6/50 - 2010 Chicago Marathon

This is my hometown race.  For eight years I was a one-town marathoner.  In light of my 50 states goal, I decided that this would be my last hometown race.  I planned to run it in sub-3 hours, the only time I will have done that in the ten consecutive years I will have run it.  That the race was held on 10/10/10 only supported this decision as it played into my affinity for numbers and symmetry.  Could I run it in 10 minutes under the 3 hour mark?  That was my hope.
 

After Pikes Peak I took one week off from running.  That left me with six weeks to train during a time when I was also planning a wedding.  I knew this course so well that my training plan was simply to just stay in shape.  I averaged about 30 miles a week over the course of these six weeks when I probably should have tried a little harder.  This was just one of those times when life got in the way.

Chicago is such a big race, both in the number of participants and in the number of spectators.  This year had 45,000 entrants and spectators estimated at close to 2 million.  Of course a large number of spectators at Chicago usually means that the weather is going to be nice enough for them at 7:30am and throughout the day.  For the runners, that usually means that it’s going to be a hot race!  Sure enough, temperatures reached into the 80’s with sunny skies - my kind of race.

Chicago has an ongoing struggle with marathon weather conditions and what runners find to be the ideal climate for a race.  2007 was so hot that the race was officially shutdown after 3 1/2 hours.  In 2008, race organizers were better prepared for the heat as similar temperatures greeted us.  In 2009, the weather was ideal for most, upper 40’s (F) at the start and partly cloudy.  For me, this is all part of the experience.   Most people will train for six months before this race.  That means they have encountered cold, heat, rain and shine.  Given that, you would think we would be acclimated to whatever weather is thrown our way on the day of the race.  Yet few runners can agree as to their ideal climate.  That’s just one attribute that makes the marathon such an individualistic sport. 

What’s great about the Chicago course is that it’s flat and fast!  It forges through a lot of neighborhoods (The Loop, Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Boystown, Greektown, West Loop, Little Italy, Pilsen, Chinatown, Bridgeport) and really showcases the diversity and culture of the city.  It’s a baseball town and the course heads as far north as Wrigley Field (Cubs) and as far south as Cellular Field (White Sox) with spectators as enthusiastic as those respective team’s fans along most of the course.  Starting and finishing in Grant Park provides the perfect landscape for runners, spectators and tourists.  In fact, I often feel like a tourist in my own town at this race.  It’s an incredible city.

For me, the race started out as planned.  I had my goal at the halfway point by running 1:24.  From there, my bare-boned training plan took its toll on me.  Although it wasn’t the 2:50 marathon I was hoping for, I did manage to run it in 2:54 (my fastest Chicago time) and I can now retire from running this race having achieved a sub 3-hour marathon in Chicago.