2019 Chicago Marathon Trip/Race Recap: Part 2

I certainly did not intend for there to be three weeks between the posting of Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog, but sometimes life gets in the way. Even with that time gap, this is still a mess and could use some serious editing, so consider yourself warned!

If you are seeing this post and haven't read part 1 and would like to, it can be found here:

https://engineeredtorun.blogspot.com/2019/10/2019-chicago-marathon-triprace-recap.html

Part 2 will now look at the day of the race in detail, as well as a brief recap of the completion of my trip after that. As I mentioned in part 1, I also plan to write a third part at some point that will look at the entire marathon process, from training through the race and lessons learned. At the rate it took to write these first two parts, that one should be done sometime around Christmas!

Sunday, October 13, 2019

After getting in bed around 8:00 pm Saturday night, Kiley and I had two totally different sleep experiences. He drifted off almost immediately, while I picked up my phone to read and pass some time around 9:00 pm when I realized sleep was not imminent. We both had a bathroom break just before 10:00 pm (one downfall of all the pre-race hydration) and after Kiley dozed off immediately once more I eventually got some sleep myself somewhere around 10:30 pm. I slept until around 2:00 am, when nature called once more, and I honestly don't think I fell properly back to sleep after that. I guess that I am really going to find out how much poor sleep in the 3-4 days leading up to the race impacts your marathon performance.

Our alarms went off just after 4:00 am, and we got up and took our time getting ready. The nerves weren't too bad at this point, and while my legs were definitely a little tired from all the walking the previous day, I was optimistic about how I was feeling overall. Kiley was pretty loose, as he was planning to run a fairly comfortable pace for himself. It definitely made it easier having a race buddy who wasn't bouncing off the walls with nerves.

We both ate our pre-race meal, got our race gear on, ensured we had everything we needed packed in our bags, and then at around 5:30 am we headed over to the 'L' Train station. As soon as we stepped out of our hotel, we were greeted with a "Mile 16" sign that had been put up since we had last been outside. It's getting real now!

A dark and early start to the day

The train ride downtown took less than 10 minutes, and when we got off at Jackson station we had about a 5 minute walk to our entry gates. Kiley and I were at different gates, but as they were both on Van Buren Street we headed there together. When we arrived, our gates were a few hundred metres apart. We split up, and agreed that we would meet up again at gear check. Little did we know at this point how futile a plan that was.

I got in the line for security check at around 6:00 am, and fully realized why they asked people to show up at 5:30 am. The line wasn't ridiculously long, but it was long enough. And it was slow moving, in no small part because people are terrible at following directions. I honestly lost count of how many pieces of communication I received stating that the only bags allowed in the park on race day would be the clear ones we were given at bag check, but that did not stop hundreds of people from showing up with personal bags. This required all those people to dump the contents of their personal bag into their clear bag (if they were lucky enough to have brought it) and then discard their personal bag in a large container near security. I'm guessing the thrift stores in Chicago had a much higher than normal supply of backpacks the week after the race!

Just keep going towards the light, right?

After finally getting through security, I quickly moved towards gear check to meet up with Kiley. It took me about 5 minutes to get there, and when I did I noticed that there were stalls set up for all the bib numbers, in groups of 1000. Unfortunately, Kiley and I hadn't known this, and we hadn't agreed to meet at either of our numbers. As it was already around 6:30 am, and I didn't want to end up rushed, I decided to check my gear, and since I had to pass Kiley's stall on the way out I hoped I could find him then.

I got to my gear check and took off my outer layer to store it for after the race. I intended to leave on an old sweater and pair of pants to discard closer to race start, but I was in such a rush I forgot to leave the pants on and just went with my shorts. Thankfully my legs don't get too cold, as I've been telling all my running partners during years of winter runs wearing shorts! Haha  I also got my race shoes on at this point, then checked my bag and moved towards the gear check exit.

