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| Brian, me, and Jeremy at Grant Park post-marathon, enjoying the gorgeous weather and basking in the glory of great performances. Photo courtesy of Brian. |
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Chicago, IL
Difficulty score: 1/10 (0 for weather, 1 for course profile, 0 for altitude)
I finished the Chicago Marathon in 3:03:48 (7:01/mile), a 59-second PR for me and 72 seconds below my 3:05:00 Boston qualifying standard. This was a race where the start was a little rough but I pulled it together during the second half, and for that reason, I was pleased with my performance. The early miles were noticeably slower, due to both feeling a little sluggish at the beginning for reasons I still do not know and lacking the experience in handling the large crowds of runners at the beginning; this race had more than twice as many participants as any other race I have run so far. But around the half-marathon point, I was able to settle into a rhythm and maintain a steady 7:00/mile pace until the 30K mark. After I reached the 30K mark, I accelerated, aiming for a more uncomfortable pace. I managed a 6:40 to 6:50/mile pace for the remainder of the marathon, finishing with a four-minute negative split; whereas I ran the first half in 1:33:50, I finished the second half in 1:29:58.
I started this marathon without a specific time goal. I would have been extremely happy if I broke three hours; under perfect conditions and with perfect race execution, I may have been able to accomplish this or get really close to doing so. But my primary goal really was to run a PR and improve my chances of being able to actually run the Boston Marathon in 2016. I had applied to Boston for 2015 after beating my qualifying standard by 13 seconds in the Shamrock Marathon; however, because the number of applicants to Boston exceeded the number of spaces available, no one who ran less than 62 seconds under their qualifying standard would be able to run in 2015. Now that I have run 72 seconds under my qualifying standard, I believe my chances of being able to run Boston are indeed much better. It might be close, but hopefully my time this past weekend would be enough to get me into Boston for 2016.
Training
I have given detailed descriptions of my training plan for this marathon here and here. I wanted to increase my mileage this time around, hoping that would improve my endurance and my marathon time. Whereas my weekly mileage was mostly in the high forties and low to mid-fifties during my training for Shamrock, this time, it was mostly in the high fifties and low to mid-sixties.
In order to be able to increase my mileage, I needed to sacrifice much of my more intense mileage during the week. Every week during this training cycle, about 90 percent of my mileage was run at 7:40/mile pace or slower, a substantially slower pace than I knew I was capable of running the marathon. The remaining ten percent was at tempo pace, where I targeted about 6:25 to 6:30/mile. The structure of my training plan was simple:
- Monday: five to six miles at 8:30/mile pace or slower to recover from my Sunday long run.
- Tuesday: seven to ten miles with the inner four to seven miles at tempo pace.
- Wednesday: rest.
- Thursday: eight to fourteen miles with target pace of 7:40 to 8:20/mile.
- Friday: five to six miles at 8:30/mile pace or slower to recover from my Thursday mini-long run.
- Saturday: seven to ten miles with a target pace 7:40 to 8:20/mile.
- Sunday: long run with target pace of 7:40 to 8:20/mile.
In previous training cycles, Thursdays were another higher-intensity day in the form of a hill workout, track workout, or a second tempo run. I decided to eliminate that in favor of my Thursday mini-long run. I could not imagine doing a second higher-intensity workout each week during this training cycle; the mileage was strenuous as it was.
I had little problem executing this training plan and adjusting to the high mileage. Aside from an Achilles' tendon injury early in the cycle and a cold later on, both of which sidelined me for several days, I was able to complete the training plan pretty much as written. Summer 2014 was relatively mild, which allowed me to actually hit my target tempo pace of 6:25 to 6:30/mile during some weeks.
The Days Leading Up to the Event
Three weeks before Chicago, I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon as a tune-up race to get back into the racing mindset and to get a basis for a reasonable pace for the marathon. The weather on the day of the half-marathon was certainly not ideal: 68 degrees and 88 percent humidity at the start, with the temperatures just getting warmer as the race progressed. But even after a relatively slow first mile, I still managed to run 1:25:12, a thirteen-second half-marathon PR for me.
