheering everyone on.  I have no clue how this happened, but I started running as if nothing hurt at all!  The sight of the finish line was glorious!  200 meters, 100 meters and the cameras were everywhere!  I smiled and threw my arms up in the air and crossed the finish line.  The feeling was soooo surreal.  I had just completed my first marathon.  It felt so great!

I took my time through the transition area, picked up some food, got my picture taken, picked up my gear and texted Matty that I had finished!  :)  I took some time to stretch and apply some Bio Freeze to my legs and got into my flip flops!  Matty and Joan met up with me and we all celebrated, took some photos and headed back to our hotels.  It's amazing that after the marathon, I didn't feel like eating.  But I knew it was important to, so Matty got us Subway and it was sooo good!  We rested and decided to head up to NikeTown to get some finishers gear and have dinner.  I wore my medal proudly and it was fun to talk to other finishers of the marathon and there was quite a buzz in Chicago.   For dinner, I ate a steak and some salmon.  The steak was good, but the salmon was so so and the GIANTS won!!!  The next morning, we headed back to NikeTown to get our medals engraved and then headed to O'Hare.

Me and my first marathon medal!  I completed the race in 5:57:34.

Here we are together!  Matt finished in time to go and take a shower, have a cup of coffee, eat a donut and still come meet me at the finish line!  :)

It's still hard to believe I ran a marathon.  I think I'm still on a runner's high!  The city of Chicago is amazing and the way the city comes behind the entire race and all the athletes is incredible!  I loved this race, even though it was 85 degrees for most of the race.  I'd do it again!  My recovery is going really well.  I had no chaffing, no blisters, no cramps, and can finally walk normal again.  It was pretty funny to watch Matt and I walk up and down stairs yesterday!  We were quite the waddlers.  :)   I'm so thankful that Matt and so many friends have been so supportive of my first marathon.  It was really special to me to have ran this race together with Matt.  :)  We are less than a month away from our wedding day and we are so excited!

Thanks for reading today's blog posting!  It's rather on the personal side, but something I wanted to share with everyone!  All the pictures were taken with my blackberry.  I didn't really want to lug my big camera around Chicago....  :)