As I passed Kiley's stall, he was nowhere to be found, and given the fact that he was wearing a neon-coloured hat, I figured I would be able to spot him if he was still there. At this point, the only reasonable decision to make was that I'd have to continue moving towards the start without him, and assume he was doing the same. Neither of us could really afford to just wait around hoping the other would show up.

I stopped in line at the port-a-potties just outside gear check, but quickly realized the line was moving quite slowly. It was now around 6:50 am, and as the start corrals were closing at 7:15 am I didn't want to risk anything. I headed to my start corral, and confirmed at the entrance that there were port-a-potties inside. Luckily, the lines were shorter in there, and I was through and into the corral by about 7:05 am.

I was in start corral D, and Kiley was in C, so at this point there was zero chance of seeing him before the race. I wanted to get a quick warm-up in, but in a corral with about 3,000 people there wasn't a lot of room. I jogged around for about 300-400 metres, weaving in and out of all the people standing around waiting. I then did some light stretching, ate my pre-race gel, and discarded my sweater in the available bins and moved to the front-center of the corral at around 7:15 am.

At this point I learned an important lesson that I will remember for any future major marathons I run: do not stand near the outside of your corral! It turns out lots of people want to be in the center of the corral, and many of them stake their spot out early. The problem is they don't want to take their warm-up clothes off that early. So, what happened as the start approached? People in the center of the corral started removing articles of clothing and doing their best to toss them outside the corral. Let me tell you, most of them were not successful. Which of course meant that those standing near the outside of the corral were in a constant state of being hit or having to dodge flying clothes.

Aside from that, the entire scene was awesome and truly mesmerizing. There were around 10,000 people in the 3 corrals in front of mine, plus the small group of elite athletes, including some of the best marathoners in the world. It was a beautiful fall morning, and the Chicago skyline looked amazing surrounding us all. There were a couple of military helicopters flying overhead, which gave a brief reminder that a race of this scale carries certain additional risks.

I don't think this was this year, but an idea of what the start looks like

Now, as I was standing here taking all of this in, two things became apparent that would become defining features of my race. The first was that the fastest pace group in my corral had a target time of 3:25. Since my goal time was 3:10, that meant that an awful lot of the people around me and directly in front of me were going to be running a significantly slower pace than I was. Secondly, I realized that even though I had gone to the port-a-potty upon entering the corral, I now had to pee again. Uh oh! At this point, there wasn't much I could do about that until the race started, so I waited patiently for that to occur.

The PA announcer began the proceedings by introducing the national anthem singer, and then proceeded to list off the accolades for the elite wheelchair athletes and runners. Shortly after that, the wheelchair athletes began their race, and then, at 7:30 am, the elite athletes were off and the clock was started for my 2019 Chicago Marathon!

While the clock had started, the running had not. The start was staggered, and so after the elites went off, corral A moved up to the start line and waited before starting, and then corral B, etc. By the time our corral crossed the start line, it was around 7:41 am. I had my watch for timing anyways, but I made a mental note that I would have to deduct about 11 minutes from the clocks on course to get a read on my time.

As we started running, we went down below an underpass within the first kilometer. I saw 2 or 3 men run off down a side street, presumably to relieve themselves, and I was very tempted to do the same. I ultimately decided I'd rather not risk a public urination citation in the middle of the race, and figured I would hold out as long as necessary and then find a port-a-potty.

Heading into the race, I had been warned by one of my running buddies not to trust my GPS signal in Chicago, due to interference from the buildings. Since the course map indicated that there would be markers at every mile and every 5k, I decided to manually lap my watch every mile. My goal pace was 7:15/mile (4:30/km), and I generally like to know how much time I'm gaining or losing each lap.

