Chicago Marathon 2014

FRIDAY OCT 10th 2014 I ran 2 miles from my friends' house parking to Hobby Airport at about 10am. Sweating going into airport. Geesh Houston!! Fun going thru TSA search a sweaty mess. But i had to pack lite, just a backpack, no shirts to spare. Flight was fine. Some turbulence, rough landing and delays at Midway due to Air Traffic Control problem. I talked to Barry next to me. 82 yrs old, we talked cinder tracks, kangaroo spikes, military school etc. He's sharp as a tack, uses smart phone better than me, and has got better teeth. He's never been married or had kids, long-time Chicago resident. He goes to Houston to visit his 'gal-friend'. Says his legs are the things giving out on him. Clots are taking away his walking ability. Can only go a few blocks. He's fighting going into the wheelchair. Nice guy. Lady next to us was real nice too. She's from Odessa, works with police dept, going up to see her Alaska-Army-daughter do the Chicago marathon. Mom was on her own, nervous/excited about getting around in Chicago. Proud and good friends with her daughter. Barry's last words to us Chicago newbie's were, "Don't take the 'El' train too far south and you'll be okay."

Got on the El Train and found my GetAway Hostel, north of downtown near Depaul University. I checked in got the bottom bunk. Everyone is kinda young and in college here. No one is in dormitory room 107. Just 5 bunk beds. So i put my backpack in the locker and head to Expo to get my race number.

I take El train to downtown stop Cermak/ChinaTown and start walking... it's a bit of a walk. I call home and call my parents... still walking... finally i get there. While there, I meet up with Jeremy and his family, Heather, and preK-ers Maylin, and Harlow, and we go to a little Spaghetti place. It was fun catching up with my old training buddy. The Baseball playoffs are on TV. Their preK-ers Maylin and Harlow are energetic and charm the heck out of every place we go- tonight they sing standing up on their seats after dinner. Classic.

Then it's back to the Hostel me, the lonely guy. It's kinda rough on your own, seeing cool stuff and not getting to share a good time w/ your family... but it's just too expensive for us right now.

I go into dorm room and it's nothing but marathoners of all ages. Cool. My people. I say "hey."

Many different accents. Japan, Brazil, Chile, Netherlands. Sleep is a little rough i'm right by window and cold air is seeping through and top bunk mate is shifting around. Welcome to the Hostel, old man.SATURDAY Oct 11 Wake up at 7am, not sleeping anyway. Jog some miles over to Lincoln Park to get loose. Got to Lake Shore Dr. Bam!!! I see Lake Michigan. My first view of a Great Lake. Wow. Stop the watch. I go down gotta touch the water. I'm in tourist awe. I look at everyone else just hammering out Saturday miles, unaffected. I almost slip in due to the algae on the rocks. The only other guy in the moment is a hobo going down to wash his clothes in the water. I get myself together and hit bike trail like the others. Sweet trail. Paved street for bikes, gravel side trough for runners and even some grass above that too. And I'm clipping off 6:50 pace miles while jogging. Ha ha i'm free of the the heat and humidity of Houston. Loving it!! Then some jackass has gotta kill my vibe by passing me with his super muscle legs... i'll see you tomorrow good sir.

Back at Hostel, it's breakfast time. Just go into the big kitchen and help yourself. The staff makes eggs an oatmeal. And there's toast and coffee. Clean your own plates. Everyone sits at big tables. Mainly college-aged travelers and marathoners this weekend. We all talk. Before you know it I'm telling a few running stories. The youngin's like it. They look at me as Grandpa or something. One girl was there for the Blackhawks hockey game. Two Chinese students were working an intern at a tech company- but "only making copies" and stuff. Another girl was a traveler trying to live in as many places as possible all over the world. My new Venezuelan friend was running his 3rd marathon cuz he "won the lottery." Another student was waiting for her apartment to be finished, she was from Texas also but now making the big move to Chicago because she really liked it. Good Breakfast.

At the end of breakfast, I saw Roberto Moratilla , I go and say, "Hi." Small world. I've saw him at a few local races last season. He's a fast, fast runner from Houston via Spain, i think. He made the trip up for his marathon debut. He's looking for a 2:25 and to stay with the top female elites.

