Chicago Marathons 2001 - 2010

After running my first marathon in 2001, I was humbled to say the least.  Having no idea what to expect of those who ran marathons at the time, I just assumed it would be choke full of lean, young, athletic machines like myself!  Of course, photos of me from this period would successfully dispute my recollection of being in such shape, but hey, I thought I was a rare breed having registered for a marathon and you don't have those photos to prove me wrong! 

Through the years after this first race, I learned the only thing rare about marathon runners, or runners of all race distances, had less to do with their physicality and more to do with their psychology.  Runners are mentally strong.  However, at the time, all that I saw were men and women of all ages, shapes, sizes toeing the line for the 2001 Chicago Marathon.  25,000 of them.  This race was weeks after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and this set the tone for many during this race.  It was very patriotic and I was proud to be running it.  That is, until about mile 12.

I didn't know how to train for this.  I ran a couple of 8 milers and one 13.5 miler.  I had gone from running about 10 miles a week to about 20 - 30 miles a week that summer.  Because of that, I had a severe irritation in my knee that grounded me from running 6 weeks before the race.  I had 4 weeks of electroshock treatments and various forms of physical therapy to get me back on the road.  I was able to run again 2 weeks before the race.  My doctor laughed when I told him that I had planned on running the marathon; I was too stubborn to not run it.  Also, I was in college and $70 was a lot of money to waste on a race entry fee that I wouldn't use.  I was studying to be an accountant and we all know the stereotype associated with that profession!

The last half of that race was miserable.  The week after that race was painful.  I swore off ever doing a marathon again.  Well, that didn't stick, obviously.  I loved the challenge.  I went on to run every Chicago Marathon from 2001 - 2010.  However, I didn't really learn how to train for one until 2008 and I didn't have the idea to run one in every state until 2009.