Marathon #17: The Chicago Marathon, 2005

Chicago view from the "bean"

Below is my race summary, written shortly after running the Chicago marathon. At that time I had no idea that this would end up being the fastest marathon I would ever run, even though I was 44 years old at the time. It was my 3rd marathon in 5 months, so I was tired and had a nagging hamstring. My only goal was to enjoy the ride, so I actually swapped bibs with a friend, giving away my competitive start advantage so she could have a better shot at trying to qualify for Boston, walked back to the general masses and climbed over fencing to join them. They used this marathon in the movie "The Spirit of the Marathon", where they followed a handful of marathoners during their training and the race itself. There's a scene shot from above where the gun goes off and the masses start moving forward. You can't see me, but I am there. I'm not sure why, but every time I see it I get tears in my eyes.

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Just completed my third marathon this year of what has been my own version of  a Triple 

Cripple Crown of marathons, which began with Vancouver Canada in May and then San Francisco 

in July. I figured if the third marathon was significantly different as in not hilly it

would take away from some of the pain of it being the third. Yeah I'm sharp like that.

First of all, this marathon is BIG TIME. The whole city is on board. It's kind of

maddening to deal with all week-end,  starting on Friday. Luckily, everyone was wrapped 

up in the White Sox game on Saturday, which stole a lot of marathon thunder, but I was kind 

of relieved. And the White Sox won, which is good. We didn't want crabby spectators on Sunday!

Pre-race: It was near perfect 52 degrees and partly cloudy. The start was pretty 

organized for such a large crowd. The only issue I had was I had to climb over a chain link 

fence to get into the corral. I knew that skill would come in handy some day. People, you got

to love them, especially when you toe the line with 40,000 of them...And we're off! 

Crazy! wild people screaming from everywhere! Clothes flying--stuff all over the ground for 

at least a mile. The crowds throughout were just SO LOUD. I carried a small bottle of 

Gatorade so I could run past the first few aid stations. This was a good move.

I ran with the 3:45 pace group from about mile 6. It was great. The crowds would cheer 

louder for us as we came through, yelling 3:45, 3:45! Around mile 11 I picked it up to 

catch the 3:40 group. I think I caught them around 13-14, but couldn't really stay with 

them that long. I felt myself slowing down as I got closer to mile 20. My legs were 

feeling tired. Not sure if I liked the total flatness of the course. I was getting 

"scrappy" in the later miles. Getting tired of human contact. Seems like I was running 

into someone or someone was running into me quite a lot. Lots of people just coming 

to a complete stop right in front of me.  The water stops were just a big sticky mess

with slippery cups everywhere. It was hard to look out along the course--you really 

had to watch your footing and the people around you. Even at mile 23 I got boxed 

in and had to weave around.

Somewhere around mile 24 the 3:45 pace bunny comes by so I hook back on. There's no 

longer the big crowd of 3:45 runners with him--just a few. I hung on as hard as I 

could, but when he looked at his watch at mile 25 he got this worried look on his face and 

off he went. I was thinking jackass! I tried SO HARD to go with him but my 

calf would just seize up and I'd do this half stumble and have to slow it down. 

Chicago has a great long finish with bleachers full of screaming spectators on both 

sides. I wanted to sprint it, but the calf was making me look like an idiot every 

time I tried. I finished with a 3:46:33, which is a PR by about a minute.

Finish chute: Thankfully uneventful--got properly "processed" and moved along quickly. 

This marathon has its act together. From the expo-packet pick up to the race itself 

and post race, NO complaints, none. Oh, and later that night I shook the hand of the 

winner, Felix Limo. He was lying on the floor of the lobby with his sock foot in the 

air, trying to get his foot in our way as we were taking a picture of the lobby. 

That's one very fast foot.

Felix...would NOT sit in chair...