Now, in any race, how well you perform is often tied to how well you execute and stick to your plan. I decided to throw part of my plan out the window not 5 minutes into the race when I saw a "1 kilometer" sign coming up. I quickly audibled and decided I would lap every kilometer, as that is what I am used to. Unfortunately, in my haste, I clicked the lap button twice. So when I looked down to read my first lap split, I saw 0:00.6. Awesome, now I don't know how I did on the first kilometer. And while I didn't know it yet, that was the smaller issue with my hasty decision to change my strategy.

While I didn't have my first lap split (turns out it was 4:51), I was pretty confident that I was well behind pace. That wasn't a big deal, and was actually somewhat part of the plan, as I didn't want to spend too much energy fighting to get past people early in the race. As I would come to find out over the next hour or so, I wasn't going to have much choice in that matter if I wanted to be anywhere near my goal time.

I picked up the pace a little, and ran the second kilometer in 4:42. I had realized that though I had missed my first lap split, I could still check where I was against my goal by doing some quick math (it helped that 4.5 and 7.25 were relatively simple lap times to work with). I should have hit 2 kilometers in 9:00, and I was sitting at 9:33. Obviously a little behind pace, but nothing to be too worried about this early.

As the next few kilometers wore on, I got a few things to worry about. First, my shoelace came undone somewhere around 3 kilometers in. I've done approximately 40 races, and this was the first time this had ever happened to me. I stopped, took off my gloves, and tied my shoe, then ditched my gloves in frustration. This was not a smart move, as my hands were a little cold for the next little while, which was somewhat problematic when I had to re-tie my shoes TWICE more! How is it possible that I've never had a shoelace come untied in a race, and now it happens three times in the first 10k of my first major marathon?

Not long after my shoelace came undone the first time, I passed the 2-mile marker. There was nothing really notable about this, except that I hadn't seen a 3-kilometer marker, which should have come first. Now, my quick decision to split the race by kilometers instead of miles had not only cost me my first split, but apparently I couldn't even count on seeing a marker for every kilometer. Doh! It was too late to switch to miles, so all I could do at this point was split my laps whenever I did see a kilometer marker. As the race wore on, this would eventually lead to splits of 2, 3, and even 4 kilometers in length. I really should have stuck to my plan!

The final issue that came apparent over the next half hour or so was just how much the congestion was going to hinder my race. I split kilometers 3 and 4 in 9:06, which was right around where I wanted to be, and put me about 40 seconds behind my goal pace overall. My next 4 kilometers were 4:21/4:31/4:33/4:18, which cut that deficit to around 20 seconds. The problem was, there were so many people in front of me running slower than I was that almost every step was a challenge. I was having to be constantly vigilant of the next runner or group of runners I was approaching, and figure out the path of least resistance to get around them. It was exhausting both mentally and physically.

And as bad as the first 8 kilometers were, the next 2 were much worse. The course tightened up to two lanes somewhere around 8k, and this made getting past people much more difficult. I remember one turn in particular where I had the misfortune of approaching it at the exact same time as a large pace group, and I was very nearly walking by the time we took the turn. I split kilometers 9 and 10 in 4:31 and 4:40 and was once again sitting around 30 seconds behind schedule. I took my first gel of the race around the 9k mark, and as the crowd started to disperse a little I tried to settle in for the 2nd quarter of the race. To top everything off, I still really felt like I had to pee, but I was in no mood to stop while behind schedule!

I split kilometer 11 at 4:10, which was a bit too fast for my liking, but then I hit kilometers 12 and 13 at 8:57 and 14 and 15 at 8:56 and was feeling much better. I was basically right on plan at that point, with 15 kilometers completed in 1:07:40 against a plan of 1:07:30. Now to just keep that pace for another two hours!

This video is just after the 8 mile marker; I run by around 16:20 or so

Kilometer 16 was a little slow, at 4:37, and then I went 4k before seeing another marker. My time for kilometers 17-20 was 17:25 (against a goal of 18:00), so this meant I was now approaching the halfway point about 20 seconds ahead of my goal pace. On the surface, this was really good news; the reality was much different.