I probably would have been able to run a significantly better time under less unpleasant conditions. But for the purposes of estimating a reasonable target pace for Chicago, I decided to use 1:25:12 as my basis. In terms of planning a pacing strategy for the marathon, I believed it was better to err on the conservative side. Besides, I had no idea exactly how much better my time would have been under better racing conditions; all I could reasonably conclude was that I was in 1:25:12 half-marathon shape or better. I am aware that some online calculators can provide an adjusted race time for temperature, but frankly, I was a little hesitant to listen to them; I cannot imagine that any such temperature-adjusting race time calculators have actually been validated with real race results, and I have trouble figuring out a design of this type of study. Thus, plugging my 1:25:12 half-marathon time into the Maclin calculator on the Moderate aggressiveness setting gave me a 3:02:04, or 6:57/mile pace. I settled on the plan to target 6:55 to 7:00/mile during the first 30K, and then accelerate or try to hold that pace from that point forward depending on how I felt.
After the half-marathon, I started my taper. I basically tried to replicate what I did during the three-week taper period preceding Shamrock. The week following the half-marathon was mostly done at recovery pace. That Sunday and the following Tuesday would be the last truly difficult workouts I would do before the marathon. Sunday's long run was a 16-mile long run with six miles at target marathon pace. The warm temperatures that day prohibited me from hitting my target pace, so I after three miles of trying to hold a 6:55 to 7:00/mile pace, I gave up and just ran the remainder of the run at my normal long run pace. The following Tuesday's run was a six-mile run with the inner four miles at tempo pace. I was able to successfully hit tempo pace, even in spite of the warmer temperatures. After that, my workouts only consisted of easy runs and marathon-pace runs. The week preceding the marathon, I focused on consuming carbs whenever I could and staying hydrated.
I arrived in Chicago on the Friday before the race. After meeting Jeremy, with whom I trained for much of this cycle, at the airport, we took the train to our hotel, located only about four blocks from the start line. We intentionally did not do much on Friday; aside from a trip to the Expo at McCormick Place, which took longer than anticipated because of the relative scarcity of shuttle buses going to and from the Roosevelt station, I did a four-mile shakeout run, and dinner.
The next day Jeremy and I did a bit of sightseeing, which we kept limited in order to stay off our feet and to save our energy for the race. We did visit Willis Tower and the ledge on the 103rd floor. We had intended to do an architectural boat tour this afternoon also, but they were booked completely. I would have loved to get pictures of Willis Tower and the city of Chicago, but the camera on my phone inexplicably froze after I tried to take a picture and I could not get it to unfreeze. But otherwise, a good portion of this day was spent at the hotel.
The Race
Conditions were nearly perfect on race day: moderate humidity with temperatures starting in the low fifties and never really increasing much more than that. After waking up at four in the morning and being unable to fall asleep, I passed the time in my hotel room before going downstairs to meet Jeremy at around seven. Even though our hotel was a relatively brief walk to the start line in Grant Park, we barely made it into our corral before the Wave 1 corrals closed. According to event rules, Wave 1 corrals closed at 7:20 am, ten minutes before the official start of the race, and all runners in Corrals A through E needed to be in their corrals before then. Those that were late were required to start at the back of Corral E. The course officials were actually quite strict about this rule; the gates to the Wave 1 corrals closed promptly at 7:20 with an announcement to all of those not yet in the corrals to report to the back of Corral E.
The Chicago Marathon course is fast and very flat, aside from a relatively small hill on Roosevelt Avenue near the Mile 26 mark. This course is great for a PR, provided that the weather cooperates, which, based on historical data, seems to be most of the time, despite many marathoners' warnings about the high variability of Chicago Marathon race day conditions. The course is shaped like a cross with its right prong missing, or a four-leaf clover with a missing leaf. For the first seven miles or so, runners head north toward Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville before coming back toward the Central Loop. Near the half-marathon mark, runners then head west on Adams Street for about two miles toward Greektown before again coming back toward the Central Loop. For Mile 17 through Mile 23, runners head south through Little Italy, University Village, and Chinatown toward Bridgeport, at which point, they return north toward Grant Park by way of Michigan Avenue for the finish. The Chicago Marathon course has been advertised as one going through 29 neighborhoods of Chicago, and it was certainly a good running tour of the city.
