Nuttier Than Squirrel Poop: 2013 Chicago Marathon

I realize that this Chicago Marathon post is way, way overdue. 26.2-mile-long story short, this race went really, really well. It was my third marathon, but the first one that just felt like a race. No existential crises or panic attacks, just running. A lot of running. Kate was primarily concerned with finishing, but we were both shooting for a time under 5 hrs. Our only real race plan was to start together and see what happened.

I had some jitters at the very beginning, especially when Kate's knee started acting up and she wasn't at all sure how far she would be able to run. I lost my breath for a minute when we went through the Loop for the first time and ran along a section of State St with cheering crowds behind metal barriers that made it look a heck of a lot like the Copley Square finish area of the Boston Marathon. Kate picked up the pace a bit around mile 8 and I started to panic, but managed to settle in and stay with her. For the first half, the aid stations seemed to fly by and we had to force ourselves to slow down for water, knowing that skipping it would come back to bite us later. We both hit a mini-wall around mile 15-16, but powered through. Around mile 18, the side stitch that had been threatening for most of the race forced me to walk through all of a three-block-long aid station, and I lost Kate. But after the stitch was gone, I felt surprisingly good, picked up the pace a bit, and caught her around mile 21 (partially thanks to a brief sprint to try to find the owner of a really nice single running glove that had been dropped on the course). Kate's legs were hurting pretty bad at that point, but we kept plodding along. Around mile 23, MY legs rebelled, and my quads and hip flexors screamed at me with pretty much every step. But by that point, we were nearing the turnaround and knew we only had a 5K left to Grant Park. Walking didn't make the pain much better, so we just kept shuffling along, walking briefly through aid stations to get water. Just after mile 25, our mom jumped out on the course and said "You're going to make it! You're going to get your four!" I looked down at my watch and saw that we had something like 18 minutes left to complete the last mile. Instead of being discouraged by the fact that Mom was easily keeping pace with us in street shoes and Oxford shoes, I was incredibly relieved to think that one of us could probably break an ankle and still crawl over the finish line in time. After dragging ourselves up Mt Roosevelt (which was even worse than I remembered), we crossed the finish line together in 4:52:54.

A huge, huge thank you to everyone who supported us through training and our fundraising. In the end we raised $3,295 for the National MS Society, more than twice our original goal. And special thanks to our family and friends who came out to cheer for us during the race and celebrate with us afterwards.

And now, for the part you all actually care about, the photos.

Chicago Marathon 2013 in Photos