I don't remember exactly when it was, but somewhere around 17 or 18k I realized there was no way I was going to be able to maintain my pace for another 2 hours. I don't know the exact reason, as there were numerous possibilities. All I knew was that with my legs were already starting to fatigue, and it was not realistic for me maintain a 4:30/km pace for another 25k.

This realization was much more of a mental problem than a physical one in the immediate moment. My legs were tiring, but they had lots left in them yet. Now, I had to work on convincing my mind to hang on for as long as it could, knowing my goal wasn't to be had. Thankfully, Kiley and I had talked on Saturday about our past marathons, and I had admitted that in my previous one I had definitely started walking much earlier than I needed to, in part because I was dejected and disappointed that I wouldn't hit my goal. So with that in mind, I had no intention of doing the same, and I buckled up and prepared to ride out my pace for as long as it would take me.

(And on the bright side, I no longer felt like I needed to stop and pee. Yay for small victories!)

I had taken my second gel around 18k, so that provided a little energy boost around this point. I then grabbed a package of energy chews from one of the aid stations, which led to another mishap and an all-around funny moment.

The energy chews were at the beginning of the aid station, and since I had lost count of the aid stations I was caught by surprise and almost ran past them. I grabbed a package on the run, and after about 8 or 10 steps with them I looked down and realized that they were pre-opened, and were currently flying out of the package; to make things more interesting, at the very second I noticed this, Kiley appeared on my shoulder out of nowhere!

As noted earlier, Kiley and I had separated at 6:00 am and not seen each other again. Based on our goals, I assumed I had passed him long ago, and the surprise in seeing him was evident when the first words out of my mouth were, "You're running way too fast!". He laughed, and assured me that he was preparing to slow down, and then encouraged me to bear down and keep pushing. I was grateful for this mid-race pep talk, and I ate the one remaining energy chew and did my best to follow his instructions.

My next split didn't come until 23k, and I had run kilometers 21-23 in 12:38, which meant I was actually speeding up, and was now 1:15 ahead of my goal. This was a pleasant surprise given how I was feeling, and now that the crowd was much sparser I was able to just focus on running my pace for as long as I could.

The race got pretty boring at this point, and the mental game was tough. I covered kilometers 24 and 25 in 9:33, giving back about 30 seconds, and then kilometer 26 in 4:30. This left me about 35-40 seconds ahead of my goal with around 10 miles remaining. With the Tely 10 being the race course I am most familiar with, I attempted to maintain my focus by thinking about running each mile of that course for the next little while. For some reason, it seemed easier to think about getting to Coffee Matters, and then McDonalds, etc., then it did to cover random miles in a city I was completely unfamiliar with.

Kilometer 27 came in at 3:56, which made no sense at all (my watch says it was actually 0.92 km, which helps explain it somewhat), kilometers 28 and 29 went by in 9:16, kilometer 30 was a 4:37, and then kilometers 31-33 clocked in at 13:05. After all that, I was over three-quarters of the way through the race, and I was 70 seconds ahead of my goal. However, even though I had covered the last 3k 25 seconds faster than my goal pace, it was right around this moment when the goal officially died.

The death wasn't immediate, but it was obvious and irreversible. Kilometers 34 and 35 were split in 10:02, and then kilometers 36 and 37 in 9:44, and just like that I was 35 seconds behind my goal pace. There was no conscious choice made, and I didn't quit; my legs just couldn't move at that pace any longer.

It was also around this point where I had my final, and funniest, mishap of the race. I had picked up two energy gels around mile 15 or so, and had taken one right away to make up for the spilled energy chews. My plan was to take the last one around kilometer 35, and even though I was slowing down, I still wanted the energy.

Now, the gels I had taken earlier in the race opened right down the middle of the package. The ones on course opened over to one side. This didn't cause an issue with the first one. However, for some reason, it did with the second.

