Chicago Marathon Weekend -- Part 2

It only took about a minute to cross the starting line and my first thought was “crap I need to pee”. Instead of dwelling on that I pushed it away and kept reminding myself to smile and take in everything I could. Once I passed something that would be my only chance to pass it. I could only run the first mile -- or any mile -- of the Chicago marathon once so I should make it count. So as I ran I smiled and waved while simultaneously bobbing and weaving through the crowd of runners.

Wave 1 start gives you an idea of the congestion! I was on the right side when I started.

I also obsessively checked my watch. However, within the first mile of the race my watch became useless for a while since we were passing under so many bridges and surrounded by tall buildings I wasn’t getting a GPS signal. I had general idea of how fast I was going because of doing basic math in my head using the total elapsed time and the course clocks around the route, but it was wasn't exact and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t freak me out. On top of that the pace I was running felt ROUGH. I was starting to to get worried I was burning out and the race had barely started!

5K split: 27:13 – 8:46 pace

Like I said I tried really hard to look around and take things in as much as possible. I love Chicago and I knew what a unique experience I was able to have by running around it and seeing it as not many get to. The spectators were also really fun. The best ones were the ones that clearly were just there because their apartment was on the route because they cheered for everyone. The ones there for specific runners were fun too, but were laser focused on finding their runners!

Eventually my watch started keeping accurate mile times, but they didn't match up with the mile markers. I didn't really care because at least I was getting an idea of what my pace was. However, at this point my pace was still uncomfortable. I didn't feel awful, but I did not feel as comfortable as I had on many of my long runs.

One of my big motivators throughout the race was knowing that I had friends and family tracking me via text message and I really wanted them to get those messages and know that I was doing well. The first of those check points was at the 10K so when we reached it  and I crossed the timing mat I imagined the text being sent out, which really gave me a boost through the next few miles.

10K split: 54:34 – 8:49 pace 

I knew the next check point was the halfway mark so I just kept chugging along feeling a little uncomfortable at my pace, but happy to at least know what my splits were. At mile 7 we started to turn around and head south as I heard someone say that we had reached the northmost point already.  I also still really needed to pee, but all the bathrooms I passed had lines and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice time to stop.

As we headed back into the heart of the city I was focused on the Willis (Sears) Tower.  I knew that was about the halfway mark so it was nice to have that visual motivator.

Star is about where the Willis Tower is.

My hardest mile was probably 12-13. It felt fast, but my watch wasn't working since we were  back in the city and the signal was being blocked by large buildings again. I REALLY wanted to pass that timing mat and have my next progress text sent out with a good time so once again I tried to start mentally keeping track using the elapsed time on my watch and the mile-market clocks, which was too much math for someone running a marathon to try to do.

There were loads of spectators around me and by this point I had found a 3:50 pacer to follow while my watch wasn't working. I forgot to mention that the 3:50 pacers had passed me earlier. I tried to run with them while my watch was still working, but according to my Garmin they were doing 8:35 miles, which I was just not ready for yet ... more on them later though...

Anyways -- I was following a 3:50 pacer. His name was Fergie, which I only know because it was on his shirt and people kept yelling "go Fergie!".

Halway Split: 1:55:22 – 8:37 pace

After I passed the halfway mark I had a thought that really changed the rest of the race for me... In three miles I would only have 10 miles left. That was when I really took inventory of how I felt. Even though the first half hadn't been easy it hadn't been that hard either. My legs still felt amazing. Before I knew it we were out of the buildings and my watch was working again and my pace was steady.

Just like my plan dictated I reassessed and decided it was time to go faster. I also spotted another 3:50 pacer ahead of me and decided it was time to move on from Fergie and catch up with the next pacer. I couldn't believe how much more comfortable I was keeping up 8:40 miles than I was running 8:50 miles. I guess that means I really trained well for distance?

