{"id":79,"date":"2006-10-25T02:14:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-25T07:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/?p=79"},"modified":"2010-04-21T21:38:21","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T02:38:21","slug":"chicago-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/2006\/10\/chicago-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trip to Chicago on Friday was uneventful except my luggage was delayed. My first flight was on American and my second was on ATA (what?). I arrived in Chicago at 1:30 PM. My luggage didn’t make the transfer in Dallas. Luckily I had my running shoes, and timing chip with me – the important stuff. I took the CTA to downtown, found the hostel, got my assigned bunk, then went to the expo for my bib. At 6 PM I arrived back at the airport in time for the next ATA flight from Dallas, but still no luggage. Ugh! They said that the next flight was 11:30 PM, so they said that they’d drop it off from 12 midnight to 4 AM. That night I had a carry-out spagetti dinner, watched TV in the hostel TV room, and relaxed by myself.

<\/center>On Saturday if my luggage was truly lost I was planning on going back to the expo and buying all the stuff I needed. This was all because I carried my running gel with me and for TSA security reasons I had to check my baggage but I could easily have gotten the gel at the expo and carried my baggage on – lesson learned. Well I woke at 8 AM and still no luggage, however they had found it. I went out running in my blue jeans, knit top and sweat shirt. Within a few minutes I bumped into Ed B. who was also running so we ran a few miles all over Millennium Park. When I got back at 11 AM my luggage had arrived and I could begin to relax. Saturday night I went to dinner with Kevin K., his wife, Pam, and parents, Pat and John at Bice. I was a “chatty cathy” and probably talked too much, but it was nice not being alone. Also it was the night before the marathon so I had soup and salad – trying to keep it light. Kevin and I arranged to meet before the marathon at 7 AM. Have I mentioned that the El runs just outside my window and when it passes it sounds like a jet airplane going by, oh what fun. I knew this beforehand, so I didn’t expect to sleep much this weekend, but happily I did.
<\/center>Sunday morning was quite cool but not raining. I woke at 5:45 AM and dressed. Kevin and I met at 7 AM and joined the crowd at the starting line. I didn’t have breakfast so I had one of my running gels. At 8 AM the horn went off and it was about 10 minutes before we crossed the starting line mats. I got chills as we started and the crowds were screaming. Kevin and I stayed together throughout the miles. We were near the 4:30 group and were running at 10\/M. Although Kevin had gone to the portapotties at the start I hadn’t and it was now weighing on me. So at about mile 5 we were running through a park and I told Kevin I had to go and there were some portapotties ahead. As I peeled off Kevin followed and the lines were too long so I headed for a tree. Unexpectedly Kevin followed too. So here I’m at this tiny tree peeing and my running partner is peeing next to me. Now that’s true running togetherness.<\/p>\n

The miles flew by with so many people around you. Unfortunately although we ran through the major neighborhoods of Chicago I don’t remember much of them. Nor do I remember the bands and cheering squads. At mile 13 I found Pam, Kevin’s wife, in the crowds and we stopped for a moment for Kevin to get new gloves then we headed off. I do remember entering Chinatown and the gate there, but by that time I was beginning to get stiff. Then at mile 23 I started going into myself totally forgetting about Kevin and just trying to survive. Slowly I drew away from Kevin. But shortly I got so stiff I had to stop and walk. As I was walking on the side I saw Kevin running by in the middle of the road. I told myself if he could do it so could I so I started running again trying to catch up to him. I got to within 8 feet and just couldn’t continue. So again I started to walk as I watched Kevin pull away. Only later did I find out that he didn’t know I was there and I felt so sorry that I didn’t tell him. In my heart I wished him the best as he receded into the distance. The 4:30 group passed by and I still couldn’t run. Finally I ran the last half mile and finished on 4:35:07. It wasn’t until that afternoon that I found out that Kevin also stopped to walk and finished in 4:32 all the while thinking I had finished before him.<\/p>\n

That afternoon Ed, Kate, his wife, Kevin and Pam had drinks at the hotel and went to an Irish Pub for dinner\/dessert. It was fun to relive the marathon, exchange stories and to laugh about it all.


Ed B., me, and Kevin K.<\/font><\/center>I was stiff Monday, but got to the Field Museum and saw the King Tut exhibit along with Sue, the T. Rex. Bidding Chicago goodbye I took the CTA to the airport. At the airport I snarfed down two large Ben and Jerry Cherry Garcia ice creams. The flight home was uneventful and it was nice to be home. It was quite an adventure.
<\/center>Here is my heart rate monitor.
<\/center>Update: I found this on my watch. Here are my mile splits and my heart rate.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Mile<\/th>\nSplit<\/th>\nTotal<\/th>\nHeart rate<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\n11:28.42<\/td>\n0:11:28.42<\/td>\n118<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\n11:05.02<\/td>\n0:22:33.44<\/td>\n122<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\n10:44.78<\/td>\n0:22:18.22<\/td>\n126<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\n10:30.83<\/td>\n0:43:49.05<\/td>\n127<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\n11:22.52<\/td>\n0:55:11.57<\/td>\n131<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\n10:33.48<\/td>\n1:05:45<\/td>\n131<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\n10:08.39<\/td>\n1:15:53<\/td>\n135<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\n10:04.63<\/td>\n1:25:58<\/td>\n135<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\n10:27.55<\/td>\n1:36:25<\/td>\n134<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\n10:04.31<\/td>\n1:46:29<\/td>\n136<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\n10:05.91<\/td>\n1:56:35<\/td>\n137<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\n10:13.37<\/td>\n2:06:49<\/td>\n139<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\n10:23.25<\/td>\n2:17:12<\/td>\n142<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\n09:54.81<\/td>\n2:27:07<\/td>\n140<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\n09:45.19<\/td>\n2:36:52<\/td>\n144<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\n10:16.87<\/td>\n2:47:09<\/td>\n141<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/td>\n10:03.33<\/td>\n2:57:12<\/td>\n143<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/td>\n10:23.61<\/td>\n3:07:36<\/td>\n143<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/td>\n09:58.68<\/td>\n3:17:34<\/td>\n144<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/td>\n10:00.27<\/td>\n3:27:35<\/td>\n145<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
21<\/td>\n09:59.21<\/td>\n3:37:34<\/td>\n148<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
22<\/td>\n10:07.04<\/td>\n3:47:41<\/td>\n147<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
23<\/td>\n09:53.80<\/td>\n3:57:35<\/td>\n150<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
24<\/td>\n10:55.94*<\/td>\n4:08:31<\/td>\n143<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
25<\/td>\n11:21.71*<\/td>\n4:19:52<\/td>\n143<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
26.2<\/td>\n15:34.00*<\/td>\n4:35:26<\/td>\n130<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

* run\/walk<\/font><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trip to Chicago on Friday was uneventful except my luggage was delayed. My first flight was on American and my second was on ATA (what?). I arrived in Chicago at 1:30 PM. My luggage didn’t make the transfer in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1fifoto.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}