princessmomma
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2001
- Messages
- 1,950
Last weekend was my Chicago Marathon. I battled through 18 weeks of training, through 90 degree and 90% humidity summer days (awe, I recall of certain 14 miler I wish never to relive). I felt my training wasn't up to par with my Disney marathon training last winter so I was really unsure what my second marathon would bring. I had missed a few training runs and ran my long runs much slower. In any event, I was going to tackle Chicago in October.
My friend and I flew into Chicago Friday afternoon. We decided to take the CTA downtown to our hotel (to save some $$). It was quite the ride. It was an interesting mix of people on the train, which included 5 other marathoners. There was certainly excitement in the air. We all talked nervously about the upcoming weekend and shared our past marathon stories. Runners are such a great group of people. The train ride took about an hour. We laughed and laughed at everyone's stories. What a great way to kick off the weekend.
We settled into our hotel (which wasn't cheap, $249 per night, and that was the special marathon rate). We knew we wanted to be downtown and we were happy with the location of the hotel because we were able to walk everywhere. We went out for dinner at a place called Bucca di Pepo. I wasn't too fond of the restaurant because they served the food "family style" so my friend and I had to share the same thing.
Friday evening we went to see "Wicked". It was a good show but we were already pretty tired and had an hour timezone change. We didn't pack any dress clothes for the theatre because we wanted to carry on our luggage and didn't have room, so we went to the show in jeans and our Mizunos!! We didn't care, but we did get a few looks from people, I am sure they were thinking my girlfriend was 'my girlfriend'.
In any event we slept well the first night and we were anxious to get to the Expo the next day.
They had a good shuttle service to the Expo. I really wanted to look for a new Moving Comfort long sleeve shirt and some CWX tights. The forecast for race day was for 39 F at start with a 28F windchill.
The high for the day was going to be 44 F. I was in desperate need of running tights. You know the rule, DO NOT TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACEDAY! Well I broke it for both my marathons. I wore a new moving comfort shirt that I bought at the Disney expo for the Disney marathon, (LOVED IT! 
) and new CWX tights for Chicago (which I DOUBLE LOVE! ). I was happy with my purchase but overall very disappointed with the expo. They had racks and racks of what looked like cheap bargain basement workout apparel. It was just trash. We made of way back to the hotel and stopped at a Subway for our lunch.
We went out for dinner at Maggianno's (extremely busy) and walked back to the hotel to prepare for race day. We laid out our layers and layers of clothes for the marathon, both layers to keep on while running and layers to disgard at the start. I was very happy with our hydration and nutrition the past two days and we were ready for the marathon.
Didn't sleep too much that night. Woke up at 5:30 for my pre-race routine and walked to Grant Park at 6:30 for an 8:00 start. We checked our awesomely big gear bags (fit in there a complete change of clothes, jacket and different shoes) and went to line up for our first of many porta-potty trips. Again we chatted with other marathoners in line and shared in the excitement of the morning.
It was time to line up at the start. The layers of clothing starting peeling off and people ceremoniously threw their clothing to the side. It was an amazing site, very different from Disney because it was daylight already. The horn blew to signal the start and we stood and we stood. Finally we started to move, it took 19 minutes for us to cross the start line. After the horn blew my friend reached out and held my hand, she was shaking like a leaf, this was her first marathon and she thanked me for getting her to the start line.
This was a moment that I will always remember. Not only was this her first marathon, but her first airplane ride in 20 years and her first trip to the big city. I was very proud of her, at the age of 42 she made the commitment to do this for herself. She was a mom at the age of 18 and has three grown children. She spent the last 24 years doing things for her family and this was the first big thing she did for herself! She was my hero that day! 
We settled into a easy 11 minute mile, we tried to pick it up to 10:30's but it was not to be that day. It was just too crowded and too difficult battling the headwind for the first 7 miles. I crossed the half way point at 2:24 and was still very happy with my consistency in pace. It was slower than I had hoped but I could already feel my legs getting tired. (To compare, I didn't feel leg fatigue until mile 18 at Disney, I was afraid, I may really hit the wall at mile 22 or 23 here in Chicago.)