The aid stations throughout were pretty good. I actually really like lemon-lime Gatorade so that was a blessing since that is what they were hanging out. For the first half I only took one cup of Gatorade and stuck to water for the most part. I was also carrying my own water-Gatorade mixture with me just in case I got thirsty between stations. I was actually really worried with how the aid stations would work with this being such a big race, but they were pretty successful. I mean I did run into more than one person, my shoes stuck to the ground due to all the spilled Gatorade and I did see one woman totally BIFF it thanks to all the liquid on the ground, but overall it was pretty effective.

Before long we passed mile 16 and I was still feeling amazing and sort of waiting for something to hurt or to crash, but I just went with it and kept speeding up.

Eventually I passed the other 3:50 pacer and set my eye on two more up ahead. By mile 18 I had passed them. At this point I kept thinking how much music would help me at this point, but I really didn't need it yet. I told myself I'd put it off till mile 20. I also still needed to pee.

Once I reached mile 20 my first thought was I have less than an hour left of running. That was a nice thought. I also spotted a huge heard of 3:50 pacers -- the same ones who had passed me earlier. This is why I will never rely on a pacer for a whole race -- they start WAY TOO FAST! Basically, I passed up the whole group and continued to pick up speed.

I was about to turn on my music, but then I heard someone say we were close to Chinatown and I didn't want to miss that so I kept chugging along.

I started to feel it in my legs around mile 21, but was still doing okay. My pace was now around 8:35 miles and I wasn't pushing myself. I got an extra boost when I notice a girl whose blog I read running up ahead of me. Like the fangirl I am I went up and introduced myself. She was super nice and excited I said hi. She asked me how I was doing and I said fantastic... then I passed them up.

Almost right after that we ran through chinatown, which was actually not anything too special. I am sure they have cool stuff going on, but when we went by there wasn't anything.

I think I'm trying to give a thumbs up?

 I turned my music on at mile 22, which was sort of a great feat since I had to hold my water bottle and gloves while pulling out my iPod, turning it on, clipping it to my pants, putting in the earbuds and not loosing speed. I did it though!

The music was a great distraction. It made it easier to not obsess over my watch too. I was starting to get to the point where I looked at it and would think half a mile had gone by and it would be .10 in reality.

Miles 23-24 were probably the hardest. I was feeling pretty done. I was still keeping up the pace without dying, my breathing was fine and even my legs weren't doing too bad, but I felt myself deteriorating a little. I started fantasizing about walking. I took lots of gatorade and water and that helped keep me moving. Also I spotted two more 3:50 pacers up ahead and just for good measure... passed them.

When I reached mile 25 I felt a little bit like a superhero. I was grinning like a goofball because that is when I really truly realized I was going to beat my goal. I knew at about mile 20 I was going to finish sub-4, but at mile 25 I knew I'd finish sub 3:50. I literally could not stop smiling. I probably would have cried if I wasn't conserving liquid.

Right after I turned my music off. The camera guy caught me by surprise in the right on...I am thinking of splurging and buying the one on the left though!

At mile 25.5 I turned off my music and just let the finish wash over me. The streets were lined and they were all cheering. I was running almost all out (my last mile was my fastest with a 8:20 pace!), but reserving a little energy because I knew there was a small hill right at the finish that I was determined not to walk up. When I first turned and saw the hill it was a little daunting and most people were walking up it, but I was prepared. Running up it actually reminded me a lot of the hill next to my apartment. When I was about 3/4ths up I thought about stopping to walk or jog, but then I saw that just a little further and it would be downhill to the finish. Once I went over the crest I was grinning like a fool again.

I wish these were better quality! They were taken from far away.

I scanned the stands for my mom and sister, but didn't see them. They saw me though and snapped a picture!

Ben thinks it looks like we're all in a flash mob in this picture!

In retrospect though after they told me where they were and they had a cowbell I HEARD them.

Scanning the crowds from my mom, sister and nephews!

I actually didn't realize I had crossed the finish line at first because the banner was still a few feet down so I kept running. It didn't take me long to slow to a walk though.

I'm done!!!

 I had done it. I didn't know my exact time yet, but according to my watch I had finished in 3:48:45 and I knew my actual time couldn't be that far off (it was 3:48:26). I collected my medal and space blanket and posed for my first post-marathon photo. 

