Well, well, well...
My rookie race season is finally over. I'm tired.
This past Sunday marked the final race on my schedule for this rookie season: the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. I had some mixed emotions going into Sunday's race. Because of the addition of swimming and biking, my marathon specific training had severely dropped. Add in the fact that this is my final semester of grad school and my wife's first semester of grad school, I've been too busy to really train to do well for this race. I ran more miles on Sunday than I had the previous three weeks combined.
This is my third time going to the Expo. 2008 was a DNF and 2010 was a 6:24... finish. After a year off I decided it was time to get serious about racing, lose weight and do an Ironman. Okay... The Expo was great. I was able to go with Matthew (raced in Racine together) and Ryan and Tim who I have met at the LBS doing rides and throughout the community at other races. It was great to talk to them and draw on their experiences.
4 a.m. race morning- wake up, eat breakfast and get on the road. We arrived in Chicago about 5:30 a.m. and found a perfect parking space. No, I will not tell you where it was- must keep some secrets :) Since we had 2+ hrs till I would start, Adrienne and I made our way into the Congress Hotel, found a couch and camped out there till race time.
8 a.m. HOOONNKK and we were off. Up to this point I had no idea how my body would respond to the high dose of running. I began running with Becca (YFC coworker). I was shocked at how great I felt. The first 8 miles seemed to just fly by. I knew that today was going to be a pretty good day. Mile 13- still felt good. I was shocked. At about mile 14 I began to feel as if I was running out of fuel in the tank. I knew I needed some solid food to avoid BONKing. The next time I would see Adrienne was not until mile 20.5 so I text her and asked her to get me some potato chips.
Still felt decent from mile 14.5-18.5. Once I got to the 18.5 I was empty. I hit the wall, hard. The encouraging thing up to this point is that the only walking I had done was through the aid stations. I was very happy about this. Unfortunately I walked almost the entire way to 20.5 when I could get my chips. I was surprised when I got to that point because not only was Adrienne there, but so were Uncle Mike, Aunt Louann and Leighanna! It was nice to see some smiling faces and eat some greasy potato chips.
Okay, about mile 21.5 the tank seemed like it had been refueled and I was able to run again. The last 4 miles were tough, but I dug deep and ran/walked the last 4 at about 50% to each. There is nothing better than making that last left turn on to Roosevelt and knowing the Finish Line is right there! I finished and beat my St. Louis time by 3+ minutes with significantly less marathon specific training. I was happy with the results.
The great thing about Sunday's race is that I feel like I "learned to race". This was the first time I was able to dial in my nutritional needs and fuel accordingly. I was able to get the right gatorade/water ratio. I was able to tell when I needed gels and when I needed some real food. I also felt like I learned how to dig deep and finish a race. I never had the mental dicouragements about wanting to quit or anything like that.
So thats it! My rookie race season is in the books. I had a lot of fun training and racing over the last year. I also learned a lot of lessons about racing, nutrition and balancing family life with training. If I had to list my favorite races in order they would be:
1. Ironman 70.3 Racine
2. Chicago Olympic Triathlon
3. Chicago Marathon
4. St. Louis Marathon
5. AshleyCan Half Marathon
So, whats on the agenda for next year? Well at this point the only race I have registered for is Ironman Louisville. I may do IM 70.3 Muncie, I may do Illinois Marathon, I may be doing the Madison to Chicago Ragnar Relay. We'll see how time and money plays out. The most important thing on all of these is that I am able to keep the balance of work, family and training. The great thing is that grad school is finished in December, long before any of the long training starts for IM Lou.
With IM Lou being the most important race next year there are several things I need to do in order to be successful: 1. lose another 25 lbs 2. focus on running 3. happy wife, happy life
Well, signing out for now. Keep looking for updates along the way and...
See you at the Finish Line!
