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SRRC Race Reports
Chicago Marathon , Chicago, IL —October 22, 2006
by
Mary Sullivan
Race Day Conditions: Overcast, temps 36-40, windy
I think I can sum up this marathon with two words: great race. Of course, Mr. Cheruiyat who won the race may not agree with me since he wiped out at the finish line and had to be hospitalized for a head injury. Nevertheless, from an "amateur marathoner's" perspective it truly is a great race. From the registration process to the post-race activities, LaSalle Bank has figured out how to put on a world-class marathon. And it is one of the World Marathon Majors, a term I learned this weekend and that includes London, Berlin, Boston and New York. Registration closes at 40,000 runners, there appeared to be 50,000 bibs to be handed out (based on the numbers at the packet pick-up) and approximately 36,000 toed up to the start line and 33,629 finished the race.
I'll start at the beginning. Why Chicago? Why not the Marine Corps, just a short drive away? Two more words: heat and humidity. I had an abysmal 2003 Marine Corps run and experienced leg cramping like I had never experienced during any training runs or races prior to that. And I went into that race feeling like I had hydrated properly and was hydrating properly during the race. Apparently not. It made for a miserable race and a very disappointing finishing time. So, I knew I had to give the marathon one more try and in order to do that, I needed to find somewhere that the temperatures could almost be guaranteed to be cooler and where there would definitely be no humidity. I had heard Chicago was a great marathon and a flat, fast course. (It was the site of the Men's world record in 1999). I was willing to accept some wind in exchange for no heat and humidity.
So, I registered early in January, to assure my spot. Got bib# 2992 as a result of that early registration. Booked the closest hotel to the start that met my quality requirements and also made several dinner reservations about two or three weeks before the race, knowing that 40,000 runners and their families would mean the city would be hopping. Planning ahead was very helpful. The city itself makes for a great "extra" to running the marathon. Lots to see and great restaurants. It is very easy to navigate and feels very safe in the race section where I set up camp. One lesson learned was to book a boat cruise a week or so prior to getting to Chicago. I had been told that this was a great way to see the city when you have a limited time and since I didn't want to be on my feet prior to the race it met that requirement as well. But alas, the weather was very nice the Saturday afternoon before the race and lots of other people had the same idea. All the afternoon cruises were booked. Maybe next time.
Back to the marathon. We (my husband and my running partner, Chip) flew in from Dulles on an early flight so we could get right to the Expo and then maybe tool around the city. We cabbed it to the Expo, which is at the convention center about 4 miles from the race start area. Having been to many an Army 10 miler, Cherry Blossom 10 miler and Marine Corp expo, I was prepared for mania since this was a larger race. Again, the folks at LaSalle know what they're doing. It was a VERY large area and just an incredibly laid out and well organized Expo with lots of great vendors (and some of the same from the DC expos). They had everything. Only negative was the Chicago marathon branded stuff wasn't too impressive. I was spoiled by the nicely embroidered Marine Corp item and found the Chicago clothing choices a little limited. I did get a great hat to commemorate the race and found some other (non-sanctioned) Chicago marathon shirts, which were okay. They did have some nice Chicago marathon-sanctioned shirts with a large "26.2 FINISHER" on the back, but I am too superstitious to even think about buying one of those. I could go on a bit more about the Expo because I love shopping, but really that isn't the reason for my visit to the Windy City. Let me just finish my "day before the race" narrative with a strong recommendation for a pre-race meal. Volares. It was some of the best Italian food and a neat atmosphere. I felt a little cheated because I went overly cautious and didn't do the tomato sauce thing like my other dining partners . . . everything looked amazing and our meals were delicious. I may go back to Chicago just to eat there again!
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| The Start |
On to the main event. As luck would have it (a bit of sarcasm in that statement), the temperatures dropped overnight and the winds picked up . . .just to ensure that we had the authentic Chicago experience, I guess. And it was overcast with a hint of moisture in the air. Definite possibility of rain or drizzle. I had packed for both a cool weather race and a mild race. I wore a long-sleeve dri-fit shirt and shorts. And thankfully thought to buy a pair of gloves and an ear cover band thingy at the expo the day before. I used both and was glad I had them.
I was very comfortable through the entire race. Attire ran the gamut from shirtless (a couple of insane men, I might add), to singlets to jackets, and long pants. The start was an amazing scene of clothing flying everywhere as runners shed their extra pre-race layers. That was the one tricky thing about the start . . . dodging all the clothes and plastic bags on the road. The pre-race staging area was a bit of a logjam and was I guess one of the negatives of the 30,000+ fields. Nevertheless, we made our way to bag check and then to our corral. Lots of pacing signs and we ran most of the way with New Balance pacers with ranges from 3:55 (clearly he was having a bad race) to 4:45 (way underestimated their marathon performance).