One thing about this course is that GPS watches fail to work during the first 5K and near the half-marathon mark due to the surrounding buildings and the Columbus Drive tunnel near the start. I have heard widely varying reports on exactly how the GPS screwed up during these segments; some people reported that their watches indicated the end of the first mile when they had in fact already covered two or even three, while others reported that their watches showed them going at unrealistically fast paces. For the first 5K, I fell more in the former category; according to my Garmin, the distance between the start and the Mile 3 mark was 2.88 miles. But near the half-marathon mark, I fell in the latter category; my split for Mile 13 was 6:35, which definitely was not correct.
Having known that GPS was unreliable during the first 5K, my plan was to line up about twenty feet behind the 3:05:00 pace group and spend the first three miles or so gradually catching up to them. I knew I had to run this segment of the race largely by feel, and I felt having a pace group as a point of reference would be helpful in preventing me from accidentally going too fast in these early miles. Jeremy and I lined up behind what we thought was the 3:05:00 pace group, on the left side of the corral, about halfway between the leftmost fence and the median, knowing that the first two turns would be left turns. We did not want to line up all the way on the left since after these first two turns, the next three turns would be right turns; we wanted to be able to get toward the right side of the course after the second left turn.
It turns out that what we thought was the 3:05:00 pace group simply turned out to be a bunch of people wearing the 3:05:00 pace group signs on their backs doing their own thing. Actually, during the race, I could not find any of the official pace groups. Thus, I had to run the first 5K by feel. As I entered the Columbus Drive tunnel, I just went with the flow, running a similar pace as the people around me. I was a little unprepared for the crowd of runners around me at the beginning; this was my largest marathon by far, and I had never experienced having to deal with this many other runners at the start. Nevertheless, I tried not to waste any energy weaving through people, although a few times, I did go around some people that I felt were running a little too slow. The runners did begin to thin out a little by the time we headed north on LaSalle, but due to the congestion, those first few miles were considerably slower; I completed the first mile in 7:19 and I averaged 7:14/mile pace for the first 5K.
During this race, I diligently stuck to the fueling plan that I had also used for my previous marathons: water or Gatorade at every station before the 30K mark, and three Shot Blocks every three or four miles. Again, I typically would not consume any fluids or Shot Blocks after the 30K mark; at that point in any marathon, a runner's body is so stressed that it would no longer be able to take in any additional nutrients as non-essential functions such as digestion would have been shut down. I believe that it is the fluids and the Shot Blocks or gels taken in the earlier miles that will make the difference; since the body has not been stressed to the point of shutting down digestion at this point, it still will take in nutrients.
The next 5K was also quite a bit slower at 7:12/mile pace. I simply felt sluggish during these miles for some reason. As I noted my pace, I realized that my original target pace of 6:55 to 7:00/mile was not going to happen today; my body simply did not want to go that fast. But after the 10K mark, I started to settle into a 7:00 to 7:05/mile pace; it still not my original target pace, but it would have brought me a Boston qualifying time if I held it. I felt that if I had gone faster, it would have come back to haunt me later in the race. Thus, I listened to my body and stayed at this pace until the 30K mark.
I have trouble remembering much of the race between the 10K mark and the halfway point. Jeremy and I continued to run together through the halfway point; I focused on fueling, running the tangents, and maintaining my pace, which, for reasons unknown, started to drift back closer to 7:15/mile between the 15K and 20K mark. I had been so focused on my race during this segment that I failed to notice when I entered Boystown at around Mile 8 or when another member of DC Front Runners also running Chicago flew past me and Jeremy at around the same point; I only knew after Jeremy pointed him out. I also did not really pay much attention to the very loud throngs of spectators throughout the course. The noise that they made was unlike anything I had heard in my other marathons; I had mentioned before that Chicago as a city was extremely enthusiastic about the marathon, and this enthusiasm certainly showed on race day.
After the halfway point, I did not feel exactly fresh, but I felt like I still had some more in me. I did panic a little when I finished the first half in 1:33:50; even though this was the fastest I had ever completed the first half of a marathon, I still would have liked to have come through the halfway mark in faster than 1:33:00. I continued onward, and my pace accelerated to my initial target of 6:55 to 7:00/mile. I held this pace for the next several miles.
