2019 Chicago Marathon Race Recap!

Pre-race kit all ready to go!

It's been a VERY long time since a blog entry. So much has happened in the past year since my last post about running the Richmond half marathon last year, but if I try to write about it all this could turn into a book, for the sake of cutting to the chase since this is probably going to be a lengthy post already let's just recap the last 11 months by saying lots of life stuff has happened including plenty of serious running training (more to come on training below), there were good times, there were bad times, but mostly there were good times and that about covers it. Alright now that's out of the way we can get to the matter at hand and talk about everything 2019 Chicago Marathon! The training, race goals, and the race itself!

Training

In the months leading up to the race I trained like I've never trained for a marathon before. I essentially started training for this event when I got back from my honeymoon in late February. A typical marathon training cycle is about 3-4 months of training (18 weeks or so generally being the longer end of most of your "average" plans) but I decided to roll with a more extended training cycle and really gear the majority of the focus of the year into this race. My coach laid out basically a three phase training cycle where I spent the first couple months in cycle 1 and 2 building general aerobic fitness, more shorter interval work with long runs of 8-10 miles, and then the last few months building fatigue resistance which is one of the bigger aspects to running a successful marathon with long runs into the 20+ mile range.

During my peak training during the final cycle I was running 6-7 days a week with a high mileage week of 70 miles in early September which was a rather insane week which involved getting up at an absurd hours to run 17 miles on a random Thursday morning before a full work day and then a 20 mile long run with most of it at a moderate pace on Sunday morning just two days later. And this was after the week before running a 24 mile "easy" long run on Sunday...I put my body through quite a bit of running but given the build up beginning in Feb/March I was able to handle it well.

I achieved a number of new time milestones during the training cycle for Chicago. In June I cracked 20 minutes in a 5k for the first time in my life on a warm summer evening 5k race in Clifton, VA. It wasn't too surprising given my workouts going into the race, but it was still extremely rewarding to finally see improvement at the 5k distance. In August I ran a new unofficial fastest mile (I say unofficial because it was self timed and not in a race situation) of 5:28 at the Chantilly High School track, the site of 3 of my 4 fastest miles now. In September I achieved probably my biggest milestone of the training cycle and ran 39:40 for a 10k at Dulles airport, a time I couldn't have dreamed of at the same time last year.

I also ran a half marathon in Erie, PA in July where I missed PR'ing by a few minutes on a difficult and humid day, but was not too concerned given the extremely humid conditions on race day for that event. I joked with my wife after the Erie race that it was the first race in over a year where I didn't wear a blue top and also the first race in over a year where I didn't PR, so the plan was definitely to go back to wearing blue for races until further notice.

Overall it was a VERY solid year of running, lots of new PR's and I'm really happy that I was able to get through the entire year pretty much injury free. I had some small issues after the half marathon in Erie with foot and then leg issues but it wasn't major and cleared up after about a week and a half. I also had a little hamstring/leg tightness a couple weeks before Chicago which got a little scary, but other than those few relatively small issues I really didn't miss more than a couple workouts in the months leading up to the race which was awesome and got to the starting line in Chicago feeling 100% healthy. I was able to stay motivated for most of the entire cycle which involved countless 6am (or earlier) mornings, having the motivation to run such an aggressive schedule can be a battle especially if there are any injury issues or you aren't seeing big fitness gains, but thankfully I had no problems.

Race Goals

Given this incredible training cycle, I knew my goals going into the race were going to be aggressive and a PR was virtually guaranteed, the bigger question was how much I would PR by and how aggressive I wanted to approach the race. In discussions with my coach it basically came down to how much I was willing to roll the dice on race day. When it comes to a marathon you have to walk a fine line of basically choosing what pace to run in the early miles because if you are well trained even a medium/hard goal marathon pace could feel easy in the first half of a marathon, but it can be very deceiving as if you are running beyond your means you can crash and burn hard and lose a huge amount of time in the late miles. After chatting with my coach about possible goal times and reflecting on I settled on shooting for a 3:15 from the starting gun with 3:20-3:25 being the backup plan, and even if things go really south, sub 3:30 being almost guaranteed. I knew it was an aggressive goal but I was ready to go for it given how well my training had gone and how conservatively I felt I ran NYC two years ago.

