Chicago Marathon Race Recap

As I sit here on my 2+ hour flight back home, I am left with plenty of time to reflect back on this whole experience that was the 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. My 6th marathon was quite a journey to get there to say the least and certainly an exciting day of running!

Before I get into all of that, I want to talk a little bit about the past several months of training for the big day...

When I signed up for Chicago back in March, I was on a total runner's high from a huge Spring.  I had PR'ed in every distance I ran and placed in most of those events.  And I embarked on a long time dream of mine and became an official pacer for the first time.  So I was pretty fired up and ready to rock my next big race!  Knowing all I needed was a sub 3:45 to secure my spot in Chicago and not have to wait in the lottery, I was feeling pretty confident going into training with my recent PR of 3:38 (Run with Donna in February) and a guaranteed entry!

As summer rolled around and I got deeper into my training, I really started to struggle with my long runs.  In fact, any run outside was a struggle for me thanks to the crazy high heat and humidity.  Bombing practically every one of my long runs, I was not in the least bit convinced heading into my taper I would come anywhere close to my PR.

But I didn't want to get into my head too much so I pressed on and just hoped for the best come race day.

Then the whole Hurricane thing became a HUGE issue, throwing a big ole wrench in my plans for the trip. Luckily I did make it up there, but not without a lot of stress, guilt, sleepless nights with just days before the race, and hours upon hours sitting in cars and/or airplanes. Needless to say my body and mind were incredibly run down.

I finally made it to outside of Chicago to my family's condo Friday night after a long day of driving with my grandma and two aunts, and then we picked my mom up at the airport.  I was tired and tight from all the sitting, but so eager to see the city.  Of course I would have to wait til the next day...

Everyone decided to accompany me to the expo, which was quite an undertaking, but I certainly appreciate their support. Still not knowing what to expect for race day and stressed from all the traveling and activity that it involved, I showed up to the expo, got my packet and just tried to soak in the experience. Luckily I met up with my friend who was going through a similar experience as me with training and training.  So it was great to get some spend some time with her discussing our training woes, how exhausted we were from the extra traveling and our plans to just do our best on race day.

That evening, my mom and I checked into our hotel and then found a Whole Foods nearby, where we got some water and pasta. I got all my race day gear ready and headed off to bed still so uncertain as to what my "plan" should be for the race. I had my goals in mind but was clueless as to what my body, and mind, could handle at this point.

Race morning, my alarm clock went off but I was already pretty much awake.  I was eager to get down there so I quickly got ready and headed out for the 15+ minute walk to the security lines.  I made it down to the start of the race a little too early, but that's ok because I had time to use the restroom, have my pre-run fuel and even make some friends in my corral (I love making new runner friends!).

I felt the corral situation was about as organized as it could be with that many people and we were moved relatively quickly to the start.  About 8 minutes after the first corral started, me along with the rest of Corral D crossed the starting line!

I definitely got caught up in the moment for the first quarter mile or so, the energy was through the roof!  The streets were lined with people cheering, the buildings towered over us, music pumped through loud speakers, helicopters flew up above us, it was LIVE!  It had been a while since I experienced a race to this capacity so I was fired up.  But knowing I wouldn't be able to keep that pace much longer, I pulled way back.

In all the excitement, I managed to lose the 3:35 pace group, but felt great at the pace I was running, which had me on track to reach my ultimate goal of 3:30, so figured I should just hold that and hopefully end up with a group sooner or later.  I kept up a sub 8 min mile pace for the next several miles, and it felt pretty conservative and something I should be able to manage throughout the race.  Then I spotted the 3:35 pacer around mile 6 and figured it best to stay with them at an even more conservative pace, but still enough to get me a 3:32-3:33 finish, which I would have been more than happy with.

I hung with them for a few miles and hit my first little wall around mile 9.  I took my Huma gel, drank some Gatorade at the aid station and was back in the game with a little extra pep in my step.  I even went ahead of the pacers a little and regained my sub 3:30 pace.

I managed to hold on to that sub 3:30 pace for the next several miles until I hit my next wall around mile 15.  This time it was mostly a mental wall filled with doubt, that I spend a mile or so talking myself out of.  I lost some of my pace and found myself back with the 3:35 group. Which was ok, that still projected me for a great finish.

I got another burst and things were going pretty well for the next 3 miles, I even saw my mom and two aunts cheering for me in the Latin district shortly after mile 18, so that was awesome!  And speaking of cheering, the crowd support was nonstop and incredible throughout the entire course!  It had been a while since I experienced a race to that capacity, so the cheering and excitement really helped a lot.  And of course seeing my family while I was at a good pace, gave me a boost and the feeling that I may actually crush this thing!

