My bib and medal are hanging on my board in the hallway, and each time I hobble by I stop to stare at it and try to convince myself that it wasn’t a dream.

We made it to the expo around 2 or 3pm on Saturday. I got my race packet, t-shirt, and immediately searched out the Nike pace group booth. I knew my pace would be slow enough that I might barely make the 6.5 hr cutoff so I joined the slowest pace group possible to see if maybe I could keep up. They gave a bonus of a temporary tattoo pace chart, which I wasn’t expecting. It took a few days to come off, but it was really nice to have during the race!
There weren’t a TON of booths that I was super interested in, but we stopped by a few and I got a Chicago Marathon shirt (which I wear frequently with pride).
Made it to the hotel and while Brandon checked us in, I brought the car to the parking garage I had reserved using Parkwhiz. What a mess. It was a valet garage, and when I arrived the door was closed with no way to contact them. I called Parkwhiz to see what I should do, and they called the valet. The valet told Parkwhiz that they were closed, even though their sign said they didn’t close until 6pm on Saturday (it was 5pm). Then they said that they were open, but they didn’t take any new reservations after 4pm. I made the reservation at 3pm. In the end Parkwhiz won and convinced them to come outside and let me in. Thank you, Parkwhiz, for taking care of me! I handed over the keys and walked back to the hotel. As soon as I made it to Brandon and Jack, I realized that I had left my race bag in the car… with the race bib. OMG. I spazzed, looked at my watch, and realized that I had 10 minutes before the garage closed. I RAN as fast as I possibly could to the garage. Who knows how I was able to run that fast, but I made it! The guy at the garage was just about to lock up the box with the keys for the rest of the weekend. If I had been just a minute or two later, I would have been completely out of luck and unable to race. Thank you to Miguel, the garage attendant, who helped me get back to my car and get my race bag.
The run to the garage aggravated my back so badly that it hurt to walk because every step was a jolt of pain. Joy. We found a Chipotle, got dinner for the 3 of us, and headed back to the room for the evening. I got all of my stuff laid out for the morning and after we somehow managed to get Jack to sleep I tried putting myself to sleep. It was a crazy restless night filled with back pain and sleeplessness. At one point I’m pretty sure I was awake for at least 1.5 hrs before finally falling back to sleep.
5:30am rolled around and I got up and dressed. My back still hurt with every step, so I packed a couple of heavy duty ibuprofen in case I needed them. Breakfast involved a bagel with cream cheese, banana, and an egg. Then… it was off to the corrals!
It was pretty easy figuring out where to go, and the energy of people around me was amazing. I ran into a guy who was also running his 1st marathon, and had also only made it to 14 miles on his longest run. Hearing that made me feel so much better, knowing that I wasn’t the only one unprepared for this race.
Eventually I found the K corral and the 5:45 pace group. The pacers were telling everyone that they would average a 13:10 pace mixing running with walking. I could do that, I was sure! They handed out a Gatorade endurance energy drink just outside the corral so I chugged that and anxiously awaited the start. At about 8 when the 2nd wave started, I ate a few sport beans and stashed the rest for later. It took 37 minutes from the start of Wave 2 for me to cross the starting line. We were off!
I felt pretty good at first and made it through the first few run intervals without a problem. Around mile 3 though, when I saw Brandon and Jack for the 1st time, I realized they were going too fast for me to keep up with. My watch said we were averaging 11:30 min/miles…. WAY too fast for me at this point! I gave up on my hopes of at least keeping the pace group in sight and decided to just keep my own pace so that I could at least finish in under 6.5 hrs.