So off we went, to the blaring sounds of Springsteen's, "Born to Run". I was impressed by the sound system and it was a great way to start our race. We made our way through the city streets over the bridges that cross the Chicago River and past the NBC studios, the Chicago Tribune offices, and lots of great stores and restaurants. The crowds were amazing considering the weather conditions. My running partner, Chip and I were running a very consistent pace the first half of the marathon . . . .trying to maintain as close to 10 minute miles as we could with the goal of achieving a 4:30 marathon. (Chip ran a 4:05 Marine Corps last year when he says he had a more stringent training program that year).
We both felt good most of the way—enjoying the crowds and the sights. I think one of the things we both liked best was the unknown of the course. Since we had both done numerous Army 10 milers, Cherry Blossoms and a couple of Marine Corps, the DC course was second nature. We truly enjoyed the "blissful ignorance" of Chicago. We ran in a pack the entire race with certain "narrow" parts causing some elbowing and jostling. Water stops were sometimes tricky as they can be in most large races. But they were well stocked and the volunteers were so amazingly cheerful and supportive. I put my name on my shirt and always got lots of "personalized" supportive words from them and others along the way. (This is a marathon tip that may seem cheesy to some but it really helps when people cheer for you along the course, even if they don't know you).
We saw some cool "running" sights as we went. Maybe it was mile 12 or the half way mark, or somewhere in the teens there was a guy standing sort of by himself with a sign asking his girlfriend to marry him and then a few feet down the road from him was someone holding a sign with the girl's name and the words "don't do it!" Gotta love the humor on the course when you're gutting it out. Chip and I noticed that there weren't as many gimmicky runners as you see in the Marine Corps. We never saw a juggler or the frog guy. Also, we never saw Dean Karnezes, the ultra-marathoner doing 50 marathons in 50 days. I read he was going to be doing a 4:30 pace . . . but alas on checking the results he was having a better than expected day and ran under 4 hours. Saw some cool shirts: "Help Me Tom Cruise" (of course immortalized words from Ricky Bobby of the film "Talladega Nights"), "Same Day Finisher" (now this was a shirt I might have bought if I had seen it) and Chip's favorite, "My sport is your sport's punishment".
The race took us through downtown, out past the United Arena where the Bulls play, through Little Italy and Chinatown and a very festive and enthusiastic Hispanic part of town. One of our favorites was a section called the Wild West on Broadway St. They had tons of support . . . great music, lots of spectators with cowboy hats and what appeared to be cowboys in drag or boys dressed as cowgirls . . . again we could have been hallucinating but that is what we think they were. We ran through a beautiful residential neighborhood on Sedgwick. Apparently at about mile 23.5 or 24, if I hadn't had my head down and he looked as we made a turn I would have seen Soldier Field where the Bears play.
And as promised, there was wind at various points. Gusts that blew us sideways, gusts that held us in place for a moment and gusts that pushed us along at our backs. But all in all, not really a factor. Having run the Cherry Blossom with its extreme conditions, it was nothing at all. At certain points, the crowds were deafening, which is just the coolest thing to run through. Coming down Michigan Avenue for the last two miles of the race it was loud. I'm in my "I'm going to die if I don't finish this race soon" trance and can hear the shouts but everything else is a blur. I also loved that unlike the Marine Corps where you're running down Fort Myers Dr., in the final mile and a half of the race and all you see (at least this is what I see in my "back of the pack" position in the race) are finished runners heading to their cars with their medals around their necks. For some reason that doesn't help me at that point—it just makes me mad. In Chicago, all finishers are slotted out at the opposite end from where we finish, which is just perfect.
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| Finisher! |
Ahhhh, the finish. It gave us one of the few "hills" on the course. While, yes it is noticeable that you are going up an incline, compared to that Iwo Jima hill, it's a speed bump. Around the corner and there is the finish line . . . LaSalle has great mile markers at every mile in the race. At the end they even start marking every 200 meters . . . 800 meters, 600 meters, 400 meters, etc. And we're across. To say I was beyond ecstatic that I made my 4:30 goal and even beat it a little with a 4:25:52, is an understatement. We got the Mylar blanket which was for the first time much needed since the coolness of the day was very apparent once we stopped running, we had our chips removed and we got our much deserved medals. Yay!!!! It was well worth the expense of the airfare, hotel room and meals for me to have had such a great marathon experience. Especially since I have decided that this will probably be my last one for a very long time if not forever. My legs just take too much of a beating. I felt so strong cardio vascularly the whole time . . . never hitting that wall. But the lower body was protesting from mile 14 on. I was pleased to have been able to run the entire thing, but it was sheer willpower that kept my legs going. I capped off my Chicago weekend with a massage at the Lakeshore Athletic Club, a delicious steak and lobster tail dinner at Ditka's and of course bags of ice on my knees and two Advil!
Well, my race narrative was a bit longer than I had intended but there was a lot of good stuff to tell. So, I'll leave you with two more words: RUN CHICAGO!
October 2006
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