I remember my first race like it was yesterday. It was the Great Race in Pittsburgh. I was 11 years old and had no idea what I was doing and just went out there and ran and won my age group. Fast forward ahead 13 years on 10/10/10---my first marathon. In a way, I felt like I was 11 again, and it was a day I will never forget.
This was my first time in Chicago, and thankfully, I was lucky enough to have a good friend and training partner of mine, Emma Keenan, who is originally from Chicago, with me. We arrived on Thursday because we wanted to make this trip memorable and kind of like a mini-vacation. On Thursday, we just relaxed and checked out the Whole Foods in the area, which is the biggest one I have ever seen in my life! We took a day off from running on Thursday because of the early wake up and travel.
Before I knew it, Friday came and it was expo day! We went for a 35 minute run in the local forest preserve in the Northside of Chicago (which is where Emma's family is located) and it was gorgeous with all of the reds, oranges, and golds of the leaves. I noticed that it was very warm by the time we finished our run at 1030 AM, but I tried to ignore it. I decided that I better start hydrating a lot now, rather than waiting until the last minute and started downing the electrolytes. In the afternoon, Emma and I headed down to the expo at the McCormick Center in downtown Chicago. It was by far, the coolest expo I have ever been to! It was huge, with every kind of vendor you can imagine. We literally walked around for 3 hours, getting as many freebies as we could. We both decided to splurge on a Nike 1/2 zip jacket, afterall, this was our first one! After the expo, we headed to a great pasta dinner at Maggianos, where I had some cheese ravioli, salad, and of course, water!
Saturday, Emma and I slept in, since it was the most important night of sleep. We went for a 20 minute shake out run through Niles, IL, where I proceeded to fall in the last 5 minutes of our run and scraped up my knee and hands. For those of you that know my running style, you know that this is not uncommon, so I didnt let it bother me! We went to pick up our #1 fans, aka our boyfriends, at the Midway Airport around 1PM and then stopped by Trader Joe's. I stocked up there on some granola and fruit leather, man, I miss that place! We at a good dinner of pasta (I put extra salt on mine) at Emma's grandma's house, where we would be staying (closer to the city). After a little bit of movie watching and race day preparation, we headed to bed.
Everyone always says that it is very hard to sleep before a race, but I slept like a rock. My alarm went off at 4:33, and I jumped out of bed, ready to go. I got dressed, had a bagel with peanut butter and some gatorade. Emma, the guys, and I were ready to roll around 530AM and Emma's mom drove us down to the start area. We hopped out of the car around 6 AM, Emma and I entered the athlete area and the boys went their own way. I walked with Emma to the Elite Development tent, wished her 'Good luck', and sadly walked away by myself to find the Seeded Corral Gear check and some bathrooms. After I checked my gear, I began what was one of the most stressful parts of the pre-race, waiting in line for a bathroom. I knew that the lines would be long, but I had no idea they would be as long as they were. If I had one complaint about the Chicago Marathon, it was the bathroom situation. The Port-O-Johns were spread out all over the place, and all of the lines were at least 20 people deep. I got in line around 630 and waited for 20 minutes, only to have moved about 5 steps. I began to get nervous and frustrated with the situation. I decided to leave the line and wander around....I found a woman and her husband in a garden area and we decided to block each other as we went to the bathroom in the bushes. There was no way I would have made the start if I would have waited in line. After losing my dignity, I went to Corral B, and waded through the sea of participants. I got slightly claustrophobic and hated being in there with so many people. I tried to elbow my way to the front of this corral because I knew I shouldn't have been in that one. The problem was, I hadn't run a half marathon in two years and my time was only fast enough to get me in the B corral. After much frustration, I just stayed put and waited in anticipation.
The gun went off at 730 AM and it took me about 2 minutes to cross the chip mat (Note: it was already 70 degrees). There were people elbowing and fighting to gain position at the start, but I just remained calm and worked my way around people at about a 730 pace. I think I went through the first mile at about 745 pace---way too slow, but honestly, I didnt have much choice. I just kept steadily passing people and tried to stay with the Nike 3:00 Pace Group. I saw Dan around Mile 1.5 screaming his head off with Emma's boyfriend, Nate, and it made me smile. Things didnt really start to break up until Mile 3, but since it was so hot out, I decided I would be taking water and Gatorade at every stop. If there was one thing my dad told me, it was to hydrate early. I literally double fisted Gatorade and water at every stop and would continue this process throughout the whole marathon. In the end, I think this is what saved me from dehydration.