But at mile 19, that all came to a screeching halt...

My legs were pretty tight from all the traveling and I wasn't able to do my yoga, stretching and foam rolling because my travel plans had changed.  They gave me some moderate discomfort periodically throughout the first several miles but seemed to calm down as I settled into a good rhythm.  At mile 19, however, that all changed when I felt a pop in my left hamstring and my whole leg start to cramp.  Initially worried I had torn the muscle, I took a few seconds to walk and evaluate the situation.  I realized it was just a bad cramp and it started to work itself out, so I slowly started to pick the pace back up and try to fight through it.

But with every step I took, the cramping continued to worsen, traveling up and down my leg.  The compensating I was doing with my right leg started to cause a cramp there too and before I knew it, pretty much everything from my waist down was in full out pain by mile 20.  Realizing at this point I probably would not reach my goal but determined not to quit, I continued to try and run, unfortunately just much slower.

Miles 21-25  were pretty much a blur.  The pace was the slowest of the day, including several walk breaks.  I was visibly in pain as many yelled at me not to stop and that I can do it.  I even had someone ask me if I was OK, which totally bruised my pride.  I remember looking at the ground and shouting the "F" word quite a bit at this point.  Somewhere during that time a lady I had met at the beginning of the race caught up with me and helped me through one of those daunting miles.  She was looking strong and was about to crush her goal.  I fed off of her for a little bit but just couldn't hang.  Though I would have loved to have stuck with her, I am grateful for the push she gave me!

My watched buzzed to signal 26 miles quite a few yards before I even saw the mile marker, and at this point I felt pretty defeated.  I had hoped I was closer and could now begin my sprint to the finish but I realized I had several more minutes to go.  Each meter marker sign (800, 400, 200 then 100) seemed to mock me as I half ran-half limped through to the finish.  As I turned the corner and ran up a moderate hill, I finally saw the finish line.  Though my left hamstring seemed as if it had detached, both calves were completely cramped up and every other fiber of my legs felt useless at this point, I knew this was it so I gave it my all.

In my head I was running a four and a half minute mile but my body was barely moving as I raced to the finish line.  I dramatically threw my arms up in the air as if I was the one breaking the tape and tears started to stream down my face.  Though I had missed my original goal by 12 minutes, my PR by 4 minutes and my BQ by 2 minutes, I was no where near as upset with my performance as I thought I would be.  In fact, I was quite proud for pushing through.  I can honestly say I gave it my all that day and am happy with my 3:42:12 finish. (My second fastest marathon time)

The what seemed to be several miles long walk through the chutes to the after party gave me quite a bit of time to reflect on what just occurred.  All the miles came flooding back through my memory and there wasn't a single bit of regret I could find within them.  I faced adversity throughout the entire summer of training and was left with so much doubt heading into this weekend.  I spent the previous several days stressed to the max over traveling in a hurricane and what that storm had in store for my family, home and our business.  And my body had to deal with a situation that in the not so distant past, I would have totally given up.  

So Chicago, as far as the race and the experience as a whole, may not have panned out how I had envisioned back when I signed up for it, but I'm OK with that.  I am grateful for the extra time I got with my family and the friends I got to hang out with and even make along this journey.

I loved the city, the race and the lessons I learned from the whole process.  That is after all, what being a marathoner is all about.  Until next time 26.2...

Week 7: Time to Ditch the Excuses

In my 7th week of marathon training, I had to have a HUGE pep talk with myself.  I feel like I have been selling myself short a lot during this cycle and giving in to every "reason" why training has been so challenging. I finally decided to ditch the excuses and start getting serious about my training if I want to reach my goal.  I have to admit, having come up short at a BQ in my last 3 attempts, I was kinda in a strange place heading into this training cycle. You see, I know what it's like to fail, I've come quite accustomed to that, unfortunately.  And as much as it sucks, let's be honest here, it sure is a lot easier to just give in rather than push through when it gets tough. But I am really freaking tired of taking the easy route because I'm freaking tired of failing (pardon my French).  I'm ready to finally turn my dream into a reality and this week was about taping into that desire and how it will drive me the rest of my training.

So without any further ado, here's a recap of week 7, one of my best weeks of raining thus far...

Monday: 60min Spinning + Strength Training
Taught my usual spin class and got in a quick weight lifting session before hand.  I focused a lot on power exercises in the weight room, incorporating single arm snatches, box jumps and split squat jumps.  And spin class was great, energy was through the rough, I had a blast and was drenched in sweat!