Getting to the start

Beautiful morning, walking to the starting line

Nice views of the sunrise as Christian and I walked to the starting line

Getting to the starting line of Chicago was much easier than NYC. My friend Christian met up with me in the morning as he was staying nearby, after a quick subway ride from the hotel and then a short walk to the starting gate we were there. Left the hotel room at around 6:15am and we were in the starting area by 6:45am. I was stressing a bit that it was going to take a while to check my bag, or get through security but there were zero issues and we ended up having a decent amount of time to kill before the start at 7:30. I was planning on eating two servings of oatmeal one right when waking up around 5:30, and another about a half hour before running at 7, but ended up only eating one and a granola bar closer to race time and felt good. I had been battling a little bit of a cold in the days before Chicago, minor congestion but nothing major and felt very good on the morning of the race but didn't want to upset the stomach, should I have eaten more pre-race? Maybe. I was starting in wave 1, corral C which ended up being a perfect starting position because by the time I got across the starting line I was able to settle into the pace I wanted to run right away which was around 7:20/mile. Chicago is notorious for messing with GPS signals due to all the big buildings disrupting satellite communication so I knew precise pacing was going to be a challenge going in. I crossed the start line about 7 minutes after the starting gun went off so I made a mental note that whatever clocks I see on mile/kilometer markers to subtract 7 minutes.

First 5K

Early going things were great. Early going in a marathon if you are well trained is almost always going to go great, I've been through five marathons before so I knew the drill. I had four areas to watch for family, my wife at miles 3 and 13, and my parents at miles 14 and 17. One of my goals as I crossed the start line was to make an effort to spot them at each point since one of the sad moments of running NYC was I missed seeing my sister Melanie and did not want to make the same mistake here.

I had watched the Chicago Marathon a few times before on their livestream broadcast and knew what to expect for a good portion of the course, including in the first mile about a quarter mile run through a tunnel. GPS is completely useless in the early going, I think I looked at my watch at one point and it showed I was running at an 18 minute per mile pace and then a 4 minute per mile pace about a minute later. It made it challenging to run with proper pacing especially in the early going. First few miles were relatively uneventful I settled into my pace and just rolled, it was nice to have big crowd support right off the bat unlike NYC where you spend the first two miles running across a gigantic bridge before you see a single spectator. Chicago is like a block party from the very beginning to the end which was really cool. Some of the best miles are the first couple when you are running through the inside of the downtown/loop area underneath the subway overhead, past the iconic Chicago Theater with it's bright sign out front, and just countless spectators everywhere. It was awesome.
As I approached mile 3 I saw Andy on the left hand side of the road, got her attention and we waved as I continued on, passed the 5k timing mat a minute or two after that clocking in at 23:07, maybe a little on the faster end of what my original plan was, but still feeling great. As we continued through the next few miles of the course we were moving northbound up through a park area, it was around here where suddenly I heard this guy running behind me literally belting out the most random statements and generally being a total loudmouth, I realized quickly that he was one of the 3:15 pacing group leaders.

"See that blue line on the ground? It marks the shortest path to the finish, follow it!" he was essentially shouting. Guy next to me says much quieter- "Technically the shortest path to the finish would have been to turn around after crossing the start line and just stay in grant park and walk to the finish line..." Having some comedic relief was nice. I wish I could remember some of the other stuff the 3:15 pacer was shouting out, I blocked some of it out, he was responding to literally every sign we ran past which actually started getting a little distracting and annoying after a while.

10k

Approaching the 10k timing mat was the first time I was planning on eating something mid-run, I was running with a small belt with 3 honey stinger waffles and my plan was to eat half of one every 5 miles (40 minutes) or so. Eating while running at a goal race pace can be annoying, but I managed to eat the first half of one no problems here and stomach felt very good. It was around this point where I increased my pace as well, I'm trying to reflect back on exactly why the increase of pace because in looking back at my race data the 10k to 15k distance was my fastest split of the entire race which could have sabotaged things later on. I didn't consciously mean to increase my pace, I think a combination of factors led to it, part of it was wanting to get out ahead of loudmouth 3:15 pacing guy and his contingent, some other people around me might have sped up a little around this time too plus I was still feeling very good. Still it was a rookie mistake to increase pace by THAT much this early in the race, we're not talking about a few seconds per mile I averaged from a 7:30/mile average from 5-10k to a 7:10/mile average between 10-15k which is a pretty big difference and definitely was a contributing factor to issues later on which we will get to shortly...

The rest of the first half of the race passed uneventfully, Chicago has alot of long straight stretches, thankfully the wind wasn't too bad, there were a few times were a gust hit us but there was nothing prolonged. Approaching mile 13 I knew Andy would be on the left side of the road, so I positioned myself appropriately and looked for her. This was also a stretch of road that we had been walking on a decent amount in the days leading up to the marathon as it was right down the street from where our hotel was right before crossing a small bridge so I was very familiar with it. Saw Andy at mile 13 still feeling great, waved and continued on. This was the most fun stretch of the race for me because in the span of 4 miles I had Andy at mile 13 and my parents to look for around miles 14 and 17. I ate again at the 20k point with no issues, things were still going very well as I passed the half marathon mark in 1:36. I started doing the math and realized if I held this pace through to the end I would be running a 3:12 marathon, well inside of what I set out to run from the starting gun but also a little intimating because I knew I was reaching with this time goal. For comparison I ran the first half of my last marathon in 2 hours flat so I was way deep in uncharted waters but figured I would just keep plugging along as long as I could.

