Oct 11, we awoke to abnormally cold weather. After a delicious breakfast of eggs and whole wheat toast with peanut butter, we headed downtown to meet 45,000 crazy marathoners at 6am.
The race started at 7:30, yet it took 15 minutes for our 10 minute/mile pace group to hit the start line. Joel & I had never even run in a 5k before and had so much fun surrounded by so many runners. The race felt Chicago.
The fans were incredible. Everyone was yelling our names, not because they knew us, but because they read the names off our shirts. I LOVED having hundreds of fans! Little kids stand in line to give you high fives as you pass. Fans pass out candy, pretzels, and even beer.
I loved watching the different runners. One guy ran the entire race barefoot. Others are dressed up in different costumes (bananas, crazy hair) anything you can think of you see on marathon day.
Our favorite spots along the way:- The first 2 miles were so much fun! You felt as though you were flying between tall sky scrapers. No other time does Chicago shut down streets for you
- Moody church--they did an incredible job of having really fun music and really loud fans
- Boystown--loved seeing the gay guys dancing in skirts on stages, I needed that laugh at mile 9
- Chinatown--its really fun to see all the fans switch to Chinese people
We completely missed Kathryn at mile 8...never saw her! So sad :(
The first 13 miles were SO much fun! Piper & her parents met us at mile 8.
She is trying to show me all the Dora stickers on the sign she made!
I love this girl so much! She asks me daily if I'm still tired from "the race"! She is my little running coach. She says, "Go Amy, Go" whenever I'm pushing her in the jogging stroller. She loves running around the block with me! Maybe she'll run Chicago Marathon 2030 with me?
Brittany met us at mile 10. At this point it was sad, because we knew we wouldn't see anyone else we knew until mile 21!
By mile 13, my knees were starting to hurt. We started walking through the water stations and taking additional walking breaks. Anyone who has ever run farther than 18 miles will tell you that long distance running will give you strange pain. You're not out of breath, but your joints and feet hurt!
Brittany met us at mile 21. I don't know how she saw us (I was a bit delirous), but all of a sudden she was running beside me! She ran with us until mile 25. What an incredible encouragement she was! Everyone warned us that anything after mile 20 would be tough. Fans are sparse at that point. You're on the south side of Chicago and have to get back down town. Brittany helped us through! THANK YOU Brittany!
Excitement builds at the last mile. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to have fans cheering you on. People you've never met suddenly feel incredibly close to you! Hundreds of fans spend hours and hours on the sidelines cheering people on, making you feel like a million bucks!
Joel & I crossed the finish line holding hands after 5.5 hours running (a bit longer than we had hoped, but we finished!). Joel would have finished in 4.5 hours, but kept it slow for me :)
And yes, Joel enjoyed the beer at the end. I enjoyed a whole wheat bagel from Whole Foods.
Recovery was much quicker than we anticipated. I was barely able to walk Sunday night. We had plans of going out that night, but I couldn't walk across our 800 sq. foot condo! Monday night I could walk like an 80 year old woman. By Thursday, I was almost back to normal. We are enjoying 3-5 mile runs lately!
We're considering a 2010 Triathlon :)
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