Don't I look happy?! I was!

I made my way thgouh through the runner’s area grabbing a whole bunch of snacks. I wasn’t hungry YET, but I knew my nephews probably would be. I also took my offical finishers photo:

I might have to splurge on this one too!

After asking for directions about three times I made my way to the runner reunite area where Megan and Kait were waiting for me! They brought me flowers and a card and were such a sight for sore eyes! I was so happy to see them. My mom and sister were still in the stands waiting for my dad to finish so they kept me company.

They are the BEST for coming to see me!

 My dad ended up finished in 4:19:10 at 60 years old! He is so incredible!

It took a while, but my mom, sister and nephews found us. At this point I was freezing cold. I had lost what warmth I gained from running and the sun had disappeared and even the space blanket wasn’t doing a whole lot to keep me warm anymore. Luckily I had packed some extra clothes so once we met up with my mom I was able to bundle up!

So happy they came!

And then my dad found us:

And last but not least my favorite picture of the whole weekend the father/daughter marathon duo picture:

I ended up driving home. My sister took the boys home via train and then gathered up her additional children and came back to my parents’ house. We pigged out pizza, cake, ice cream and candy corn. Needless to say it was AWESOME.

Of course now I am horribly depressed the marathon is over and am ready to sign up for another one. My next post will be all about the options I am considering so everyone can weigh in on what I should do!

Thanks again to everyone who played a part in my being able to run the marathon. My dad kept telling me over and over again that he wouldn’t be running this marathon if it wasn’t for me asking him last summer to do it with me. However, what he fails to realize if that I wouldn’t have run any marathon ever if it weren’t for him telling me I could and making me feel like every run I had was the greatest accomplishment in the world. Thanks dad!

Next up -- trying to qualify for Boston! 

Chicago Marathon Weekend -- Part 1

So the goal is to write this without crying... We'll see how that goes. I'm going to split this into two posts with the first being all the pre-marathon Chicago activities and the second being about the actual marathon.

I'll start with a short summary of the marathon though -- It was amazing. It went by in an incredible flash and was over before I could even begin to comprehend what had happened. I not only demolished my previous finishing time, but also met and beat my goal of a 3:50. I approached this race with a lofty goal that I was unsure I could accomplish, but thanks to supportive friends and family and great weather I was lucky enough to achieve what I came to Chicago to do.


---

I flew in Thursday night after work. My boss and co-workers were very supportive of the upcoming marathon and wished me luck every time they passed my cubicle. I was asked repeatedly in the break room about my upcoming marathon from individuals not even in my department and even received a good luck e-mail from the general manager of the station. All of their support was only further encouragement to return with my head held high.

After getting in Thursday night I slept in and did 5 miles on my parent's treadmill Friday morning. One mile warm up, one mile at goal marathon pace, one mile above GMP, another GMP mile then a final cool down mile. I also did an easy ab circuit that didn't use too much leg work.

After my workout my mom, dad and I headed out for breakfast before going to the marathon expo. We went to a place called Bakerhill Pancake House and it is my favorite breakfast place I think I’ve ever been to. I make my parents go there every time I come to visit. My dad got a stack of blueberry pancakes, my mom got the Portuguese omelet (that I stole more than a few bites of) and I got the strawberry crepes covered in whipped cream -- carbo-loading at its finest.

After breakfast we were on our way to the expo. I was pretty giddy at this point. We encountered some traffic getting in, but go to the convention center pretty easily. We picked up out bibs with no wait and headed on in.

We met up with Samantha and William Newman (old friends from our old ward in Orland Park) who were also running the marathon that weekend. We paused for photo op before my parents and I headed into the thick of the expo.

I made my poor parents walk up and down every aisle at the expo. I was a kid in a candy store. The expo is where things become real and it was starting to sink in that the marathon was here and no longer a distant event I spent time looking forward to. 

During our time at the expo we tried some samples (as many as our stomachs full of breakfast food could handle), collected our goodie bags, found our names on the big marathon wall and walked around for about an hour and a half.  