Jeremy and I continued running together until about the 30K mark. When I saw that I finished the first 30K in around 2:12:30, I did some quick math and realized that if I ran the last 12K in 51 minutes, I would finish in 3:03:30 or faster, which should have given me a fighting chance of being able to actually run Boston in 2016. That meant I had to average around a 6:50/mile pace for the rest of the race. Realizing that I had enough energy left in me for a late-race surge, I decided to go for it.
Right after passing the 30K mark, I pushed the pace to about a 6:45/mile. I actually could not remember much of the next few miles. I did remember passing hordes of other runners, including one man running in a Minnie Mouse costume. I did remember entering and leaving Chinatown near the Mile 21 mark, but other than that, Chinatown was a blur. And I certainly remember people screaming what could very well be the most idiotic thing anyone can say at the Mile 22 mark of a marathon: "You're almost there!" Four miles, although a relatively small proportion of the overall marathon distance, hardly qualifies as "almost there"; anyone who has run a marathon knows that those last four miles are often the most difficult.
I kept my 6:45 to 6:50/mile pace for next several miles, even though cramping in my legs that started shortly after the Mile 24 mark. When I passed the Mile 25 mark and noticed that I was around 2:55:00 into the race, I pushed the pace a little. As expected, Mt. Roosevelt, namely that last "little" hill right before the turn onto Columbus Drive to the finish, hurt. That hill was not particularly long or steep, but at Mile 26 of the marathon, it most definitely was not trivial. After I crested Mt. Roosevelt, I gave it everything I had, sprinting down Columbus Drive to the finish, overshooting the timing mats that would record my finish time; they were positioned right in front of the arches marking the finish, and I thought runners were done once they ran through those arches.
The Days Leading Up to the Event
Three weeks before Chicago, I ran the Rock and Roll Philadelphia Half-Marathon as a tune-up race to get back into the racing mindset and to get a basis for a reasonable pace for the marathon. The weather on the day of the half-marathon was certainly not ideal: 68 degrees and 88 percent humidity at the start, with the temperatures just getting warmer as the race progressed. But even after a relatively slow first mile, I still managed to run 1:25:12, a thirteen-second half-marathon PR for me.
I probably would have been able to run a significantly better time under less unpleasant conditions. But for the purposes of estimating a reasonable target pace for Chicago, I decided to use 1:25:12 as my basis. In terms of planning a pacing strategy for the marathon, I believed it was better to err on the conservative side. Besides, I had no idea exactly how much better my time would have been under better racing conditions; all I could reasonably conclude was that I was in 1:25:12 half-marathon shape or better. I am aware that some online calculators can provide an adjusted race time for temperature, but frankly, I was a little hesitant to listen to them; I cannot imagine that any such temperature-adjusting race time calculators have actually been validated with real race results, and I have trouble figuring out a design of this type of study. Thus, plugging my 1:25:12 half-marathon time into the Maclin calculator on the Moderate aggressiveness setting gave me a 3:02:04, or 6:57/mile pace. I settled on the plan to target 6:55 to 7:00/mile during the first 30K, and then accelerate or try to hold that pace from that point forward depending on how I felt.
After the half-marathon, I started my taper. I basically tried to replicate what I did during the three-week taper period preceding Shamrock. The week following the half-marathon was mostly done at recovery pace. That Sunday and the following Tuesday would be the last truly difficult workouts I would do before the marathon. Sunday's long run was a 16-mile long run with six miles at target marathon pace. The warm temperatures that day prohibited me from hitting my target pace, so I after three miles of trying to hold a 6:55 to 7:00/mile pace, I gave up and just ran the remainder of the run at my normal long run pace. The following Tuesday's run was a six-mile run with the inner four miles at tempo pace. I was able to successfully hit tempo pace, even in spite of the warmer temperatures. After that, my workouts only consisted of easy runs and marathon-pace runs. The week preceding the marathon, I focused on consuming carbs whenever I could and staying hydrated.
