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FLRC Newsletter - Nov 2003 |
| Chicago | |
It all began a few months ago when I found out that Cheryl Docherty was planning on running the Chicago Marathon. Over the past 10 years I have had the privilege of having many wonderful training partners and Cheryl was one on my dearest. She spent 2 1/2 years living in Ithaca while completing a Post Doc before she returned to her homeland of Scotland. She and her beau were going to run the marathon as part of their "holiday" (which is what we call a vacation here in the US). I decided that this was just the push I needed to try a different marathon and since Katie Danner had decided to run it, it did not take much for me to join in.
Katie and I arrived in Chicago Friday morning. We spent a couple of frustrated hours trying to figure out how to get to the race expo and packet pickup area. The expo was about a third the size of Boston but just as good. We found a few good deals on new running gear. We spent a quite evening in our hotel room unwinding from the trip deciding not to meet Cheryl and Collin for dinner. I told Katie that "here we were two married women, mothers of four children each, in Chicago on a Friday night without our husbands, choosing to spend the evening doing Nothing instead of going out on the town. There is something wrong with the picture."
Cheryl and Collin joined us for a mid morning run on Saturday. It was such a pleasure to spend the morning with them. Katie thought that Cheryl was one of the sweetest persons she had ever meant and her Scottish accent was just as I had remembered.
Katie and I were up by 5am on race morning and out the door by 5:45. We took a very crowded train into the city for the start of the marathon. It was already 50 degrees. I was worried about the heat. We dropped our bags off and proceeded to the preferred start where we each had secured a spot. Katie headed up to the 3 hour pace group. I had planned on meeting Cheryl by the 3:25 group. Our plan was to stick with the 3:25 group hoping to finish in a sub 3:30. Cheryl said the 3:25 group would be running 7:49 miles. Our first two miles were both over 8 minutes. Cheryl and I got separated when I had to make a pit stop in the second mile. I meant back up with the group somewhere around 5 or 6 miles. I decided not to stay with the pacers because of the inconsistent of their mile splits. I like to run even splits whenever I can. Cheryl and I separated shortly after reconnecting. I was feeling strong and focused and my pace was a bit quick for her. The crowd support was one of the best I have ever seen. There were only two small sections that did not have large groups of spectators cheering. The course had many turns but this only added interest to it. There was water and Gatoraid offered about every two miles. The architecture in the city was interesting to look at. I tried to stay focused at running a smart consistent race. We ran through Little Italy and China Town. For some reason smells seem to bother me in a marathon. There were two or three places on the course where you could smell chocolate brownies cooking, a few other spots where you could smell BBQ and fried foods and a few more where you could smell the sewer coming out of the man holes all of the was a bit distracting and nauseating for me. By mile 16 I was feeling very thirsty. The sun was beating down and it was hot. I drank at every water stop but could not quench my thirst. By mile 20 I fell off pace. Not terribly but enough. This is where I knew I would have to stay mentally tough. Phyllis Radke gave me a stern lecture on Thursday night about keeping my head in the game and to not give up mentally. I watched as each mile ticked by. I tried hard to stay on pace. I slowed after 20 but stayed steady with the pace that I slowed to. I was so happy to see the 25 mile mark. I thought less than 10 minutes. No problem. But this mile would not end. It went on and on and on. We had to make a right turn only to be confronted with the only hill of the day. Normally I would not consider this much of a hill but after running 25 flat miles this looked like and felt like a mountain. Once up the hill you make a left down a straight away to the finish. I found something resembling a kick to finish in 3:28:50, making my goal of running a sub 3:30.
The finish area was quick to get through and very well organized. I had no problem picking up my drop bag and headed off to meet Katie. Katie who was aiming for a 3 hour finished was very happy with her 3:04. As she put it "I ran happy" for 23 miles than ran out of steam. Cheryl finished in 3:35, followed by Collin in 3:40. We found out that the average race temperature was 78 degrees. We took are time enjoying the view of Lake Michigan before we headed back to Cheryl and Collin's hotel to clean up. We had a good dinner and a few beers than headed to the post race celebration where Katie got to shake Svetlana Zakharova, (the winning women's) hand which was icing on the cake.
The whole experience was wonderful and in Cheryl's words, "it was magic"
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