Chicago Marathon

What an amazing experience! In the days leading up to the race you would hardly have known that a marathon event was about to take place. There was very little signage around the city and not much in the news either. However come Sunday the city was abuzz with marathon fever. I believe 45,000 people entered the event and 1.7 million people lined the streets of Chicago. The marathon had literally taken over the city. Having never experienced a marathon this big before, I was simply blown away with the excitement. It was probably the most enjoyable marathon I have done so far.

Up until the night before the race, I was unsure about even finishing it. I was very concerned about the forecasted heat and also feeling sore in the hips. Having only landed in the city on Wednesday evening, I still hadn't adjusted to the time zone change and only slept 5-6 hours max in the days leading up to the race. I also overdid the sight seeing and walked upwards of 10 km's each day looking around the place. 

The weather forecast was predicted to be 14 - 20 degrees between 7:30 am and 10:30 am, with high humidity and clear skies. I've never raced well in these conditions before so on Thursday I decided to enter the Toronto Marathon, which takes place on 16 October. I spoke to Sean about this before I left and he agreed it wasn't a bad idea. When I got to Chicago, I decided I really wanted to start the race and just do 1 hour at marathon effort and then jog back to the start / finish.  I settled on this plan for race day , however the night before the race I heard that heavy winds are predicted for Toronto, albeit with much cooler conditions. This got me thinking all over again and I reverted to the original plan of doing the whole race. I decided that I would need to make sure I am extremely well hydrated and maximize every opportunity during the race to keep my core cool by splashing water over myself.

I was rooming with my mate Craig Lambert. We were up early for a light breakfast and after getting ready we caught a bus to the start. We had planned to catch a cab, but 40 odd thousand other people had the same idea. Luckily plenty of buses were available. We got to the race start area a little after 6 am, dropped our baggage off and headed over to the A corral. The minutes ticked by quite quickly and before you knew it the race was underway.

Due to the warmer conditions, My pacing plan was to run to my heart rate, so I wore my heart rate monitor which I haven't done since my first marathon in 2008. I wanted to keep my heart rate below 150 for the first few km's and not more than the mid 150's up until 1/2 way. There after I hoped to just hold the pace or preferably negative split. Based on this strategy I hoped to go through 1/2 way in under 81 minutes and take it from there. The following heart rate splits were taken from my watch, which show actual versus target. Actual on the left and target on the right. As can be seen, I overdid it a little early on, then settled in okay but couldn't hold on over the final 6 km's or so. My pace slowed as no doubt my glycogen supplies depleted and my hips became extremely sore in the final 10 km's. I was actually feeling fine throughout the whole race but had very little in the tank after 36 km's, when the bodies preservation mechanisms kicked in and forced me to slow down. The initial 30 km's or so offered pretty good cover with buildings etc, but the final 12 km's were tougher in open skies and increasing temperature:

Goal pace 1-3 km's - 3:53
1 - 136 / 144 
2 - 147 / 144
3 - 152 / 146
Goal pace 4-11 km's - 3:51
4 - 153 / 150 
5 - 153 / 150 
6 - 154 / 150
7 - 155 / 151
8 - 156
9 - 156
10 - 155
11 - 156 / 152
12 - 156
13 - 155
14 - 158
Goal pace 15-29 km's - 3:49
15 - 159 / 156 
16 - 159
17 - 158
18 - 157 / 157
19 - 156
20 - 157
21 - 157
22 - 159 / 158 
23 - 159
24 - 160
25 - 160
26 - 161 / 159
27 - 160
28 - 161
Goal pace to finish - 3:47
29 - 161 / 163 
30 - 161
31 - 161 / (3:47) actual pace in brackets
32 - 160 / (3:51)
33 - 161 / 164  (3:46)
34 - 161 / (3:52)
35 - 161 / (3:50)
36 - 162 / (3:51)
37 - 160 / 165 (4:04)
38 - 156 (4:10)
39 - 158 (4:12)
40 - 157 / 166 (4:13)
41 - 156 / (4:15)
42 - 154 / (4:24)
43 - 158 / (4:12 pace)

It is noted that my watch recorded 43 km's instead of 42.195 km's, hence it is probably appropriate to add around 3-4 seconds to each km.

All up I ran a time of 2:44:35, which is over 3 mins off my PB and my 4th fastest time in 8 marathons that I have raced. I placed 233rd and 12th in the M40-44 category. To be frank, I'm very happy with this result. Considering the conditions and knowing that I did this one off my lowest training mileage (averaging only 110 km's per week, I have no complaints.

The plan is now to also do Toronto. I've never before considered such a thing and would've considered 2 marathons in 1 week crazy, but I'm here, I've entered and I have no goal races coming up, so I may as well give it a crack.

Prediction for Toronto is much cooler, 8-12 degrees but strong winds are forecasted. This will be a first. All previous marathons have been in either still conditions or moderate winds at worst. 

I iced my sore hips straight after Chicago and this did help. My quads were extremely sore the day after and still sore up until Thursday. 

Training for the week has consisted of:

Monday - Rest / walking around New York City
Tuesday - 3 km's in 19:30 - very painful on the quads
Wednesday - Rest / walked around NYC
Thursday - 5.5 km's jogging in a little under 5 min km pace
Friday - Pool 20 mins, which included 6 x 30 secs hard deepwater running without floatation.
Saturday - Jog 20 mins in a little under 4:50 pace

I'm writing this blog in the dark laying in my hotel bed. Power to the building has been gone most of the day. Race starts at 9 am. Alarm is set for 5 am and I'll have a bagel with honey before going back to sleep for a bit and then heading off to the race start. It's blowing big time outside and I'm hoping the weathergods are feeling nice.

I'll wear the chest strap again, but plan to write the heart rate numbers on my arm this time so I don't forget them again. If the wind does howl as predicted, I think it is prudent to run to effort and not even look at the km splits. If I can resist the temptation I might even turn the speed/timer details off.