I opened it up as I approached the aid station, put it up to my mouth, and squeezed. Nothing. That's strange; maybe it isn't fully open. So, I took it down, checked it, and sure enough it was open. That is when I put my hand up to my shoulder and realized I had just poured over half an energy gel all over myself! As if it wasn't bad enough that my pace was slowing, I now spent the next 20-30 minutes using water from the aid stations trying to clean myself off, with my hands absolutely stuck together due to the sugar in the gel. Needless to say, I was not impressed. Haha

My shirt was still hard and sticky from the gel when I got home!

With about 5k left, I needed to maintain around a 5:30/km pace to stay under 3:15:00, which was now my secondary goal. I completed kilometer 38 in 5:24, and then kilometers 39 and 40 in 11:03, and that secondary goal was still within reach. Unfortunately, when I saw the 40k sign, I also knew I wasn't keeping a 5:30/km pace for another 2k+.

This video is from mile 24 (kilometer 38.5); I run by, quite slowly, around 1:15:30

At that point, I had yet to take a walk break, and I realized that not walking was likely slowing me down as my legs continued to weaken. The only reason not to walk now was to be able to say I didn't, so I ignored my ego and took a brief 30-second walk break. It definitely helped my legs feel better, and when I started to run again I knew my finishing time would be between 3:15 and 3:20, and I honestly didn't care much what exactly it was going to be within that range. Haha

Given that fact, when I really felt like walking again at the "800 meter to the finish" sign, I decided another 30-second walk break was deserved. Shortly after that, I split kilometers 41 and 42 in 11:33, which was still good for a 5:45/km pace, and I then managed to pick it up and run the last 200 meters at a solid 5:00/km pace to finish at 3:16:13.

This graph tells the story pretty well

It's hard to describe the feeling that I felt at the finish line. I hadn't hit my goal, so I wasn't overjoyed. But I had beaten my previous marathon best by over 23 minutes, so there was a definite feeling of pride, and satisfaction in knowing that 6-months of gruelling training had paid dividends. Overall, the best I can say is that it was a good feeling, which was a notable improvement on where I had been 2 years earlier at the finish line in Hamilton.

The walk out of the finish area was fairly long, but thankfully there were pit stops along the way. I got my medal, grabbed one of those fancy space blankets to keep me warm, got a banana, and then located one of the specially made beer cans they had for the finishers.

Custom beer for the finishers!

After exiting the finish area, I headed straight for gear check, and it was at that moment that the entire day was made for me. I got my bag and took out my phone, and I was touched to see a barrage of texts and Facebook messages. There was only one that I needed to open right away though: the one from Julia.

She had simply written "Txt me when u get this", and when I wrote her back she said, "I watched u cross the finish line". Even as I write this now, almost a month later, the tears come back to my eyes. I can be hard on myself in the pursuit of my goals, and that can sometimes remove a bit of joy from a moment of accomplishment. But knowing that my daughter was sitting at home in Newfoundland, proudly watching as her daddy crossed that finish line, gave me all the perspective I needed. I will remember receiving those texts for the rest of my life.

I started to move out of gear check, and I was lucky enough to find Kiley right away. He had run a great race, and after battling injury for most of the year he was extremely pleased to have run a good time and remained injury-free. I waited while he grabbed his stuff from gear check, and then we headed over to the post-race area in hopes of getting a massage.

There was a bit of a line-up, but we decided to wait it out. I was glad that we did, because the massage definitely helped in the recovery process. By the time we were done, it was after 1:00 pm, which meant we had to get back to the hotel fairly quickly, since Kiley was flying out at 6:00 pm!

(One interesting side note here: remember how I had to pee at the start of the race, and seriously considered stopping to do so? The first time I actually went to the bathroom was after the massage, over 5.5 hours later. The marathon does weird things to your body!)

We took the train back to the hotel, arriving around 2:00 pm, in part because the train ended its run one station away from our destination. This left us with a little bit of a trot (just what you want after a marathon!), and led to us discovering the most dedicated marathoners of the day.