I arrived in Chicago on the Friday before the race. After meeting Jeremy, with whom I trained for much of this cycle, at the airport, we took the train to our hotel, located only about four blocks from the start line. We intentionally did not do much on Friday; aside from a trip to the Expo at McCormick Place, which took longer than anticipated because of the relative scarcity of shuttle buses going to and from the Roosevelt station, I did a four-mile shakeout run, and dinner.
The next day Jeremy and I did a bit of sightseeing, which we kept limited in order to stay off our feet and to save our energy for the race. We did visit Willis Tower and the ledge on the 103rd floor. We had intended to do an architectural boat tour this afternoon also, but they were booked completely. I would have loved to get pictures of Willis Tower and the city of Chicago, but the camera on my phone inexplicably froze after I tried to take a picture and I could not get it to unfreeze. But otherwise, a good portion of this day was spent at the hotel.
The Race
Conditions were nearly perfect on race day: moderate humidity with temperatures starting in the low fifties and never really increasing much more than that. After waking up at four in the morning and being unable to fall asleep, I passed the time in my hotel room before going downstairs to meet Jeremy at around seven. Even though our hotel was a relatively brief walk to the start line in Grant Park, we barely made it into our corral before the Wave 1 corrals closed. According to event rules, Wave 1 corrals closed at 7:20 am, ten minutes before the official start of the race, and all runners in Corrals A through E needed to be in their corrals before then. Those that were late were required to start at the back of Corral E. The course officials were actually quite strict about this rule; the gates to the Wave 1 corrals closed promptly at 7:20 with an announcement to all of those not yet in the corrals to report to the back of Corral E.
The Chicago Marathon course is fast and very flat, aside from a relatively small hill on Roosevelt Avenue near the Mile 26 mark. This course is great for a PR, provided that the weather cooperates, which, based on historical data, seems to be most of the time, despite many marathoners' warnings about the high variability of Chicago Marathon race day conditions. The course is shaped like a cross with its right prong missing, or a four-leaf clover with a missing leaf. For the first seven miles or so, runners head north toward Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville before coming back toward the Central Loop. Near the half-marathon mark, runners then head west on Adams Street for about two miles toward Greektown before again coming back toward the Central Loop. For Mile 17 through Mile 23, runners head south through Little Italy, University Village, and Chinatown toward Bridgeport, at which point, they return north toward Grant Park by way of Michigan Avenue for the finish. The Chicago Marathon course has been advertised as one going through 29 neighborhoods of Chicago, and it was certainly a good running tour of the city.
One thing about this course is that GPS watches fail to work during the first 5K and near the half-marathon mark due to the surrounding buildings and the Columbus Drive tunnel near the start. I have heard widely varying reports on exactly how the GPS screwed up during these segments; some people reported that their watches indicated the end of the first mile when they had in fact already covered two or even three, while others reported that their watches showed them going at unrealistically fast paces. For the first 5K, I fell more in the former category; according to my Garmin, the distance between the start and the Mile 3 mark was 2.88 miles. But near the half-marathon mark, I fell in the latter category; my split for Mile 13 was 6:35, which definitely was not correct.
Having known that GPS was unreliable during the first 5K, my plan was to line up about twenty feet behind the 3:05:00 pace group and spend the first three miles or so gradually catching up to them. I knew I had to run this segment of the race largely by feel, and I felt having a pace group as a point of reference would be helpful in preventing me from accidentally going too fast in these early miles. Jeremy and I lined up behind what we thought was the 3:05:00 pace group, on the left side of the corral, about halfway between the leftmost fence and the median, knowing that the first two turns would be left turns. We did not want to line up all the way on the left since after these first two turns, the next three turns would be right turns; we wanted to be able to get toward the right side of the course after the second left turn.
It turns out that what we thought was the 3:05:00 pace group simply turned out to be a bunch of people wearing the 3:05:00 pace group signs on their backs doing their own thing. Actually, during the race, I could not find any of the official pace groups. Thus, I had to run the first 5K by feel. As I entered the Columbus Drive tunnel, I just went with the flow, running a similar pace as the people around me. I was a little unprepared for the crowd of runners around me at the beginning; this was my largest marathon by far, and I had never experienced having to deal with this many other runners at the start. Nevertheless, I tried not to waste any energy weaving through people, although a few times, I did go around some people that I felt were running a little too slow. The runners did begin to thin out a little by the time we headed north on LaSalle, but due to the congestion, those first few miles were considerably slower; I completed the first mile in 7:19 and I averaged 7:14/mile pace for the first 5K.
