The Chicago Marathon of 2009

"He has probably lived a more exciting life than I have."
-Dave Libby

So, it has been sometime since I did the Chicago Marathon. It took place on October 11th, 2009. I ran 26.2 miles with roughly 33,000 people. It was one of the best days of my entire life. For those of you who have no clue what it's like, you feel pretty good about things when you cross that finish line. I first started thinking about doing the Chicago Marathon literally the day after I finished the Des Moines Marathon of 2008. When I had done the race in 2008, I had a painful experience that diminished my performance significantly. The constant striking of my feet on the ground really got to me, so much so that I remember coming to the 19 mile mark, feeling like I was running on nails, and I finally stopped and walked. I then proceeded to walk and jog, walk and jog to the finish. As I was doing this I was frustrated, and I knew that I was not reaching my full potential. That's what motivated me to do another Marathon. There were two facts that motivated me to do the Marathon in Chicago. One was the fact that it's CHICAGO, and the other was my Mother. My Mother has an unbelievably bad habit of overparenting. After my race in Des Moines, she gave every opinion that she has from her sorry excuse for experience in athleticism to let me know what she thinks about how I should do things. I can tolerate a lot of things, but I don't tolerate people patronizing me. So I registered for the Chicago Marathon because sometimes she's an idiot. I registered on the day of the Super Bowl on February 1st, 2009. I then proceeded to train as best as I could for about eight months. I hit a challenge during the summer. I sweat a lot, and my body simply cannot push itself due to the dryness of my body. So, I bought a Camelbak. I don't know if you're familiar with them, but it's basically a backpack that holds fluid. I remember reaching Ansborough Avenue, just right next to Northland Lubricants, and I emptied that sucker. The benefit of having the Camelbak was not just from rehydration, but also that having it added some weight that I carried that I would not carry during the actual race. I remember having a few frustrating moments during my training. One thing to understand is that a really good run involved me running as long as two and a half hours. During that time you NEED a motivational tool. That tool can come in the form of another runner(s) running with you. But my motivation came from my Ipod, with music to keep me pushing myself for so long. After these very exhausting runs, my legs were quite sore. I received an e-mail from the Chicago Marathon saying that one way to recover is to take a cold shower/bath to reduce the swelling of your body. Because of that I would bathe with ice made from freezing water in gallon-sized ziploc bags. I still remember feeling my thighs afterwards, still somewhat cold. It was awesome! Unfortunately, in the few weeks before the Chicago Marathon, I got some bad shin splints. I had to buy some gel pads to put in my shoes to cushion the blow when I strike the ground. It was too early to buy new shoes, which would have only made it worse. So I drove all the way to Evanston, IL from Cedar Falls on Friday October 9th. I then took the El to my friends place, Jacob Whalen. The day after that I got to my Cousin's place, and he lived closer to the race than I could have ever asked him to. Thank God for Philip's proximity to Grant Park! The day before the race on Saturday I remember getting a bit of a headache. My only guess is that it was caused by the fact that my cousin's apartment was on the 29th floor. I remember going on a bit of a jog on the street, seeing people everywhere. And then I started to pray. I prayed to God that he would make this as good of an experience for me as possible. Also, on Saturday, Philip drove me to McCormick Place to receive my bib, my chip, and some goodies. Martine, Philip's wife, fixed us pizza for supper and then I fell asleep. I woke up at about 4:30 a.m. I looked at the wonderful view of Chicago, which included some of the river. As I recall, my headache was completely gone. Then, I started to pray for the other runners too. I never looked at the other runners as rivals, more as companions. They motivated me to keep plugging away the same way that I motivated them to plug away too. It's because of this that I never really cared about my place that I finished NEARLY as much as my actual time. I walked to the start of the race, and in no time it was PACKED. I guess that's what happens when 46,000 people congregate together. It was cold outside roughly at about 30-35 degrees Fahrenheit. I managed to get much further in the start of the race by hopping over the fence to the beginning. And then, we started to move at about 7:30 a.m. As mentioned before, in Des Moines I was upset due to the pain in my feet. To take care of that, I lathered the bottom of my feet with lubrication, and it became a nonissue. For the first 15 miles or so, I had a quite constant pace of about 8 minute miles. Then, I kind of slowed down. My first 5K was about 25 minutes and my last was about 30 minutes. I remember as I was nearing the end, my thighs felt like concrete. I crossed the finish line and it was a beautiful day. I walked forever, grabbing an aluminum sheet to wrap around my body to keep my body heat. I was offered a beer, which did not taste well, so it was quickly discarded. And then I finally got to my gear check. I grabbed some altoids, and drank some water. It felt good. Then, I grabbed my cellphone and sent a text message to as many friends as it would allow (10). My message said as follows.

It looks like today is going to be another great day. Clock time 3:44.

I then walked more and more, and then finally I got to my cousin's apartment. I took a bit of a rest, and then I took the subway to Evanston, and I finally arrived back home at about 1a.m. There was an e-mail I got from Bank of America that claimed the event attracts a whopping 1,500,000 spectators. After having done that event, I suppose that that figure is possible. One memorable spectator that I saw at roughly the 17 mile mark had a sign that said to us "Release your inner Kenyan". For those of you who don't know, the last seven Chicago Marathons have been won by someone from Kenya. My first thought when I saw that was something like "Easy for you to say, jerk." So, it has been a good two months since that day. What has happened since then? I've given my body a rest. I tried to change my ways, growing some facial hair just to celebrate, working on an enormous lego set of the volkswagon beetle, etc. I am not interested in doing another marathon next year. It is my intention to move on to other things in my life. To have a healthier social life and to excel in my career. Someday, I'd like to start a family and prove myself. Having done this race, I am capable of rising up to almost any challenge that life throws at me. For those of you who think that we're nuts, you have a point. But, simultaneously, when you cross that finish line, it's a feeling unlike any other. One dissapointment that I have in my life is my academic performance at Iowa State University. During my time as a student, I was not confident in myself. It hurt my GPA, I didn't have as great of an experience as I would have liked, and that's a shame. But, more recently, I faced this challenge of 26.2 miles without even a microgram of fear. Because of this, I am more proud of my performance in the Chicago Marathon than I am of my performance as an Iowa State student. In the beginning of this post I have a quote from a man named Dave Libby. I knew Dave from work. The thing about him was that he had a striking resemblance to the actor Sean Connery. I told him that and he smiled, saying that he has heard that before. And then Dave told me that Sean Connery has probably lived a more exciting life than he has. When I look at what he said, I think to myself that I don't want to feel that way about my life. I want to have enough happy memories in my life. Call me crazy, but crossing that finish line on October 11th, 2009 will always be one of them.

Youtube video of the start of the race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBL4elz-yi8