I was the only "Renda" running.

My Christmas list grew to be about 10 miles long after seeing all the fun running goodies out there! I didn't walk away empty handed though. My parents ended up buying me a shirt and I bought my dad and I "26.2" stickers for our cars! 

"Life Moves Pretty Fast So You Better RUN"

 After the expo we headed up to my sisters. I had a movie date with her! We were stuck in pretty awful traffic getting out of the city and the 1 hour drive turned into 2, but we made it there just in time for her and I to head to our movie! We saw Pitch Perfect and we both highly recommend it. My dad took the boys to see Hotel Transylvania while my mom watched Maddie. It was a long day, but lots and lots of fun.

They had these at the expo. I am not above exchanging baked good for love.

The next morning my mom and I were off to Johnny and Brandon's pee-wee football games. We stopped on our way to get donuts and hot chocolate. I was sticking to Gatorade and water for the day, but I did enjoy a donut and half a bagel! It was really really fun to see the boys all decked out and playing football. 

It was so cold out though! I think this is when I officially started to freak out about the pending marathon the next day. I was SO COLD at the football games and I was convinced I was going to be miserable the next day.

My mom and I stopped at the store on the way home and I picked up some post-marathon candy corn and some other goodies for the following day. I made myself a huge sandwich with loads of cheese and meat and grilled in up on the stove. I also had a banana and a million grapes covered in whipped cream. After that I took a hot bath (I was still chilled from the game!). My dad and I set out shortly after that to the goodwill and pick up some throw away clothes for the next morning.

Once we got home it was pasta and movie time. My dad has mentioned before how inspirational the movie Chariots of Fire was to him and so I bought it for him as a gift before my visit. After I gave it to him he told me that the movie was actually the one that had inspired him to become a runner. It seemed very appropriate for a pre-marathon movie. We watch as we chowed down on multiple bowls of pasta.

When the movie ended I entered extreme marathon melt-down. I started laying out my clothes for the next day and could NOT find my safety pins for my bib. I poured out my marathon bag, went through my dad's marathon bag and ransacked the entire car. My mom eventually told me where I could find some spare safety pins, but the damage was done. I was on EDGE. I spent the next thirty minutes choking back tears pretty much convinced I couldn't run one mile let alone 26 of them. I felt overly stuffed from all the eating too, which did not help.

Eventually I laid down at about 9:15pm to tried and sleep. Unfortunately those tears I was holding back while getting everything ready for the next morning came pouring out. I was literally saying/shouting "I can't do this" and "are you crazy? you think you can run a sub-4?" out loud into the darkness. I was not in a good place...

The last time I looked at the time it was 9:50pm and I fell asleep soon after that. I woke up twice-- first at 2:21am and again at 4:15am before my 5:00am alarm woke me up... That is when marathon morning started (aka the good part of the story).

First was a shower, followed by getting dressed and heading upstairs to check in with how my dad was doing. Where I was melancholy, he was bouncy and excited. I gave my post-marathon bag to my mom, put my bib on the table and started sipping on gatorade. My dad proceeded to put on his bib and I helped attach his tracker to his shoe since I had put mine on the night before. I was still really full from the night before so I only ended up making one piece of toast for me pre-run fuel.

At right around 5:30am we piled into the car and took off. Now if you were paying attention you might notice something I forgot to do. Well, right as we were getting on the free way I realized... I FORGOT MY BIB ON THE TABLE.

It had already taken 15 minutes for us to get to the freeway and we had to turn around to go back and get it. I was already in a foul mood feeling unprepared for the race, but forgetting my bib and having to turn around was really the icing on the cake.

Luckily my parents stayed really positive the whole time, because I was sort of about to melt down. I raced in and picked up my bib and we were on our way again. I am so lucky I remembered my bib when I did.

Now we were running late thanks to me, but since it was ridiculously early there was no traffic on the freeway and we made record time into the city. However, once we got off the freeway traffic was horrid. We didnt know exactly were we were going and I could tell my dad was very anxious to get there. It was 6:40am at this point and we needed to be in our corral by 7:45 at the latest.