20-25k

Mom cheering people on with one of her many signs

"Mile 14, where are my parents?? they should be here somewhere...there they are!" Standing on the left side of the road exactly where I was looking for them I saw my Mom holding a huge "Go Rob!" green sign up and my Dad taking a video. I was still feeling excellent at this stage so I gave them a thumbs up as I ran past and ate some of a honey stinger waffle again. Having run 5 marathons before this, I knew things were going to get tough soon, but just how soon? I could tell more and more people around me were dropping back or passing people along the side of the road stretching or dealing with crazy cramping issues...

Passing my parents feeling good!

Mile 17 I saw my parents again, still feeling good I waved to them again, I was a little beyond two hours into the run at this stage, everything was still alright though next couple miles passed uneventfully.

Mile 19

This was the turning point of my race, it's shocking how quickly things can go from feeling fine to a pain train. The biggest thing that started throwing me off was I went to eat around here and realized my arms/hands were starting to go numb, like I couldn't even unzip my belt that had my honey stinger waffles. This had never happened in any of my training runs, but also I broke one of the biggest rules of marathoning and I did something new on race day and wore arm warmers for the first time. They were a little tight and my wife thinks could have been pinching a nerve and over time it got worse. My hands felt so strange, like they were falling asleep but also like there were circulation problems. I immediately ripped off the arm warmers at this point and slowed pace as I was unsure if this was indicative of some other issue. I walked through the mile 20 water stop to help settle everything down and I started feeling better so I resumed running but nowhere near the pace I had been for the first 18 miles.

Seeing the 3:15 pace group fly by at this point I quickly revised my goals from 3:15 to just holding on and doing as much damage control as I could to get through the last 10k. I tried to remind myself that it was nothing more than a little 6 mile run from this point, I tried to imagine myself just going out for a regular run around the 6 mile loop near my house, something I had done countless times...but man was it hard. Once things get hard in a marathon they typically stay very hard. A couple miles later I saw the 3:20 pace group fly by, doing everything I can just to not fall apart, the frustrating thing was my legs felt good I was just blowing up after my rhythm was broken by the arm/hand numbness I was just not able to get back into the race.

Mile 24

Nearing the finish line now just two miles to go! 3:25 pace group flys by, in the span of 4 miles I easily lost 8-10 minutes off my finishing time. I also stopped eating at this point too, I still had a honey stinger waffle that I hadn't eaten but I didn't want to eat anymore, even if my body needed it my mind was ignoring anything that might have made sense and was just waiting to be done running at this point. Last 15 minutes of the race was just holding on, there were signs for 800m to go, then 400m to go, "It's literally just like one lap on the track..." but it felt so long. There was a slight little rise over a bridge to get back into the park which hurt the legs as well. I ran right past Andy with around 400m to go but did not see her, my brain only had one thing in mind and it was to get to the finish line. Nothing else in the universe mattered in those last couple minutes. Finally I could see the finish line and cross it, 3:27:02! A PR by over 30 minutes! I was relieved and happy to be done.

Happy to be finished! Marathon #6 in the books!

Reflections

I went for an aggressive time. I knew it was going to be a risk and I paid the price in the last 10k BUT I still ran a 30 minute personal best time and left Chicago feeling extremely encouraged for the future as there is a lot I learned from this experience. There was alot to learn especially with the nutrition plan. I know at this point what my body responds well to it's just a matter of eating enough and at the right times for it all to piece together on race day. My body was definitely ready to run a 3:15 marathon, but the pieces didn't all quite fall into to place for that to become a reality. Still I'm extremely happy with what I did achieve and believe the future is bright. 2019 was an awesome year for running and I'm already starting to think about next year, nothing set in stone yet but have some ideas...a sub 3 marathon could be within reach given the proper build and execution. Sub 1:30 half seems like the logical next goal but we will see. Shoutouts to my wife Andy, my parents, friends Christian, Kevin, my Moms friend Keith, coach Eric, my aunts Lorraine and Laura for following me online on race day, my aunt Lorraine made an amazing post on Facebook and my aunt Laura even texted me a picture of them seeing me cross the finish line from the live stream, that was amazing! Thanks to everyone else who supported, texted, followed or also posted on social media! You are all so inspirational to me and helps push me even further! Until next time! thanks for reading!

Can you tell when I crossed the finish line? You can see where I had to slow to walk a bit with 45 minutes to go as well, HR data very interesting to review afterwards!

Impressive step count, this was around 4PM after I had gotten back to the hotel showered and changed

Chicago was a fun city can't wait to go back someday!