Chicago Marathon #3

This was my 3^rd time running Chicago.  Kim and I started our training cycle in May.  My running was strong and by my last track workout I was running effortlessly at my marathon pace.  I was ready.  I talked to my coach a few days before I left for Chicago, and we discussed my race and what he thought I could do.  I was excited and felt I could pull off a sub 3:40 marathon.  All I could do was hope that I could keep it together those last 6 miles because it’s true, the race doesn’t start until mile 21.

We left a day earlier for Chicago so we could explore the city and have some fun.  The morning when we left, I came downstairs to get ready to leave for our 5:15 AM flight.  I turned and saw Kim trying to walk down the stairs.  He was in extreme pain.  His back started bothering him on our last run where he ended up walking. This was not good. I ended up running around, putting the suitcases in the car and getting our stuff together, so Kim didn’t have to do anything but get dressed.  The walk to the gate in the airport was slow and painful for Kim.  I said to him, “Kim, I don’t think you should run, you can always use CIM for your Boston Qualifying race.  Sit this one out, it’s not worth having you try to run and end up worse”.  Kim was hoping it would get better by resting until race day. 

We got to the Westin River North and checked in at 9 AM.  We dropped our bags and headed to the Expo.  We got our bibs for the marathon and for the 5K that we decided to run last year.  Why?  Because we wanted that cool Abbott hat!  This year, Chicago was much warmer than last year, so the hat wasn’t really that necessary to keep our heads warm.   The expo was filled with free samples of nutrition and hydration products and of course the Goose Island truck was there handing out their 312 beer samples.  My favorite experience was at the dog food table.  I was asking the rep about feeding my puppy and some dude started to sample the dog food.  She finally said to him, “Sir, I need you to stop eating the dog food, it is not for human consumption”.  This didn’t stop him!  As soon as she turned away, he would grab more and eat it.  It reminded me of the scene in Elf when he kept eating the cotton balls!

The next morning, I woke up and headed out to the gym at the hotel looking for free water.  I left with no makeup, no contacts, just my sweats from the night before.  I opened the door and was greeted by “Sam” the Personal Trainer who was filled with energy.  He showed me his gym he was so proud of.  Let me tell you, for a hotel gym, I was amazed.  There were 6 Peloton bikes, weight, treadmills, TRX station and massage guns.  The men’s and women’s bathrooms had saunas!   But wait, there’s more!  Sam also provided chair massages and offered PT and fitness classes.  I told Sam that I’d be back downstairs with my husband who hurt his back for a massage.  I went back to the room and told Kim about Sam.  We headed back and I warned Kim about Sam’s energy.  He has a LOT of it.  We walked into the gym and were immediately greeting, Hi!  I’m Sam! He ended up working on Kim’s back for a good ½ hour. He turned out to be a pretty great guy.

We had dinner at the same two restaurants as last year.  I highly recommend The Smith and Il Porcellino.

We ran the Abbott 5K on Saturday morning and waited in the corral where 10,000 runners would be lining up.  I looked over to the right and there were our friends Henryk and Annie taking photos.  It’s a cool thing to run into friends in a crowd this size.  Kim was going to “test” out his back and try to see Sam did the trick.  He started slowing down as the pain kicked back in.  It’s horrible to see someone who has so much love for running not able to run.  We walked slowly back to the hotel and rested the rest of the day until our pre-race dinner. 

After dinner I got back and packed my stuff for the next day. I realized I forgot the shirt I was planning on wearing on race day. That seemed to start the series of unfortunate events that bled into race morning.  I woke up at 1:00 AM with anxiety.  Every negative thought circled my head.  I tried to remain positive, but they got the best of me.  I closed my eyes only to notice I was getting an Ocular migraine.  I get these a lot when I’m stressed, and they last for 20 minutes.  So, I laid in bed wide awake until I fell back asleep.  I had the most disturbing nightmares about the race until my alarm went off.  I woke up with a lingering headache when Kim said, “I am not running”.   We walked quietly to the start and went into the “fluffy” Sky Hospitality tent that I purchased tickets for.  This was quite wonderful.  It’s heated, with breakfast, coffee, water, private port-o-lets, changing room, private bag check and they even escorted us to our corrals.  When it was time to go to the corral Kim grabbed his bib and walked me there.  It was mayhem.  So many runners running in front of us yelling “my corrals closing”.  We finally arrived at the corral and Kim had to leave.  My eyes filled with tears as he hugged me and walked away. 