During this race, I diligently stuck to the fueling plan that I had also used for my previous marathons: water or Gatorade at every station before the 30K mark, and three Shot Blocks every three or four miles. Again, I typically would not consume any fluids or Shot Blocks after the 30K mark; at that point in any marathon, a runner's body is so stressed that it would no longer be able to take in any additional nutrients as non-essential functions such as digestion would have been shut down. I believe that it is the fluids and the Shot Blocks or gels taken in the earlier miles that will make the difference; since the body has not been stressed to the point of shutting down digestion at this point, it still will take in nutrients.
The next 5K was also quite a bit slower at 7:12/mile pace. I simply felt sluggish during these miles for some reason. As I noted my pace, I realized that my original target pace of 6:55 to 7:00/mile was not going to happen today; my body simply did not want to go that fast. But after the 10K mark, I started to settle into a 7:00 to 7:05/mile pace; it still not my original target pace, but it would have brought me a Boston qualifying time if I held it. I felt that if I had gone faster, it would have come back to haunt me later in the race. Thus, I listened to my body and stayed at this pace until the 30K mark.
I have trouble remembering much of the race between the 10K mark and the halfway point. Jeremy and I continued to run together through the halfway point; I focused on fueling, running the tangents, and maintaining my pace, which, for reasons unknown, started to drift back closer to 7:15/mile between the 15K and 20K mark. I had been so focused on my race during this segment that I failed to notice when I entered Boystown at around Mile 8 or when another member of DC Front Runners also running Chicago flew past me and Jeremy at around the same point; I only knew after Jeremy pointed him out. I also did not really pay much attention to the very loud throngs of spectators throughout the course. The noise that they made was unlike anything I had heard in my other marathons; I had mentioned before that Chicago as a city was extremely enthusiastic about the marathon, and this enthusiasm certainly showed on race day.
After the halfway point, I did not feel exactly fresh, but I felt like I still had some more in me. I did panic a little when I finished the first half in 1:33:50; even though this was the fastest I had ever completed the first half of a marathon, I still would have liked to have come through the halfway mark in faster than 1:33:00. I continued onward, and my pace accelerated to my initial target of 6:55 to 7:00/mile. I held this pace for the next several miles.
Jeremy and I continued running together until about the 30K mark. When I saw that I finished the first 30K in around 2:12:30, I did some quick math and realized that if I ran the last 12K in 51 minutes, I would finish in 3:03:30 or faster, which should have given me a fighting chance of being able to actually run Boston in 2016. That meant I had to average around a 6:50/mile pace for the rest of the race. Realizing that I had enough energy left in me for a late-race surge, I decided to go for it.
Right after passing the 30K mark, I pushed the pace to about a 6:45/mile. I actually could not remember much of the next few miles. I did remember passing hordes of other runners, including one man running in a Minnie Mouse costume. I did remember entering and leaving Chinatown near the Mile 21 mark, but other than that, Chinatown was a blur. And I certainly remember people screaming what could very well be the most idiotic thing anyone can say at the Mile 22 mark of a marathon: "You're almost there!" Four miles, although a relatively small proportion of the overall marathon distance, hardly qualifies as "almost there"; anyone who has run a marathon knows that those last four miles are often the most difficult.
I kept my 6:45 to 6:50/mile pace for next several miles, even though cramping in my legs that started shortly after the Mile 24 mark. When I passed the Mile 25 mark and noticed that I was around 2:55:00 into the race, I pushed the pace a little. As expected, Mt. Roosevelt, namely that last "little" hill right before the turn onto Columbus Drive to the finish, hurt. That hill was not particularly long or steep, but at Mile 26 of the marathon, it most definitely was not trivial. After I crested Mt. Roosevelt, I gave it everything I had, sprinting down Columbus Drive to the finish, overshooting the timing mats that would record my finish time; they were positioned right in front of the arches marking the finish, and I thought runners were done once they ran through those arches.
 |
| Splits at each 5K and halfway point, according to results. |
I made my way to the reunion area and found Brian and his family. Jeremy was also there, having slipped past me somewhere in the finisher's area. After basking in the sun and the glory of our accomplishments that day (Jeremy and I had both run a PR and Brian had run a very strong 3:01:11), we returned to the hotel to freshen up and relax a little before exploring Chicago.