My friend (who was battling a hamstring injury) decided to hang back about mile 16. She told me to go on. I walked with her for a few minutes and she told me that she didn't have much in her and would probably walk the rest of the way in, her hamstring was really aching. I started on my way again and she encouraged me that I could still break the 5 hour mark if I went on without her.
It was truly amazing how the last 6 miles just flew by. I felt strong, my pace dropped to a little over 11:10, but I now felt BETTER running these last 6 miles than I did at Disney. Running the last few mile up Michigan Avenue were tough because I was again running into that strong headwind I battled in the early miles. It was so awesome, the crowd was fierce (in a good way), I was amazed that so many people came out this cold and blustery morning. I had 400 meters to the finish line. It was so great! I crossed the finish line in 4:56. I was very happy with my performance. Although it was slower than my Disney marathon time, I felt I ran a great race considering all the factors.
To sum things up:
PROS
1. Loved the crowds, running through all the ethnic areas was great.
2. Loved the course, nice and flat.
3. Very well organized, moved over 33,000 finishers very well.
CONS
1. Very expensive weekend, once you add up flights, hotel, meals, etc., it was costly.
2. Once you finish the race the post race food was terrible. They didn't give you a bag to put things in. You need 4 hands to hold the banana, the apple, the cold, dry English muffin, and the bottle of water. I didn't see ANYTHING else, not even Gatorade bottles. Who ever thought a cold, dry English muffin was a good idea on this morning was sadly mistaken, I felt like I was eating a hockey puck.
3. Marathon shirt was poor quality long sleeved cotton shirt, with the sleeves being too SHORT and the body length was too LONG!
Remember this is coming from someone is 6 feet tall. The Disney technical shirt is/was SO much better!
4. Goodie bag was full of men's products. Shampoos, gels, etc.
Overall, we had a great weekend. My friend did finish her first marathon, but had to walk/limp the last 7 miles in. She finished in 6:20. Again, I was very proud of her, she said she was tempted to go to a medical tent and ask them to take her to the finish line, but she gutted it out and walked her way in. I hope she made the right decision because we have Disney to run in 10 weeks!
Colleen
My friend and I flew into Chicago Friday afternoon. We decided to take the CTA downtown to our hotel (to save some $$). It was quite the ride. It was an interesting mix of people on the train, which included 5 other marathoners. There was certainly excitement in the air. We all talked nervously about the upcoming weekend and shared our past marathon stories. Runners are such a great group of people. The train ride took about an hour. We laughed and laughed at everyone's stories. What a great way to kick off the weekend.
We settled into our hotel (which wasn't cheap, $249 per night, and that was the special marathon rate). We knew we wanted to be downtown and we were happy with the location of the hotel because we were able to walk everywhere. We went out for dinner at a place called Bucca di Pepo. I wasn't too fond of the restaurant because they served the food "family style" so my friend and I had to share the same thing.
Friday evening we went to see "Wicked". It was a good show but we were already pretty tired and had an hour timezone change. We didn't pack any dress clothes for the theatre because we wanted to carry on our luggage and didn't have room, so we went to the show in jeans and our Mizunos!! We didn't care, but we did get a few looks from people, I am sure they were thinking my girlfriend was 'my girlfriend'.
In any event we slept well the first night and we were anxious to get to the Expo the next day.
They had a good shuttle service to the Expo. I really wanted to look for a new Moving Comfort long sleeve shirt and some CWX tights. The forecast for race day was for 39 F at start with a 28F windchill.
The high for the day was going to be 44 F. I was in desperate need of running tights. You know the rule, DO NOT TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACEDAY! Well I broke it for both my marathons. I wore a new moving comfort shirt that I bought at the Disney expo for the Disney marathon, (LOVED IT! ) and new CWX tights for Chicago (which I DOUBLE LOVE! ). I was happy with my purchase but overall very disappointed with the expo. They had racks and racks of what looked like cheap bargain basement workout apparel. It was just trash. We made of way back to the hotel and stopped at a Subway for our lunch. We went out for dinner at Maggianno's (extremely busy) and walked back to the hotel to prepare for race day. We laid out our layers and layers of clothes for the marathon, both layers to keep on while running and layers to disgard at the start. I was very happy with our hydration and nutrition the past two days and we were ready for the marathon.