As we were walking to our hotel, we were passing miles 16 and 17 of the course. On our journey, we passed about 7 or 8 people who were still on course! Based on some quick math, we determined these people had been on course for at least 5.5 hours, and at that rate were looking at another 2.5-3 hours to finish. Sure enough, when I checked the results later that week, there were finishers over the 8 hour mark. I cannot imagine having the dedication to stay out on that course for that long, well after the aid stations have packed up and the crowds are gone. Those people are to be truly commended.

Back at the hotel, Kiley packed up and left about 3:00 pm. Since all I had eaten for the day was a bagel and a banana plus my gels during the race, I showered up and headed across the road for supper. I grabbed a huge burger and fries, along with a couple of drinks, and while I was pretty full there was still one stop left to make: I had to get dessert!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a sweet fiend. When Kiley and I were searching for pre-race breakfast the night before, we had stumbled into a bakery. Even though it was about a 7 block walk there and back from the hotel, I had to do it. So I walked down, and grabbed two desserts for my nighttime snack. :)

Tiramisu and cheesecake. Yummy!

I returned to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, ate my desserts once I wasn't so full (they were both awesome!), and then headed to bed somewhere around 8:00 pm.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Since this post is already plenty long, I'm going to try to be brief with the final day of the trip. I woke around 4:00 am, and as my flight wasn't until 8:00 am, I opted for a quick treadmill run at the hotel.

I had long heard that an easy run the day after a marathon was the best thing for recovery, but I hadn't actually done it for my previous two. With plans of running the Cape to Cabot a week after Chicago, recovery was paramount. My original plan was to run at Goodlife in the Toronto airport, but my early rise allowed me to avoid that. The run was slow, and it didn't feel great, but in the end I'm really glad that I did it.

One of my slowest 5k's, but it did the trick

I packed up after that, and got the 'L' train to the airport around 5:00 am. Everything went smoothly getting through TSA, and I grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbucks. I got a brief fright when my name got called at the gate, but thankfully they simply wanted to give me a paper boarding pass since I had checked in online. They were also asking for people to check larger carry-ons, and since I didn't really care if my luggage was delayed heading home, I gladly checked mine through to St. John's.

When I boarded in Chicago, I was sitting in the front row of economy class, and therefore had no under seat storage. I put my carry-on bag over my head, and I placed two posters that Kiley and I had gotten at the expo in the overhead bin on the other side of the aisle. I settled in, watched a few episodes of TV, and was in Toronto before I knew it.

I quickly got off the plane in Toronto, and as I was heading up the stairs I looked to my right and saw a woman carrying a copy of the poster from the marathon. Oops! Mine and Kiley's were still on the plane, in the overhead across the aisle from my seat!

I turned around, headed back down towards the plane, and fortunately was able to retrieve them after everyone else had exited. Phew!

With 2.5 hours to kill in Toronto, I took my time making my way around the airport. I wasn't super hungry, so I grabbed a small lunch from A&W, and picked up some treats from Rocky Mountain Chocolate for the plane ride home.

I settled in near my gate and started chatting with a friend who happened by, and after we had been talking for about 20 minutes I thought I heard a final boarding announcement for our flight. As there was no activity in front of us at the gate that seemed strange, but I then turned around and discovered they had moved us to the next gate over. Good thing I heard that announcement!

The flight home was uneventful, and after grabbing my bag and heading outside, my father was right there to pick me up, no wait at all. I gave him a (condensed) version of this entire story on the drive home, and after about 20 minutes the Chicago Marathon 2020 trip was over.

I'll close part 2 here, and who knows when I will write part 3. I do know that I want to do a retrospective on my training and preparation, as well as what the future holds, at some point. Until then, I will end with a picture that represents the bigger goal that Chicago was a small part of: my quest to 6 stars. One down, five to go!