I continued to stay with the 3:00 Pace Group for a while, and then decided that I felt good and wanted to go a bit faster. It is amazing the people that you meet while running a marathon. For a while, I clung to a group of four Brooks ID guys that were aiming for a sub-3 hr marathon and chatted with them for a bit and then moved on. I took my first gel around an hour. It was a GU Orange Vanilla Roctane, man I hate the taste of those things, but I am convinced they really work! I went through the half marathon around 1:27 and felt great, despite the temperature climb. I knew that once I passed the half marathon mark, I would need to keep my mind occupied or I would start to mentally break down. That is one thing that I have learned throughout this whole experience, playing mind games with yourself is a good way to help you be successful in the marathon. I focused on the neighborhoods we were going through, the people around me, and all of the people that I was running this marathon for. The previous night, I had made a list of 26.2 people that I would be running a mile each for, and honestly, it helped at some points during the race.
Surprisingly, the miles flew by with all of the water stops and fans along the way. I remember, it was around Mile 18, where I began to feel my legs and feet starting to hurt, but it was not an unfamiliar hurt. It was a tired hurt that I had felt many times before in college and when climbing 14,000 foot mountains out here in Colorado, it was nothing I couldn't handle. I heard familiar voices of Garrett Graham and Jon Molz around Mile 19 and got so energized by them! The heat kept creeping up, and I began to feel it a bit around Mile 20, but kept dumping water on my head....once I remember the cups being mixed up and I poured Gatorade on myself. My pace slowed a bit from Miles 19-24, I think mainly from losing focus and the tiredness that was overcoming me. The Nike Power Song that the marathon had at Mile 24 was perfectly placed. They were playing Metallica, and I thought of my dad and how he would always play this to get me pumped up for meets and hockey games when I was younger. I began to refocus and tell myself that this was just like a second run in college. I was tired but I would make it. It was Mile 25 that I remember the most. I saw Dan standing along the left side of the road cheering for me, he yelled to me "This is the mile you dedicated to me, do it for me." That was all I needed to take off running, it is amazing what you will do for the people that you love most. Most people in the race were dragging by this point, the heat had stopped them in their tracks or they had drastically slowed their pace, but not me. I was running free and passing people right and left. I kept tabs on my watch and knew that I didnt have much time to make it under 3 hours, but knew, that if I didnt make it, Id be disappointed in myself. I dont know where it came from, but I literally sprinted the last 1.2 miles of that marathon, and crossed the line with my arms up in the air. I had done it, finished my first marathon and had done it in under 3 hours. I found Emma, who had done a 2:56 and we hugged in celebration. Meanwhile, people were passed out left and right from the heat and ambulances were sirening about every 5 minutes---the temperature at the finish-85 degrees. It made me sad, seeing and hearing such a sight, knowing how much people train for these things, only to have the weather ruin their big day.
After cooling down with some ice and heading over to the Elite Development tent, we reunited with Dan, Nate, and Emma's family, and later I met up with Garrett, Molz, and Charlie Ban (fellow Richmond alums). I felt tired after the race, but not as tired as I thought I would. When I finally checked my cell phone, I had been flooded with calls, texts, and messages. I read every single one of them, and it almost made me tear up. Im not joking when I say that I got over 75 congratulations messages since I finished, from friends and family all over the USA. All of them meant the world to me, and honestly I couldnt believe it. People I havent talked to since sophomore year of high school, tracked me online. I can not express in words how this made me feel...All my life all I have wanted to do for people is inspire them to chase their own dreams, and after this weekend, it seems as though I may have done so.
I had a friend tell me before the race that her first marathon changed her life. Now, I wouldn't say that it changed my life, but rather, it gave me an experience and a perspective on things that can never be replicated. Chicago is an amazing city, and it puts on an amazing marathon. It is something I will surely remember for the rest of my life.
So where do I go from here? Well, I accomplished my goal of a 3 hour first marathon, on training that was not even very organized. From here, I plan on getting Coach Steve Jones to coach me and that I can train with the Boulder Express Running Team. I plan on picking a Winter Half Marathon and Spring Marathon and going for the Olympic Trials Qualifying time of 2:46 in whichever marathon I run. I have always had this as my dream, and until I get there I will never stop trying.
I hope that through this, I have inspired you all to follow your own dreams and make them come true. Looking back on my Chicago marathon experience, I didnt have the most organized training schedule or even a ton of people to train with. But what I did have, was a support system all over the USA and a determination that was rock solid. And with that combination, I think that anyone can be a winner. Houston 2012, here I come.
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