I was very glad that I got to stay those two extra days after the marathon. After the marathon, I was able to do all the sightseeing that I wanted without having to worry about how being on my feet for so long would adversely affect my race. Chicago has quite a bit to offer in terms of sights and experiences, and on marathon weekend, my marathon medal was able to get me into a number of places at a discounted price. Notable highlights from the remainder of my trip included an architectural boat tour on the Chicago River, Sidetrack in Boystown, and the Art Institute, which had art from a wide range of time periods, much of which I was, unfortunately, unable to see due to time constraints.
And, of course, I visited the Cloud Gate. Much to my annoyance, the camera on my phone was still having problems. It was not until I returned to DC on Tuesday that my camera started inexplicably functioning again.
I was very glad that I got to stay those two extra days after the marathon. After the marathon, I was able to do all the sightseeing that I wanted without having to worry about how being on my feet for so long would adversely affect my race. Chicago has quite a bit to offer in terms of sights and experiences, and on marathon weekend, my marathon medal was able to get me into a number of places at a discounted price. Notable highlights from the remainder of my trip included an architectural boat tour on the Chicago River, Sidetrack in Boystown, and the Art Institute, which had art from a wide range of time periods, much of which I was, unfortunately, unable to see due to time constraints.
And, of course, I visited the Cloud Gate. Much to my annoyance, the camera on my phone was still having problems. It was not until I returned to DC on Tuesday that my camera started inexplicably functioning again.
 |
| At the Cloud Gate the day after the marathon. What trip to Chicago would be complete without a picture in front of the Cloud Gate? Picture courtesy of Jeremy. |
Thoughts About the Race
One thing I wish I did during this race was to soak up the atmosphere a little more. As can be seen with my lack of florid descriptions of the race itself, I simply did not notice much of what was going on around me; I was so focused on getting a PR and qualifying for Boston again. Personal bests and Boston qualifiers were important, but so was creating favorable memories; after all, my most fond racing memories were not necessarily races where I ran a PR, but ones where I made that additional effort to enjoy my surroundings, such as Baltimore in 2012 or Shamrock earlier this year. Plus, this was my first World Major.
But also, this race emphasized the importance of paying attention to how I felt more than the pace on my Garmin. Of course, the erratic behavior during the first 5K prevented me from relying on my Garmin for pace information. But also, sometimes, your body just will not cooperate, and you will simply have no choice but to listen to it and adjust accordingly. My body did not seem to want to run what I had initially planned during the early miles; like I had said before, I simply could not muster faster than a 7:05/mile pace for the first half of the race, and for much of the early miles, even 7:10 to 7:15/mile pace felt like an honest effort. Sometimes, these stretches where you do not feel as fast and as strong as you would like just inexplicably go away; after the halfway mark, I began to speed up and was able to hit my initial target pace. But if I had tried to force a pace during the first half of this race, I would have just kept digging myself deeper into a hole; had I pushed the pace in the early miles and actually tried to stay within my original targeted 6:55 to 7:00/mile range, I probably would have expended too much energy in the beginning and I would have suffered for it during the second half.
Finally, as I mentioned before, this was my first race of this size. Such a large race comes with logistic issues not found in smaller marathons, and reading the rules and procedures carefully is very important. For example, the Chicago Marathon has very strict rules about starting, such as needing to be in your corral at least ten minutes prior to the start of your wave; in order to accommodate over 40 thousand people starting a race within the space of 45 minutes, the rules do need to be strict. Starting behind Corral E when I was originally assigned to Corral A just because I arrived at the gates of the corrals a minute late would have forced me to weave through huge crowds of people going almost two minutes per mile slower than I wanted to run; not an ideal start to a marathon.
