Chicago Marathon Race Report

The Chicago Marathon has been my goal race every year for the past 11 years. This year was no different. Pretty much every run I went on this year was done with an eye towards Chicago. The "putting all your eggs in one basket" approach has worked for me in years past and I was confident it would work again this year. I got the starting line healthy and rested, and with the training I did over the summer, I thought that would be enough for a PR. Unfortunately, things don't always turn out as they should.

For some reason, I was just flat coming into this race. Maybe it was a sign of overtraining. Maybe I left my best runs out there somewhere in the weeks leading up to the race. Maybe it was just a bad day. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t feeling confident in the starting corral before the race. I was trying to convince myself that things would be OK. Just wait for the gun to go off, and everything will fall into place. You've felt like this before and run good races. You can do it again. And I actually started believing it myself.

The gun went off and settled into a nice but conservative pace just under 6 min per mile. The plan was to run the first 6 miles with Dave, and then see what I felt like at that point. I can't say I felt great at any point during the race, but I didn't feel bad either, and I was trying to convince myself that maybe this is how you have a good race. Don't feel great at the beginning and just kind of let it come to you. I saw my wife and sister waiting around mile 8 or so and I was able to confidently give them a thumbs up.

But then somewhere soon thereafter, some doubt started to creep in. Now, this was my 20th marathon, and I don't think there have been more than 2 or 3 races where there hasn't been some doubt at some point in the race. However, this time the doubt came pretty early on and probably more importantly, I didn't have the will to even try and fight it. When faced with it, I could do one of two things, either fight through it, or give in to it and slow down. I chose the latter, as my splits show. Why? I wish I had the answer. I'm sure it was a combination of many things. Wrong day? Maybe. Cumulative mental fatigue of 20 pretty hard lifetime marathons? Possibly. Weather? Might have had something to do with it. I'd like to think that it wasn't my training, but who knows. I'll look at all of it.

So the last 13 miles were pretty much just one foot in front of the other. With a 1:18 half split, I pretty much knew a PR wasn't happening today. The thought of dropping out crossed my mind a few times, but I was at least able to keep those thoughts at bay. I can't call a Sunday a crash and burn. Instead it was just a slow fade. On a different day, maybe I would have had the intestinal fortitude to fight through it, but not on Sunday.

During the race, thoughts entered my mind like maybe my best days were behind me. With the benefit of a few days to think about it, I don't think that's the case. I still enjoy running and I still enjoy pushing myself. I do think I can do things a bit smarter next year with my training, possibly incorporating a little more rest into the scheduled so I can hit my workouts a little more consistently throughout the cycles. I also think that maybe I would have benefited from racing a bit more over the summer. With only 2 races heading into the marathon since May, the race readiness might not have been where it needed to be. Like I said, I'll look at all of it.

So while Sunday may not have been what I hoped for, I'm still enjoying a nice year of running. With PRs in the marathon (earlier in the spring), 5K, and 8K so far this year I still feel confident that I'm headed in the right direction. At 35 years old, I think I can still improve for a few more years. Thanks to all for your encouragement throughout the year. Below are the not so pretty splits:

Distance Overall Split Pace
5K: 0:18:28 5:56
10K: 0:36:54 0:18:26 5:55
15K: 0:55:17 0:18:23 5:55
20K: 1:13:58 0:18:41 6:00
HALF: 1:18:05 0:04:07
25K: 1:32:58 0:19:00 6:06
30K: 1:52:27 0:19:29 6:16
35K: 2:12:17 0:19:50 6:23
40K: 2:32:34 0:20:17 6:31

FINISH: 2:41:25 6:09 Overall pace