In all of the advice I heard about running a marathon, the advice that stuck out the most and helped the most was to break down the race into small sections. By doing that, I think I was able to finish without ever wanting to quit. I broke the whole thing down into tiny sections and just kept urging myself through each one. First it was to just get to Brandon. Then it was to get up to the 10k mark, to get to Addison where it started the turn back South, then I was just a few miles from being halfway done. I saw Brandon again just before mile 13 during a water stop. He gave me a hug, took my headphones (I could barely hear my audiobook anyway), and Jack cried as I ran away again. After that I got to the charity cheer zone at mile 14 (which had basically emptied out already), and shortly after I got a second wind. Who knows where it came from, but I felt great! I ran whenever possible and knew that I was going to finish. The stretch toward Pilsen was rather boring and hot, and probably the hardest part of the race. Once I reached what I’m pretty sure was Pilsen (the spectators had thinned out considerably) I just told myself to keep pushing toward Chinatown. After Chinatown, I could turn onto Michigan and complete the final stretch!
I’m so proud of myself for finishing, and will run another marathon someday. But, I will only run another one once I know I can finish in at least 5 hrs. A misconception that everyone seemed to have (myself included) was that we had 6.5 hrs from when we crossed the start. The reality was that we had 6.5 hrs from when our WAVE crossed the start… almost 40 minutes before I did, and I wasn’t even the last one to cross.
The pace car (I think that’s what it is called?) showed up around mile 8 or 9, I think. Everyone around me was shouting at them that they were early. My watch even showed that I was averaging a 13:30 min/mile at that point, so I knew I couldn’t be THAT far behind when all we needed was a 15:00 mile. But, on they went. The spectators had already started heading home and the fun neighborhoods I had heard so much about were just kind of eh. The spectators and volunteers who remained however… amazing. I appreciate their support SO much and don’t think I could have made it without them. Thank God Brandon convinced me to wear the Camelbak. I refilled it once around mile 15 I think. The aid stations had started dumping Gatorade and water, so I was freaking out that there would be nothing left for me by the time I reached the final miles. By the time we passed mile 17 there was a cleanup crew and police driving alongside the runners telling us to run on the sidewalk for our own safety. No one did. Runners were protesting that they still had time left before shutting down that part of the course.
It was discouraging to have the course shutting down around us, with aid stations closing left and right. They were even taking down the mile markers. Thankfully I made it to each marker right as they were taking it down, so I knew where I was (my watch and app were at least 1 mile ahead, so I couldn’t trust them).
The worst part was after getting to the top of Roosevelt and turning the corner toward the finish. I saw the finish line and broke into an all out run, only to realize as I got closer that the finish had been barricaded off and they were tearing it down. Seriously? I wondered what was going to happen, where would I go? My pace slowed and I smiled for the photographer, then was ushered off to the side to go over a curb to “finish”.
I got my medal, post race snacks, and heat sheet as I made my way to the runner reunite area. The whole time I couldn’t tell if I was more ecstatic that I had just finished a freaking marathon, or disappointed that I had been jipped being able to cross the finish line. I knew that I had missed the cutoff time, but there were at least 100 people behind me still. Small compared to the number of total runners, but still. Quite a few people who had just ran 26.2 miles in the 80 degree heat.
Finally I made it to Brandon and Jack and I felt like I couldn’t stop talking about the experience I just had. I COMPLETED A MARATHON! FINISHED! AND GOT A MEDAL! My goal was complete and I got what I came for. Amazing. 6 hours, 35 minutes, 59 seconds is my estimated time on chicagomarathon.com.
Not once during the race did I get a side stitch, which amazes me. I noticed that a few times and quickly shrugged it off hoping I wouldn’t jinx myself. The foot injury from a few weeks prior also never bothered me once. Again, that amazed me.
We got more Chipotle on the way back to the hotel where I promptly sat down and had Brandon help me take off my shoes. OMG the blisters were/are horrid! I remember feeling them form around mile 17 or 18 and thinking “oooh that doesn’t feel very good…”.
After eating, we headed to the hotel pool. Aaaaaaaaamazing. Absolutely incredible to feel weightless after that. I hopped in the hot tub for about 15 minutes before getting back in the pool. Both felt so great, I don’t know which one was better. I highly recommend it for anyone who has just finished a marathon.