We made it to Millineum Garage by about 7:00 and I felt a flood of relief come over me. we had made it. We were running a marathon. It was then I think I smiled for the first time that morning.

We found the bathrooms, said goodbye to my mom and headed on in. We were in different corrals so soon after we entered the corral area my dad and I hugged, said I love you, good luck and see you at the finish line before we headed our separate ways.

I wouldn't be here without his inspiration!

 It was about 7:30am when I reached my corral. I had no phone or camera with me and was equipt with nothing besides my little iPod nano shoved in the tiny pocket in my shorts and a bottle of water/Gatorade. I was cold, but not as cold and miserable as I thought I would be. At 7:45am when the corrals closed they had us move up to the starting line. I was in corral F -- the first corral of the wave 2 start so I was right up at the front. They had a clock right there counting down to the start and an announcer spoutinf off a bunch of stats about the race. I just stood there going over my strategy and goals -- Keep it at 8:50/mile pace, DO NOT go faster, DO NOT go slower, reassess at the halfway mark, 18 mile mark, 20 mile mark and every mile after that to increase speed, run a race with negative splits (second half faster than the first half) and finish in 3:50. Before I knew it it was 3... 2... 1 ... GO!

24 hours left

I’ve been avoiding writing here because that means the marathon is almost here and it is really almost all over. I feel simultaneously exhilarated and petrified that Sunday I will be running 26.2 miles around the city of Chicago. It is a weird sensation to realize that after four months of working towards a goal the time has come to actually follow through with it...

Last week was weird. I had a really busy week at work paired with a few awful nights of sleep and less running. However, after a pretty restful weekend where I got ten hours of sleep two nights in a row I have been feeling a bit better. My taper has been a struggle so far. I probably have not cut back as much as I should and my legs are not too happy about it. They feel okay and I am hoping that by taking tomorrow and Saturday off (with only a short 3-mile run on Friday) they will feel a bit fresher come Sunday. 

On the flipside – my appetite has quadrupled since my taper began despite the mileage decrease. I honestly do not remember ever being so hungry even when I was running 60 miles a week. Mentally I feel like I have gained 1 million pounds when in reality it has been about two. I know, and have read, over and over again that gaining 2-5 lbs during your taper is not a big deal and is actually to be expected if you’re doing it correctly. However, in my mind, any extra weight will add precious seconds onto my miles while I am running, which will clearly lead to all my hard work being thrown out the door. Crazy, right? I guess they don’t call it taper madness for nothing. This isn’t a vanity thing either, just a mental thing where in my head less weight=moving faster. Regardless, I am eating non-stop and actually enjoying it. What is will power? Because I can’t remember. 

My biggest weakness. Have eaten my weight in these.

Speaking of food, I am looking forward to some awesome food, friends and family while in town this weekend! That is really what is keeping me from having and anxiety attack. Monday morning will start off with breakfast as my favvvvorite place next to my parents with amazing crepes, Dunkin Donuts will be consumed at least once, sandwiches with the GOOD deli meat I’m too cheap to buy at home, boxes (not bowls) of Captin Crunch (the peanut butter kind Ben doesn’t like!), pretty sure pizza and some sort of baked good will also be involved at some point. Not to mention the quality time I get to spend with the people I love! Nothing brings people together quite like a good old fashion marathon. 

So, in just about 24 hours from writing this post I’ll be on my way to Chicago and what I have been working and pushing for will come to fruition on Sunday morning. So, Yes -- I have been obsessively hitting refresh on the weather forecast. Yes, I have made at least three different packing lists and am already 85% packed. Yes, I am second guessing every training decision I made the past four months. Yes, I wan to throw up a little bit every time I think about standing at the starting line Sunday. Yes, I've google "last minute marathon tips" about 20 times... daily.

But frankly I just keep trying to remind myself that all of the hard work is behind me. I have put in the time and logged the miles and barring some disaster nothing is going to change how I do this weekend. I've done it once and I know I can do it again. 

Finishing the Utah Valley Marathon