Tuesday: 5.5mi Speed Work + Hot Yoga

It has been very busy and hectic at work and often the only free time I have is between 5-7am.  So I decided to use that time to get some work done rather than my speed work.  I figured I could squeeze in a quick run on my lunch break or later in the evening if need be, work has to come first.  Luckily, I was able to sneak out for an hour before lunch and decided to do my speed work on the treadmill.  I was a little iffy about it at first, just not feeling it.  But that is when it hit me, I have been iffy and whiny and full of excuses all this time, it was time to put in work dammit!  So I sucked it up and ended up absolutely CRUSHING my speed work!  I ran 6x800's (I was only scheduled for 4 but felt so great I did 2 more) with a pace closer to my 400 rather than 800!  I know they can't always feel that great, but I definitely need a good, hard workout like that to get me back in the game.  Hot Yoga later that evening was a great accompaniment to my speed from earlier.

Wednesday: Strength Training + Yoga
Total body strength at Planet Fitness on my lunch break where I did a little bit of everything, including some much needed lower body exercises and core.  I don't do much for legs, though I know I need to, so I hit it pretty hard (which I ended up paying for as the week went on, uhoh).  It was back to work for the rest of then I picked up the kids, rushed over to LA Fitness and talk Yoga.  Oh the life of a working fitmom, 3 different gyms in a matter of hours!

Thursday: 5.5mi Tempo Run
Hunter and I ended up sleeping in until about 5:45 that morning, feeling as if we needed a little extra rest.  When we woke up, he went into the gym to workout and work, so I headed downstairs to get some work done too.  I originally planned to run on my lunch break but decided to knock it out before heading into the gym for the day.  Hunter took the kids to school as I rand around the neighborhood.  The heat and humidity got to me quickly and I kept thinking about slowing down or cutting it short.  But then I remembered the pep talk I had to give myself once this week already and pushed through.  It wasn't the pace I was shooting for but it wasn't too far off and I'm glad that I broke through some mental barriers.

Friday: 2mi Hill Repeats
Normally, I do upper and core on Fridays but Hunter sent me a text on his way back from out of town (he was gone for the night) asking me if I wanted to run this hills out in Apopka.  So of course I said heck yeah!  There are not many "hills" in this area, it's actually pretty flat around here.  I had heard about this hill out in Apopka that some of our NFL guys like to go run up and had been eager to give it a try.  We got out there around 1pm with the sun high in the sky and beating hard down on us.  We measured out a tenth of the mile uphill and began our work.  We sprinted as hard as we could up the hill and briskly walked back down, doing that 10 times.  It was definitely tough.  When I found myself slowing down or wanting to even stop, I would tell myself to push harder, my BQ was at the top of the hill.  Pushing through now, and all of the other times that get tough, is what it's going to take to get my that goal.  That's exactly what we did that afternoon, and Hunter and I were both pretty exhausted that evening.

Saturday: 10mi Treadmill Run

I thought I was finally going to get out on the trail with my MRTT mamas but thanks to my van needing some service it was yet another no go for me this weekend.  We had to get the car seats into Hunter's truck, drop the van off at the shop then drop Hunter off at work.  So the boys and I headed over to LA Fitness so I could get my miles in on the treadmill.  It could have been the hard lower body workouts of the week, exhaustion from hill work, or me just being mentally not there, but the run started off pretty rough.  I kept wondering, "it shouldn't be this difficult, is there something wrong with me?"  So there I was again, having to give myself another pep talk, reminding myself that if I want to race hard, I have to train hard.  It wasn't easy, in fact I had to fight pretty hard for the miles and the pace.  But I pushed through it, finishing up the ten miles with an average pace of 7:23 and my last mile the fastest one at 6:36!

By Saturday afternoon, my legs were shot, I was so tired but I was on another level mentally.  I had broken through some HUGE mental barriers this week, that I had been needing to break since this Spring.  I feel like moving forward, I have a much better attitude and I'm ready to give the rest of the training cycle my absolute all.  No excuses, just hard work to make this BQ finally freaking happen!

Oh, and Sunday: REST DAY!
Rest and relaxation with my favorite people was spent taking the boys to see The Secret Life of Pets (which is super cute btw) and then hanging out by the pool the rest of the day!  Exactly what I needed after a hard week of training.

Week 4: Chicago Marathon Training

Um, that cannot be right, I'm already 4 weeks into my training for the Chicago Marathon!?!  It's crazy how quickly time flies, especially when you're having fun.  Though I have a HUGE goal for this marathon and want to do everything possible to make it happen, I also want this to be a fun and relatively stress free training cycle.  And so far so good.  Despite having some Achilles issues the past few weeks and the heat and humidity being insane, things have been going well, mostly because of my attitude.  Attitude is everything and I will not let the small stuff and/or the stuff that I cannot control ruin my training and race day experience.

