Sun October 10th - 29.219mi

More Photos Below

Time of day 7:30 AM

Distance 26.22 mi
Duration 2:49:42 @ 6:28 min/mi
Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
WUCD Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
Distance WU/CD 3.00 mi
Comments RACE DAY!

Woke up at 4:30am to eat a small bowl of honey nut cheerios, then went back to sleep for another hour, although I didn't really sleep at all. PMurph and I ran down to the start around 6:15am, dropped off our bags, and ran over to the meeting spot. I forgot my GU packets, so I had to run back to the baggage check area, which turned my 2 mile warmup into a 3 mile warmup. Around 7:00am we made our way to the starting corral.

The gun went off at 7:30am. I started in the elite development corral, so before the race started I was milling about next to people like Sammy Wanjiru (eventual winner and Beijing gold medalist). It was pretty cool, but I knew I had to make a conscious effort not to go out too hard. Despite that, I still went out a little too hard. For the first 15k I averaged sub-6:00 miles (see complete splits below). I felt good through the half marathon mark (1:19:26), and felt like I could keep it up for another half, possible slowing a little bit. Soon enough, though, I realized I was a little overambitious.

The pain started at mile 15. I could feel my hamstrings and calves tightening, and there was a sharp pain in my right ankle/Achilles tendon. It wasn't enough to slow me down, but it was significant. By this point, the temperature was rising into the 80s and the race alert level had been raised to yellow. The race also left the tall buildings of downtown Chicago behind and with them the shade that they offered. Thankfully there were a lot of water stations, and they started handing out cold sponges. During the water stops I would take a few sips of Gatorade, swish some around in my mouth and spit it out, then get a sip of water and dump the rest on my head to cool off. I ate GU packets at miles 0 (20 minutes before the start), 9, 17, and 20.

The last 10 miles were brutal. My pace slowed significantly as the temperatures rose, and the pain in my ankle did not go away. My pace dropped to 6:50 per mile, and eventually to over 7:00 per mile. I never blew up completely, luckily, and I had a decent time cushion from my first half. The thing that kept me motivated the most was running near Joan Benoit Samuelson (53-year-old who won the marathon 25 years ago), which I did for much of the race. Within the last 10 miles I caught up to Chris Sloan and Charlie Ban, who had passed me earlier in the race but who were having trouble with the heat.

I made it to the 25.2 mile mark and realized that I just had to pull out a sub-6:50 last mile to break 2:50:00, so I pushed myself hard to make it. I ran a 6:32 last mile to finish in 2:49:42, 311th place male, 67th place in my age group, and 360th place overall. Not an awful time for my debut marathon and considering the heat, but still about 9 minutes slower than I wanted to run. I can't blame it entirely on the heat, however, as my training leading up to the race was lackluster. I plan on running Boston in the spring, and I plan on training for a big PR there.

Splits:

Mile 1 - 5:58
Mile 2 - 5:50
Mile 3 - 5:57
Mile 4 - 5:58
Mile 5 - 5:56
Mile 6 - 5:56
Mile 7 - 5:59
Mile 8 - 6:02
Mile 9 - 6:05
Mile 10 - 6:06 (59:52)
Mile 11 - ?
Bathroom Break - 20 seconds
Mile 12 - ?
Mile 13 - ?

HALF - 1:19:26

Mile 14 - ?
Mile 15 - 6:31
Mile 16 - 6:48
Mile 17 - 6:50
Mile 18 - 7:04
Mile 19 - 7:08
Mile 20 - 6:42
Mile 21 - 6:56
Mile 22 - 6:52
Mile 23 - 7:18
Mile 24 - 7:25
Mile 25 - 7:01
Mile 26 - 6:38
Final .2 - 1:20

FINAL TIME - 2:49:42

05K 07:48:57AM 00:18:28 18:28 05:57 10.10
10K 08:07:25AM 00:36:56 18:28 05:57 10.09
15K 08:26:16AM 00:55:47 18:51 06:04 9.90
20K 08:45:41AM 01:15:12 19:25 06:15 9.60
HALF 08:49:55AM 01:19:26 04:14 06:14 9.65
25K 09:05:42AM 01:35:12 15:46 06:31 9.23
30K 09:27:20AM 01:56:50 21:38 06:58 8.62
35K 09:48:40AM 02:18:11 21:21 06:53 8.73
40K 10:11:12AM 02:40:42 22:31 07:15 8.28
Finish 10:20:11AM 02:49:42 09:00 06:36 9.10
powered by RunPartner.com

Credit: Billy Askey

Credit: Billy

Thanks, Billy!