The weekend started out great thanks to Oache’s hospitality – nice dinner once we got to the Chicago area and great beer, always great beer.
Headed into downtown on Saturday to hit the expo and meet up with everyone else. We managed to see our friend Jessica who was running her first marathon with Team In Training at the expo, snap a few quick pictures and then headed in to get my packet/goodie bag. Holy big crowds in the Nike portion.
Biggest challenge at the expo was figuring out how to get to the restaurant where we were meeting the rest of the 30s gang for dinner. Managed to make it almost on time…fabulous food and great company. We personally got to see Voodoo try and regain his Clydesdale status with one meal. Said our good-byes and headed back to the train station to make our way back to the ‘burbs, only we had to wait for an hour for the next train. Finally made it back to Casa Oache with enough time to get my stuff together and get some sleep.
The train ride in to the city was uneventful and provided quite the opportunity for people watching. We walked over to the hotel where the rest of the crew were staying and then headed over to the start area…Holy mass of humanity.
It was interesting to see people next to us in the open corral with bib’s that indicated they were supposed to be way up ahead with the rest of the speedy folks. It was also interesting to see the jackass sitting down in the middle of thousands of people – I know he was trying to stay off his feet, but how he didn’t get trampled as people tried to move forward is beyond me.
Last words of encouragement were exchanged between Maria, her brother and sister, and I and then we were off…
I missed the first mile marker but I felt pretty good. Made sure not to go out too fast. I followed the advice of Baggs and took a bottle of Gatorade with me and I’m really glad I did. The first two water stops were a madhouse of people, plus the race was still congested from the start but I was able to somewhat navigate my way through – one guy cut in front of me so hard I actually stepped on the back of his leg and almost went down…about five strides later another person did the same thing but I was able to miss them. I blurted out pretty loudly “SERIOUSLY?!?!” and a woman moving past me on the right looked around. I said “not you” to her and her reply? “I know, I saw the other guy as well!” The one thing both of those asshats had in common? Wearin’ their iPods.
I was still making good progress through about mile 9-10. I was starting to feel the heat though, and made the mistake of not drinking enough water at mile 10 when I took my second three shot blocks – all the Gatorade and the blocks, and the heat made my stomach less than 100%.
I saw T, Brandy, and Maria’s family at mile 12-ish, stopped for a few minutes and then pushed on. I crossed the halfway point in 2:18:56, well off the pace I’d hoped. It was about this point that the sun really started bearing down on us. I was doing the best I could but could tell that I’d need to slow down a bit more to make sure the wheels didn’t completely fall off.
Around mile 16 I noticed that the “Moderate” warning level had been changed to “High”. I walked a good portion of mile 17 then tried to push on from mile 18-20. From there I pretty much alternated running a mile and walking a mile and I was trying to figure out in my head which miles to run/walk so that I’d run the last one in to the finish.
As I approached mile 26 I got ready to push to the end. See I wasn’t going to walk any of mile 26 for one reason: the name on my bib. As a tribute to duckgeek’s nephew who tragically lost his life last week I inscribed “Mitch #10” on my bib, and since the race didn’t put the runner’s name on it I only had “Mitch #10” on there…every time someone from the crowd or aid station would look at me and say “doing great Mitch!”, “going strong Mitch”, or “Almost there Mitch” it would push me on a bit more so there was no way I wasn’t going to finish simply because I wasn’t just running for me, but I was running for Mitch as well.
About a half mile from the finish I saw T and Brandy again and they gave me the update on Baggs and Maria and then I pushed on to the finish.
It wasn’t the day I’d hoped for, but the fact that I was able to persevere and finish is a big accomplishment.
Thanks to everyone for the texts/emails/phone calls checking in…it meant a lot.
I'm planning on taking the next day or three and breaking down yesterday and my training leading up to it so expect to be bored with all of that.
Our tribute to Mitch...
