Chicago Marathon - RunMarathon


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Chicago, Illinois
United States
31F / -1C
Total Time = 00m
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Up @ 5:30am, shower, banana and some water.. get suited up in the new cw-x tights for the run.. those things were amazing.. definitely worth the money.
Event warmup:

walk from 11th up to the start (stayed at the Best Western on 11th), decent pricing and pretty central to what we wanted to do.
Run
  • 4h 30m 2s
  • 26 miles
  • 10m 23s  min/mile
Comments:

Race was incredible but COLD at the start however got comfortable a couple miles into it. I was shooting for a 4 hour goal and through the first half I was sitting about 4:07 which given my training (lack of) and injury I was very content with. I had fought with patellar tendonitis a week just after the disneyland 1/2 and wasn't able to get my final long runs in like I needed. The CW-X tights helped a ton (built in kininseo (sp?) tape), knee never bothered me.. Was definitely feeling the pain around mile 20, left ham cramped on me and i felt my right IT Band tightening up.. Wife saw me around mile 17, saw that I needed a boost and jumped in with me @ mile 20 to pace me and keep my head in it (my amazing wife ran with me the last 6 miles then dumped out before the turn to the finish.. she's incredible!).. Mile 21 ish had to stop quite a bit to get rid of the cramp and try to loosen up the IT Band, worked the cramp out but the IT Band was as tight as a piano string and hurt like hell..35k to 40k pace fell WAY off due to stops for stretching, but ran from mile 25 to the end.


What would you do differently?:

HTFU? (saw the sign and it made me smile, but work.. and remind me of my mantra that I needed to continue to chant... "Don't cry like a B*tch when you feel the pain"..

Not sure how to avoid the tendonitis, wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary however I did run my wife's pace @ Disney which I think affected the knee.. Hate that I can't run with her like that, have to figure it out.

Definitely would've had the training if not for the injury, don't think I would've had IT Band issues either.. Maybe instead of alternating water/gatorade on the stops start doing a 2 Gatorade/1 water to keep things in balance from a cramping perspective.. have to figure it out.
Take it as it comes,
Post race
Warm down:

shuffled through finish line, got the medal,food, beer.. met my wife @ Buckingham Fountain. bought a finisher's fleece/pull over (was FREEZING).. had lunch at Jimmy Johns and enjoyed the rest of the day until we left for home that night.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Piano string tight IT Band, lack of training mainly.

Event comments:

This race is incredible, going to make it tough to decide between this and/or the Marine Corps Marathon in 2010.. I really enjoyed it, however want to come back for another shot.




Last updated: 2009-10-13 12:00 AM
Running
04:30:02 | 26 miles | 10m 23s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Average
was maintaining about a low to mid 9 pace until about mile 20..then the wheels came flying off..
Course: Flat and fast.. with one mountain (ok it was a small hill, but sure the hell felt much bigger) at the end.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 3
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5