I take the El train down to see famed Wrigley Baseball stadium. Cool to see the building and neighborhood, but i didn't get to see the inside field. Lots of construction happening on the 100 yr old stadium-

the locals don't like it as it will take away some of the charm and tradition of the old field. I look in some shops, looking for souvenirs for the family and kill time waiting for my next hostel room to be ready. I booked late and couldn't get 3 nights in a row. So I gotta hop around some. Still for $30 a night and $58 a night can't beat it. I check into new hostel, really just to put my backpack up. It's the Parthenon hostel. 1.5 mi from start line. So it'll be good to get to the race in the morning. This hostel is smaller, seemingly 20 ft wide with like 3 floors. Sandwiched between 2 restaurants in Greek town. It's old and not as nice as GetAway Hostel but the frontdesk is real helpful and inviting and one of the guys is running tomorrow too. So he said, "Leave your bags here at the front desk in the morning and check out and then you can come back and take a shower." So that was cool. I go up to room and it's empty. Just 4 bunk beds and one Euro guy there with long hair laying on a bed, typing on his laptop. Wait he's laying on my bed. I guess it was the closest to the wall power socket. I inform him he's on my bed. (Damn this feels like military school. Flashback.) He says, "The beds are not made yet with new sheets, No worries, Oui Oui?" Whatevs. I lock up my backpack and get going. Really the rooms are just a place to sleep. I head down a few blocks to the super market, Mariano's, for some bananas and end up eating lunch there. They had cornbread and soup. And seats on 2nd floor looking over a busy avenue intersection, so I chill there, safe from all the city madness and claustrophobia. Nice super market, just like Whole Foods. Too bad 1 block down a Whole Foods is moving in. I saw signs for like 3 Whole Foods "coming soon's" in the areas I visited. Or maybe it was the same one. I got turned around a bunch. I used to think I was a city person, but now I know I'm not.

I meet up w/ Jeremy and his family again, we watch College football in their room and do picture search books with the kids. Man the kids are good at them- killing the old man. "I already found it" they call out. Then we head to dinner for some more pasta. We're seated by a window, and Maylin and Harlow get to perform for the people passing by. The sidewalkers on the busy Saturday night, city street eat it up. Waving and making faces. More baseball playoff on TV again. Kansas City and Baltimore- seems like the twilight zone or something, usually those are bad teams.

Finally it's back to Hostel for some sleep before marathon. About 6 of the 8 beds in my room #202 are full. Two

marathoners are already asleep. One marathoner from Poland is packing his gear bag for tomorrow. I talk with him, he's nice. Two other guys lying in their bunks are from Argentina. A suave guy in his 30s and his father in law in his 50s that seems Russian. They are "traveling" together and i assume resting up before going out tonight. Neither of them have any problems hanging out in their room in just their undies. And still no sight of my bed-borrowing Euro guy. I try to get my stuff ready quietly then try to go to sleep. At about 11pm the Argentinians start getting spruced up for their night out- slapping on the old cologne. Then they come home about 2am. Then Euro guy comes in at 3am. He's my top bunk mate. He's a little dude, but somehow commences fog-horn snoring immediately... i've been laying here all night trying to catch zzz's, takes him like 2 minutes. The Argentinian father-in-law starts in with the snoring too now. His son-in-law keeps yelling at him down from the top bunk and moving around to wake his butt up. Crazy bastards. Damn i need some sleep. Got a furgen marathon tomorrow!SUNDAY Oct 12 - RACE DAY

Mercifully, the clock turns to 5am and I can get out of this room. I get ready and walk to starting area with my new Polish friend. He likes my running stories as does his friend from New Mexico that walks with us. They say I'm a celebrity, cause they ask what's the best place I've finished in a marathon after hearing my times, I told them the tale of DC. They loved it and took a pic with me before we parted way into the starting line gates.

Time to get it on.

Amongst the hoards of runners, I find the American Development tent. Inside there is the usual cast of speedy characters... reed thin, young, and ready to rip. Not much of a setup here, I'm used to the plush treatment by Houston Marathon Committee. This is just a tent, tables and chairs, a tub of vasoline, a few granola bars, and about 12 Gatorade G2's??? I forgot my nipple band aids so a volunteer had to rummage thru a box to find some in a first aid kit. They announce they'll "escort a group at 6:45 to start line." No one takes them up on that. Then they say, "fine the next and

last group go at 7:00 to start line, if you miss that you miss the race." So everyone goes out of the tent to do early warmup. Everyone runs around a little loop in the park. I see wold famous runner Ethiopian runner Kenesha Bekele running with a training partner. Some people are chill on the pace, some are already zooming. Then it's back to tent to drop off gear bag and get in 7am line. It's in 50 degrees but not really that bad. I'm not shivering that much. I like 40s myself.

Then I hear "Hey Pete." I look up and see Matt Mccurdy. I've planned on running some w/ him cuz I saw he did a 2:29 in Boston in April. I hardly recognize him, he says, "he dropped 20 lbs" and his times have dropped accordingly. I saw an article about him in after Boston, I thought it must have been a different Matt Mccurdy than the one I ran with at the end of 2013 Houston Marathon, but no it's him, also the beard thru me off. Just lost weight, so it goes with runners. We talk some and go out to the start together. He lives in Wisconsin and is a Doctor now.