Also, due to the congestion at the start, lining up in the correct location is very important. The thick crowds in the early miles prevents you from running much faster than the pace of everyone else around you, unless you waste energy weaving in and out of other runners. Thus, lining up too far at the front may force you to go at a much faster pace than you should, whereas lining up at too far toward the back may force you to run at too slow of a pace. Also, lining up in the correct location will allow you to hug the turns a little more. For Chicago, I feel the ideal location to line up is on the left side, about halfway between the far left fence and the median; the first two turns are left turns, and lining up on the left side would put you closer to those tangents. But the following three turns are right turns; not lining up all the way on the left allows you to veer to the right much more easily to be able to get closer to the tangents for these turns. As I have mentioned numerous times before, I am a strong advocate of running tangents; that can mean the difference between running just a little over 26.2 miles and running over 26.6 miles, which can translate to three minutes or more saved.
But also, this race emphasized the importance of paying attention to how I felt more than the pace on my Garmin. Of course, the erratic behavior during the first 5K prevented me from relying on my Garmin for pace information. But also, sometimes, your body just will not cooperate, and you will simply have no choice but to listen to it and adjust accordingly. My body did not seem to want to run what I had initially planned during the early miles; like I had said before, I simply could not muster faster than a 7:05/mile pace for the first half of the race, and for much of the early miles, even 7:10 to 7:15/mile pace felt like an honest effort. Sometimes, these stretches where you do not feel as fast and as strong as you would like just inexplicably go away; after the halfway mark, I began to speed up and was able to hit my initial target pace. But if I had tried to force a pace during the first half of this race, I would have just kept digging myself deeper into a hole; had I pushed the pace in the early miles and actually tried to stay within my original targeted 6:55 to 7:00/mile range, I probably would have expended too much energy in the beginning and I would have suffered for it during the second half.
Finally, as I mentioned before, this was my first race of this size. Such a large race comes with logistic issues not found in smaller marathons, and reading the rules and procedures carefully is very important. For example, the Chicago Marathon has very strict rules about starting, such as needing to be in your corral at least ten minutes prior to the start of your wave; in order to accommodate over 40 thousand people starting a race within the space of 45 minutes, the rules do need to be strict. Starting behind Corral E when I was originally assigned to Corral A just because I arrived at the gates of the corrals a minute late would have forced me to weave through huge crowds of people going almost two minutes per mile slower than I wanted to run; not an ideal start to a marathon.
Also, due to the congestion at the start, lining up in the correct location is very important. The thick crowds in the early miles prevents you from running much faster than the pace of everyone else around you, unless you waste energy weaving in and out of other runners. Thus, lining up too far at the front may force you to go at a much faster pace than you should, whereas lining up at too far toward the back may force you to run at too slow of a pace. Also, lining up in the correct location will allow you to hug the turns a little more. For Chicago, I feel the ideal location to line up is on the left side, about halfway between the far left fence and the median; the first two turns are left turns, and lining up on the left side would put you closer to those tangents. But the following three turns are right turns; not lining up all the way on the left allows you to veer to the right much more easily to be able to get closer to the tangents for these turns. As I have mentioned numerous times before, I am a strong advocate of running tangents; that can mean the difference between running just a little over 26.2 miles and running over 26.6 miles, which can translate to three minutes or more saved.
Next Steps
After recovering from this marathon, I will do several shorter races, including the Veteran's Day 10K in November and the Jingle All the Way 8K in December. I may also even run my first 12K race, the .US National 12K in Arlington in the middle of November. I cannot predict how I would do in these shorter distances after my last cycle of marathon training, but perhaps a small PR in the 10K or 8K may not be completely out of the question.
So then comes the question: when and what will my next marathon be? Currently, I am thinking that my next marathon will be in Fall 2015, and I will focus on improving my times at the shorter distances in the spring. I would do at least one half-marathon though, and most likely my first 10-Miler. I think breaking the cycle of spring and fall marathons and focusing on speed for a bit may be good for my long-term development as a runner.
But then again, if I do run a spring marathon, I have a chance to improve my time even more and get an even better chance of being able to run Boston in 2016. If I choose to run a spring marathon, then I would use Fall 2015 to focus on the shorter distances. I may do the Spring 2015 marathon if I see any indication that the Boston cutoff time for 2016 will be more than 72 seconds.
