Here is how yesterday’s Chicago ½ Marathon went…
It was raining like a banshee yesterday…no surprise. I was wondering if I was going to swim 13.1 miles instead! I should have borrowed Michelle Thomas's inflatable kayak:) There was a very steady flow of rain and it got stronger as the day continued…
I woke up to my cell phone alarm clock singing "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns and Roses at about 5am. Why 5am? That's a bit early and after going to an awesome Lilly Goodman/Jesus Adrian Romero concert the night before, I wanted to wake up, sing and play my guitar instead of run. Tired from intaking 4 hours of sleep, I rolled out of bed and began to get ready for the race. My fabulous spectator friends, Julie and Jeffery and I left en route to a Starbucks at 5:40am to meet up with runner Stacey and spectator Kenny. Unfortunately, we ran into a road closure at Dempster on the way but were able to get back on track through guidance from a GPS and detour signs. After meeting up with Kenny and Stacey at a Starbucks in Skokie, we decided to condense cars and all piled into Jeffery's truck like one, big, happy family. The Edens expressway was very clear, praise God, and we didn't run into any other road closures due to flooding. Now keep in mind while all this is happening, it continues to rain and rain and rain. We arrived in Chicago at about 6:30am near the exit ramp for the Science and Industry Museum.
After the car was sitting in a line waiting to get off the ramp for 5-10 mins, Stacey and I jumped out of the car and begin to walk a mile to the start line. Because we both drank loads of water, coffee, and I had one of the 5 hours of energy drinks...we needed to pee like banshees! It didn't help our situation that it was still raining. On the way to the start, we stopped at the closest group of port-o-potties and waited in a long line of about 10 people deep. I think at 7:15am we had just reached the front of the line. By about 7:20am we were back on our way towards the start line, walking when we finally heard the National Anthem begin to play….Eeek! Where is the start gate? Even though we were under pressure to find the start line, we still made sure to give props to God and say a prayer as we continued on our way. Eventually, we found the start "mob" and began walking to the back of the pack. At this time, we probably only got a 2 min stretch before we started. Not good:( We needed more stretch time! The start gun finally was shot and the mob of runners began to shuffle towards the start little by little. It took us 11 mins to cross the start! The rain continues...It was very encouraging to see familiar faces cheering us on after mile 2 like Julie, Jeffery, Kenny and then at mile 4, the one, the only, Cari Grobart. She even managed to take a little cell action phone pic! There were lots of spectators with cowbells….but not enough. We needed MORE cowbell! Bruce Dickinson said it best..."I have a fever and the only prescription for it was MORE cowbell!" For some reason, the cowbell became a very motivational thing to the Stacey and I. We even discussed next year's 1/2 marathon t-shirts to have a "cow" theme. We will give our artist in resident friends like Brad or Jody the opportunity to design the most cutting edge, performance enhanced, running dri-fit T-shirt this side of Lake Michigan has ever seen! Stacey's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets with the golden arches of McDonald's in sight. We almost stopped at the "run through" window:) Did you know that the rain is still pouring down from the heavens at this point:) It hasn't stopped. The first 5-6 miles were fast. We maybe even shot out some 10min splits (that’s fast for me). Delirium is starting to set in and I begin to think of songs about rain and attempt to sing a few..."I'm singing in the rain...don't rain on my parade!" And can you believe that there were still loads of photographers with their trash bagged cameras out snagging photos of our insanity! We made sure to give them our best running poses:) Then the blisters from the water logged shoes began to grow. The effects of not stretching were also starting to kick in. At mile 7, I noticed a soap bubble on my hand. Then I took a look at my black shirt. The laundry detergent wasn’t completely rinsed out of the shirt I was wearing! I guess you can say I was multi-tasking...taking bath and running at the same time:) At least I smelled nice:) Stacey is still hungry as was wondering why they don't add food stations to the race in addition to the water/Gatorade stations. Cheeseburgers at mile 4.3, pizza at 6.7...The rain starts getting even more intense...Past mile 8, we took a 1 min stretch break, same with after mile 9 and 10. Otherwise, we “ran” the whole thing. 3 hrs of fun! I was so happy to see the mile 12 sign, I almost passed out! Then when we turned the corner and saw the finish line, we started to "sprint." We definitely looked like champs for the cameras:) At this point, I was on a mission to get my participants medal and get the heck outta there! All Stacey wanted to do was eat and all I wanted to do was vomit. We lost our spectators so we decided to hang out at the lost persons tent until they found us. Luckily, we wrote Kenny's cell number on the back of our race bibs in the "in case of emergency" section. So after borrowing someones phone, we were able to locate Kenny and he was able to provide us with an umbrella lead us to the car. Stacey and I did not take any effort to avoid mud puddles or ankle deep water. Our bodies couldn't handle the abrupt change in direction like Kenny could. Soaked to the bone, pruned hands, and a soapy outfit we had to walk another mile to the car after race. Our total mileage yesterday was at least 15+miles!
Conclusion, can I blame it on the rain?...nope! It was easier to run the ½ marathon in the rain (Chicago 1/2 marathon) than 90 degrees of heat with hills (North Shore ½ marathon), but stretching is essential! Very sore today.
A HUGE praise to God for keeping us protected and providing the strength and endurance we needed to finish the race.
Major round of applause and thanks goes out to our spectators, Julie, Jeffery, and Kenny for waking up early on little to no sleep and standing out in the rain to support Stacey and I!
Big hug and thank you to Stacey for sticking with me the whole time and being an encouragement. Can't wait for the t-shirts and to initiate the new- 1/2 marathoners:)
Less than 13 weeks until I run 26.2 miles in Honolulu! December 14th, 2008
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