Back to the training...this was a big week for me.  It was my first long run, I got some new inserts for my shoes to help with my Achilles/Plantar issues and I got to pace a 5k (yes, pace a 5k) for an extremely important cause.  So here is he recap of week 4...

Monday: Spinning and weights are the name of the game on Mondays.  This past Monday, I had forgotten my cycle shoes (they were in my car that was in the shop), so I had to teach in my running shoes.  I'm not a fan of having to use the cages, I prefer my clips, and just as I suspected, the change in foot position flared up the Achilles.  Luckily, with plenty of stretching and rolling, my ankle felt much better.  I was able to get  a few weights in but I had to rush off to work, it's a busy day at The Athlete Factory!

Tuesday: Track, ahem Treadmill Tuesday for some speed work.  Though I want to throw my phone across the room and shatter it into pieces when the alarm goes off, ok maybe a little dramatic but I would much rather get a little extra sleep and/or get some work done.  But once I get going, I'm good.  And of course I feel so awesome when it's done.  Went a little light on my speed work this week because every time I push it, I could feel my Achilles scream at me.  I feel like there is a fine line between honoring my body and pushing it.  So I'm doing my best to listen to my body and train smart.  Like I've said, I've got some big goals, but I can guarantee you they won't happen if I'm hurt.  Got to train smart!

Wednesday: I spent a lot of time stretching and foam rolling on Wednesday and did mostly upper in the weight room.  I went to Fleet Feet that day to get fitted for some inserts.  The lady at the store was so awesome and helpful.  I tried several pairs, took them for a test run around the store and settled on what I'm hoping to be the answer to my Achilles and plantar issues  It was back to work for a bit then off to teach yoga.  Though I teach one class a week, I really do not get to practice yoga as much as I would like.  My goal for the coming weeks, and for this training cycle, is get back to more classes.  I feel much stronger and healthier with a regular yoga practice.

Thursday: I had to flip my schedule around to be available to pace a race on Saturday, so my long run had to be Thursday.  It was my first official "long run" of the training cycle and I had a lot of nerves and excitement leading up to it.  My expectations were not terribly high for this one because A. it was my first long run since the half I paced a month before, B. it is insanely hot and humid outside and I knew that would be a factor, and C. My Achilles and plantar issues were still questionable.  The run started off pretty slow.  The humidity definitely got to me in the beginning and it took several miles to find my stride.  By the turn around, though, I had settled into a good pace, albeit still a little slower, but more consistent.  The last few miles were in the sun with little to no shade or breeze, so they were a little tough.  I ended up taking a couple of walk breaks in the last few miles to hydrate and loosen up my calf.  But I pushed through the final mile to finish strong.  Average pace ended up being around 8:35.  In the past, I would have been incredibly disappointed and beat myself up for the rest of the weekend.  But this time around, I am doing my best to stay positive and keep focused.  I have several more long runs in my future so I will need to make some adjustments to have better runs and ultimately a great race.

On a positive note about my long run, I got to test out my new hydration vest by The Orange Mud and I absolutely LOVE it.  (Click here to read my review)

Friday: Recovering from my long run, I decided to do a light upper body and core workout over at Planet Fitness.  It's sled day at The Athlete Factory (I will have to make a post just to explain the awesomeness of that one of these days) so though I wasn't working out there, I got my fitness on coaching and moving around 45lb plates.  Then Hunter and I grabbed some lunch, picked the kids up early to ride the SunRail and then spent a relaxing evening a home.  It was an early wake up call for this pacer!

Saturday: After the tragic shooting at Pulse night club earlier this month, so many people felt compelled to do something to help out.  From giving blood to donating money and time, to showing up to various vigils, our community really came together to show support.  Final Mile Race Management wanted to involve the running community and decided to set up a 5k.  In two short weeks, the race director, fellow runners, sponsors and volunteers came together to organize and fund an event that raised over $100,000 for those affected by the shooting.  Thousands of runners at the actual event and virtually participated in the Orlando United 5k this past Saturday and it was truly one of the most inspiring and emotional events I have ever been a part of.  The running community is like no other and that light shined so brightly this weekend.  The love, acceptance and respect for one another out there was truly a beautiful thing to witness.  I was so honored to get to be a pacer for this event and got to meet a lot of really awesome people.  In a time of such a tragedy it is amazing to see people come together to love and support one another.  Love truly does conquer hate!

 

Sunday: Finally a rest day.  We decided we wanted to take the kids to the beach so packed everything up, drove down there and discovered a random storm was coming through.  So we turn around and came back to the pool.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky at our house so it was a super fun afternoon for the fam at the pool.  Then it was back to the grind.