1999 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon
LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon
Chicago, IL
October 24, 1999
I ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday and enjoyed every single minute of it. And even though I knew I wasn't going to PR this year, I wanted to run a smart race and have fun along the way. My goal was to finish "around" 5 hours; it didn't even have to be under, just in the vicinity of that time. Based on my really lazy training for this race, I wanted to be realistic. I think I had maybe 3 LSD's that were 15 miles or longer. Yuck.
Anyway, after hanging out with ChiADeads at the "hospitality suite" (thanks, Chris and Kim), I headed over to the team challenge tent to locate my fellow marathon team members. I found only one of them, and hung out with her until close to the start. She was supposed to meet her training partner for the race (her first marathon), and didn't find her. :-( I ran over to the start, around the 5:00 pace people, and the horn sounded shortly after.
The start was slow, but once I passed the start line mat, I was able to run freely. It only took me 13:05 to get to the start line. 8-0 This was the only indicator of the major increase in participants this year. Otherwise, the course was crowded but not packed, so I was able to keep the pace I wanted to throughout.
I started out slow, in fact, the first three miles were my slowest string of miles, and sped up a little bit from there. My splits are kind of all over the place from about 10:51mpm to 11:39mpm, but I attribute that to water stations, where I took a short walking break to drink the water and/or suck down GU. Those, luckily, were the only walking breaks I took. :-)
I won't go into too much detail about the course, only that the course support and aid station volunteers were great. Some highlights were the Frontrunners', the gay and lesbian running club, aid station with the beautiful shimmering mini-skirted male cheerleaders and a pair of life-sized purple Tinky-Winky Teletubbies :-), Elvis, the balloon arch at the halfway point, the Penguin aid station (thanks for the hug, Tom!), the many bands along the entire course, the smell of tortillas in Pilsen (yum), the Chinese dragon in Chinatown, the REALLY LOUD EAR PIERCING band at Comiskey Park, the DRS/ChiADead sign at mile 24 (but no Penny :-( ), the infamous McCormick Place tunnel, the big, blue inflated gorilla just before the "mile to go" sign, the skyline at multiple points of the course, and the hike up the "hill" before the last .2, and of course, the finish was just AWESOME. The race, with all of this stuff, went by so fast.
My finishing time was 4:54:13 chip time and 5:07:19 clock time. Better than expected. Also, my second half was 1:14 faster than the first--a negative split race--yay! So, although this was about 16 minutes slower than last year, it was a real success for me, considering my training. I won all mental battles, only walked to take in water, and was in a great mood the entire way. I already can't wait until next year. :-)
BTW, congratulations to ChiADeads Dave, Chris, Melita on your first marathon, and Prescott (and Melita) for the Boston qualifiers, Karl for the awesome PR, and all of you others who ran great races. You all ROCK!
Chicago, IL
October 24, 1999
I ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday and enjoyed every single minute of it. And even though I knew I wasn't going to PR this year, I wanted to run a smart race and have fun along the way. My goal was to finish "around" 5 hours; it didn't even have to be under, just in the vicinity of that time. Based on my really lazy training for this race, I wanted to be realistic. I think I had maybe 3 LSD's that were 15 miles or longer. Yuck.
Anyway, after hanging out with ChiADeads at the "hospitality suite" (thanks, Chris and Kim), I headed over to the team challenge tent to locate my fellow marathon team members. I found only one of them, and hung out with her until close to the start. She was supposed to meet her training partner for the race (her first marathon), and didn't find her. :-( I ran over to the start, around the 5:00 pace people, and the horn sounded shortly after.
The start was slow, but once I passed the start line mat, I was able to run freely. It only took me 13:05 to get to the start line. 8-0 This was the only indicator of the major increase in participants this year. Otherwise, the course was crowded but not packed, so I was able to keep the pace I wanted to throughout.
I started out slow, in fact, the first three miles were my slowest string of miles, and sped up a little bit from there. My splits are kind of all over the place from about 10:51mpm to 11:39mpm, but I attribute that to water stations, where I took a short walking break to drink the water and/or suck down GU. Those, luckily, were the only walking breaks I took. :-)
I won't go into too much detail about the course, only that the course support and aid station volunteers were great. Some highlights were the Frontrunners', the gay and lesbian running club, aid station with the beautiful shimmering mini-skirted male cheerleaders and a pair of life-sized purple Tinky-Winky Teletubbies :-), Elvis, the balloon arch at the halfway point, the Penguin aid station (thanks for the hug, Tom!), the many bands along the entire course, the smell of tortillas in Pilsen (yum), the Chinese dragon in Chinatown, the REALLY LOUD EAR PIERCING band at Comiskey Park, the DRS/ChiADead sign at mile 24 (but no Penny :-( ), the infamous McCormick Place tunnel, the big, blue inflated gorilla just before the "mile to go" sign, the skyline at multiple points of the course, and the hike up the "hill" before the last .2, and of course, the finish was just AWESOME. The race, with all of this stuff, went by so fast.
My finishing time was 4:54:13 chip time and 5:07:19 clock time. Better than expected. Also, my second half was 1:14 faster than the first--a negative split race--yay! So, although this was about 16 minutes slower than last year, it was a real success for me, considering my training. I won all mental battles, only walked to take in water, and was in a great mood the entire way. I already can't wait until next year. :-)
BTW, congratulations to ChiADeads Dave, Chris, Melita on your first marathon, and Prescott (and Melita) for the Boston qualifiers, Karl for the awesome PR, and all of you others who ran great races. You all ROCK!