I waited in the corral and ended up realizing the woman in front of me was Almi, who I met when I was an ambassador for the San Francisco marathon.  It seems that I bump into her all over the place.  We chatted until the start.  We slowly moved to the start waiting for each coral in front of us to be called.

I started running.  My coach told me to run around 8:20 pace.  I seemed to be on track.  I got to mile 3 and thought, this really sucks.  My mind and heart were just not into this race.  It’s never a good sign when you are this early in a race and not loving it.  The miles seemed to go by so slowly.  Finally, I got to the 10K mark and thought, “this is great, I only have 20 more miles to go”.  Ugh

I honestly don’t remember much of the race but what I do remember was it was getting warm around mile 9, and the street where the road narrowed and was filled with beautiful brownstones.  The trees resembled the streets in Savannah.  There was another street that was filled with amazing music and energy.  I think it was 18^th street.  There were some spectacular moments but some dark miles.  I pulled the old ant song out and sang those 4 or 5 miles.  I thought of people and dedicated miles to them.  That worked for a ¼ mile!  I would stop and get bio-freeze on my right quad that started cramping.  I noticed at one aid station the guy saying my bib number out loud.  I thought, “holy shit”, do I look that bad?  At each bio-freeze station they were writing my bib number down.  I’m not sure why, but I’d love to find out.  I remember a street that had kiddy pools filled with water and I thought, “what bozo would jump in those with their sneakers on”?  I remember running through China town and then a lot of turns that helped.  Then as I crested mile 22, I started to get text messages from Kim on my watch.  He said, “hang in there, run smart”, “focus, you got this”, “I love you”, “keep moving”, “stay on the blue line” and more that I just can’t think of.  Let me tell you, it made all the difference in the world.  It gave me a bit of hope that I was going to finish.  Finally, I had one mile to go!  I couldn’t stop smiling!  I was so happy that I would be done soon.  I got to the bleachers and expected to see Kim cheering for me, but he wasn’t there.  I was disappointed but kept going.  Then as I turned the corner there were the finish line VIP bleachers!  I could hear Kim and Annie yelling “Jeanne”!  I was so happy!  I blew him a kiss and ran my ass to the finish line.  There sure is something special to have a familiar face cheering for you!  I think that last push was my fastest mile! 

I crossed the finish line 3:49:23. It wasn’t the time that I wanted. I was disappointed, I felt like I let my coach down and knew he’d be messaging me.  I was happy though that I didn’t finish with any debilitating pain and that I Boston Qualified.  I talked to some runners and then turned to see my San Francisco friend Almi.  We took a photo together and said, “It’s fate we keep bumping into each other”.

I got back to the Sky Hospitality and cleaned up. The first thing I did was take off my sneakers and put on my recovery sandals.  Then the leaders came into our tent and took photos.  I met some amazing runners and then we headed back to our hotel.  I unpacked and noticed that I left my sneakers at the tent.  Kim and I walked all the way back only to find that they wouldn’t let us in without credentials.  We walked back to the hotel and stopped at the bar and had my complimentary glass of champagne from the hotel.  I went back to the room, exhausted and logged onto my computer to send out the Fleet Feet Marathon final newsletter.  After sending it, I logged off only to find my dad’s photo on my screen.  I burst into tears and knew that my dad was with me.  It was comforting and so sad at the same time.  I hadn’t had a sign from my dad in so long and it was to me the best way to end such a tough weekend.

Will I run the Chicago Marathon again? Nope – 3 times is enough.  I am looking forward to a new fall race to qualify at. 

Next up is Hartford. This will be my official 100^th marathon not including the 9 virtual marathons I ran in 2020.