Didn't sleep too much that night. Woke up at 5:30 for my pre-race routine and walked to Grant Park at 6:30 for an 8:00 start. We checked our awesomely big gear bags (fit in there a complete change of clothes, jacket and different shoes) and went to line up for our first of many porta-potty trips. Again we chatted with other marathoners in line and shared in the excitement of the morning.
It was time to line up at the start. The layers of clothing starting peeling off and people ceremoniously threw their clothing to the side. It was an amazing site, very different from Disney because it was daylight already. The horn blew to signal the start and we stood and we stood. Finally we started to move, it took 19 minutes for us to cross the start line. After the horn blew my friend reached out and held my hand, she was shaking like a leaf, this was her first marathon and she thanked me for getting her to the start line.
This was a moment that I will always remember. Not only was this her first marathon, but her first airplane ride in 20 years and her first trip to the big city. I was very proud of her, at the age of 42 she made the commitment to do this for herself. She was a mom at the age of 18 and has three grown children. She spent the last 24 years doing things for her family and this was the first big thing she did for herself! She was my hero that day! We settled into a easy 11 minute mile, we tried to pick it up to 10:30's but it was not to be that day. It was just too crowded and too difficult battling the headwind for the first 7 miles. I crossed the half way point at 2:24 and was still very happy with my consistency in pace. It was slower than I had hoped but I could already feel my legs getting tired. (To compare, I didn't feel leg fatigue until mile 18 at Disney, I was afraid, I may really hit the wall at mile 22 or 23 here in Chicago.)
My friend (who was battling a hamstring injury) decided to hang back about mile 16. She told me to go on. I walked with her for a few minutes and she told me that she didn't have much in her and would probably walk the rest of the way in, her hamstring was really aching. I started on my way again and she encouraged me that I could still break the 5 hour mark if I went on without her.
It was truly amazing how the last 6 miles just flew by. I felt strong, my pace dropped to a little over 11:10, but I now felt BETTER running these last 6 miles than I did at Disney. Running the last few mile up Michigan Avenue were tough because I was again running into that strong headwind I battled in the early miles. It was so awesome, the crowd was fierce (in a good way), I was amazed that so many people came out this cold and blustery morning. I had 400 meters to the finish line. It was so great! I crossed the finish line in 4:56. I was very happy with my performance. Although it was slower than my Disney marathon time, I felt I ran a great race considering all the factors.
To sum things up:
PROS
1. Loved the crowds, running through all the ethnic areas was great.
2. Loved the course, nice and flat.
3. Very well organized, moved over 33,000 finishers very well.
CONS
1. Very expensive weekend, once you add up flights, hotel, meals, etc., it was costly.
2. Once you finish the race the post race food was terrible. They didn't give you a bag to put things in. You need 4 hands to hold the banana, the apple, the cold, dry English muffin, and the bottle of water. I didn't see ANYTHING else, not even Gatorade bottles. Who ever thought a cold, dry English muffin was a good idea on this morning was sadly mistaken, I felt like I was eating a hockey puck.
3. Marathon shirt was poor quality long sleeved cotton shirt, with the sleeves being too SHORT and the body length was too LONG!
Remember this is coming from someone is 6 feet tall. The Disney technical shirt is/was SO much better! 4. Goodie bag was full of men's products. Shampoos, gels, etc.
Overall, we had a great weekend. My friend did finish her first marathon, but had to walk/limp the last 7 miles in. She finished in 6:20. Again, I was very proud of her, she said she was tempted to go to a medical tent and ask them to take her to the finish line, but she gutted it out and walked her way in. I hope she made the right decision because we have Disney to run in 10 weeks!
Colleen
I checked the results the day of the marathon to make sure you finished. 
I didn't have any doubts you would finish but with the less-than-perfect weather, I was thinking about you. Glad to hear the last 6 miles flew by and your friend's story is such a great one. Best of luck with your Goofy training!!
I guess we don't get too many blustery days in NC!
Send my congratulations on to your friend for finishing the marathon and doing it for herself and no one else. I hope her hamstring heals quickly so she can make it to Disney!!
Best to your friend.
Take care,