We get to Start Corral and i see Samantha from the Woodlands Adidas Team. We ran together some at the Lake Houston 10k a few months back. I say hey to her. She says she is going for 2:36. I tell her I'm on a quest for 2:29.

We're in good position up front at American Development corral on left side of start. The Elites are running in a little circle over on the right side Corral. Bekele, Korrir, Jeptoo, Curtis, and other deer like creatures.

Wheelchair athletes go off.

Then the runners w/ disabilities start off.

Then they tell us to move up. All right I'm gonna be right at start line on the left side while elites are gonna be on right side. Wait no. They tell us to come around to right side and leave left side open? What, I'd worked my way upfront? So now I'm at the back behind a bunch of American Development runners. Some are women that I can tell will be over 3hrs. Oh well. That was a screw job. I think a mistake too by the volunteers, why have the left side open? I've seen pictures of previous years when the whole starting line was full. Then the race just starts no gun or anything that I hear... the elites just take off. I'm at least 5-10 sec off the line. Oh well it doesn't much matter. Just didn't make sense. Seemed like a cluster cuss. Don't expect that at a Major Marathon. Anyway, we got 26 miles to sort out our placing.

I take off fast trying to catch up to Mccurdy and a fast looking masters runner that up ahead. I'm making my way past a lot of the slower runners just trying to find my spot and rhythm in this rush of runners. People are hammering from the get go. I'm just trying to keep up. The crowds are loud and banging stuff. There seems to be a lot of turns early. Feels like a roller coaster ride. I never see one person in crowds face the whole race. I'm just focused on the runners ahead and chasing them and also feeling the runners coming up trying to pass me.

Jeremy had gave me the only warning I'd heard about the gps watch being useless the first 4 miles. I'd asked lots of people about there Chicago Marathon experience, but that was the first I'd heard of the buildings messing with your watch. Usually my watch is reliable for pacing- even when racing in downtown Houston. I know my watch is not dead-on but it's consistent. But Houston has a ton more space between buildings; a sprawling city. Chicago, everything is right on top of each other and crowded, so I guess the signal to the watch is less reliable. Seems like it would've been nice to have just a regular manual split watch on this course.

So my goal was 5:43 pace per mile to get a 2:29:59. I didn't do that much! But my watch was telling me I was killing it on the first half....

Mile #1 5:25 (according to watch GPS)

I'm just chasing. Trying to catch up with pack.

Mile #2 5:52 (according to watch GPS)

man i'm grinding 5:52 really? Seems slow, ahh just stay up with pack and Mccurdy.

Mile #3 5:40 (according to watch GPS)

5k clock on the course says i go through in 18:08 (which I now know is 5:51 pace). But first 3 mile splits have me going thru in avg 5:39. So already off big time. But it doesn't really sink in. I'm just chasing.

There is a female elite pack, I guess mainly Americans that I keep yo-yoing back and forth with. They have a pacer. I don't know what time they are shooting for, I'm guessing same as me probably, that elusive 2:30 marathon. Seems fast at times when i try to hang with them. Other times it lags so I go ahead of them. They are some super fit, light ladies. Fast. About 12 ladies in the pack, in the early going, all with 100# bibs.

Mile #4 5:37 (according to watch GPS)

The post race band the 'Chicago Players' is awesome. I really enjoyed them and all their cover songs.

But I gotta go change hostels again.

Back to the GetAway Hostel after getting my bag and saying bye to Euro Guy still hanging out in the room, but not on my bed this time! Although he had the door locked... he prolly WAS on my bed.

Results from friends and notables:

Pearson ,Neil 2:27:25 (master champ)

McCurdy, Matt 2:28:59

Duncan, Andrew 2:29:53 (master 2nd, 47 yrs old)

Santucci, Clara 2:32:21 (women's elite pack near me)

Crouch, Sarah 2:32:44 (women's elite pack near me)

Lawrence, Peter 2:34:05 (master 3rd - yours truly :)

Moratilla, Roberto 2:34:05

Yoder, John 2:40:17

Gonzalez, Sergio 3:00:29 (56 yr old Hostel roommate from Chile)

Saums, Jeremy 3:01:38

Smart, Miranda 3:22:32

Hernandez, Jerry 3:27:45

Wronski, Artur 3:31:57 (Polish Hostel roommate)

Aguilar-Ramirez, Laura 3:34:01

Szydlowski, Jeremy 3:58:48

Bitterly, Michelle 4:13:27