A quarter-century ago, I lived in metro Chicago, working as a young chemistry professor at Northwestern University. The work was challenging, but I was professionally successful. Most surprisingly to this boy from southeast Texas, I figured out how to survive five months of winter. There were some incredibly sad times. In spring 1997, one of the graduate students that I mentored died in his sleep, from Marfan's Syndrome. This was upsetting for everyone in the lab and many in the department, including me as his research advisor. Then in December 1997, my first wife suffered a miscarriage. We had waited until I had earned tenure to start trying to have a child. This was terribly upsetting for us both. When Emory University reached out to me asking if I might be interested in a position, I originally thought I would just take a look, and if they offered me a position, I could leverage the outside offer to improve my situation at Northwestern. What surprised me was how impressed I was with the department and with the university. It didn't hurt that my interview was in January 1998, experiencing the mild winter in Atlanta compared with the frigidity of Chicago. Over the next few months, one thing led to another, and by end of the summer of 1998, I accepted a professorship at Emory University. We moved to Atlanta in October 1998. Over the years, I've maintained a negative view of Chicago. The last time that I went there was for a conference around 2005. But in the past couple of years, I decided that I needed to revisit Chicago, see if I can take some positive memories. So I applied for the Chicago Marathon through the lottery, and was accepted on the second attempt!
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| "L" ticket |
Unfortunately, my training was delayed by several weeks by an unexpected bout with spinal arthritis. By mid-July, I could run without pain. Coach Carl Leivers arranged a 16-week training program, which was effectively two weeks of recovery and a 14-week marathon build. At my request, he put together a training schedule that got me up to 14-mile, 16-mile, and 18-mile long runs, then 20-mile and 22-mile training runs, which I completed on the Tucker Middle School track, to get my legs accustomed to running a flat course. I completed all of the training runs, but the last 2 miles of every single long run was excruciatingly difficult. I felt like I was a few weeks behind in training - I was a few weeks behind in training. It reminded me of Calculus II and Quantum Mechanics courses in college, where the material made sense but only a few weeks after we had covered it. Those were my lowest grades in college.
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| Kiss for good luck! |
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| At Buckingham Fountain before the start |
For the marathon, I was in wave 2, corral J, for runners expecting to finish in 4:10 - 4:20. That might have been realistic if I had experienced the ideal training cycle and had perfect running conditions, but neither was the case on Sunday morning October 10, with 72 deg F temperature at the start. As I lined up in the very back row of my corral, I saw another runner wearing a shirt "Overconfident & Undertrained". I hoped that I was neither overconfident nor undertrained. My strategy was to stay on a conservative 2:00 run / 0:30 walk interval pattern, running very easily for the first half marathon, trying for as slow as 2:30, then picking up the pace at the very end to finish in less than 5 hours, giving myself a chance at a negative split effort.
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| In corral J |
Our corral started at 8:15 am, to the music of the Alan Parsons Project, "Sirius", which was the opening music for Chicago Bulls basketball during the Michael Jordan era, the second half of which coincided with my time in Chicago. I had studied the map for mile 1 in microscopic detail, planning 3-minute goals coinciding with quarter-mile landmarks. I was aiming for a 12-minute first mile, and passed the mile 1 marker at 11:20. So that was a little faster than expected, but I considered anything slower than 11 min/mile a successful opening. I worked my way through downtown Chicago, appreciating the incredible crowd support. Everyone had said that Chicago is "pancake flat", but that's not exactly true. In addition to the occasional overpass or underpass, the areas along the Chicago River are built up, so there is a slight incline heading up to each bridge. Just past the mile 3 marker, I spotted Bonnie, stopped for a couple of seconds to grab her hands, then continued running north on LaSalle Street.
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| Mile 3: "Marathons are easy!" |
I passed the 5K mark at 34:25 and the 8K mark at 55:12, just over an 11 min / mile pace. I actively kept slowing myself down as we made our way past the Gold Coast into Lincoln Park - I remembered going to a party there many years ago. 10K mark at 1:09:05, still working at the slightly slower than 11 min / mile pace. At times there was a little moisture in the air, but it never really rained. However there was a light breeze which helped moderate the temperature, especially after I had worked up a bit of a sweat. The race route paralleled Lake Shore Drive for about 1/2 mile. Some of the drivers were honking to encourage us, while people lined the other side of the street to cheer us on. Making the turn at Sheridan Road, I had expected to see the Loyola University of Chicago campus, but it turns out that was a few miles further north. As we turned onto Broadway at the northernmost end of the route, there was a large screen showing messages to runners. One showed "Hi Mom!" which I figured applied to about 30% of the runners. There were quite a few runners around, so messages to me didn't appear as I passed the screen, but after the race I saw three cheer cards for me - thanks Brian and Beverly Minor, Judy Tennell, Robin Valentine, and Kristi Swartz!
Eight miles in, I was still feeling good, enjoying the experience. My mantra was "Patience." The Beastie Boys' "You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party!" was played as I turned the corner to head south on Broadway, followed a few blocks later by a live band playing an old Beatles pop song, although I couldn't remember the specific song after the race. As we ran near Wrigleyville, I realized it's a shame that I never made it to a Chicago Cubs game in six years. In Boystown, I had expected a big drag show, but this year it was just a small stage with four dancers. By the time that I came through, it was probably 1-1/2 hours since the first runners had passed, so perhaps the show was winding down. 15K at 1:42:38, that amounted to an 11 flat min / mile pace. It was now 10 am, more than 1/3 of the way through the marathon, although I tried to just focus on running the mile that I was in. I began to wonder who had won the overall marathon, as the leading men and women runners would have finished by then, with a 46 minute headstart on me, running twice as fast. The crowd support continued, if anything growing stronger as we worked our way south toward downtown. 20K at 2:16:50, half marathon mark at 2:24:28, about 5 minutes faster than planned. That meant that I was now committed to a 4:49 finish if I was going for the negative split goal. Maybe I ran too fast in the first half, but I don't think that I could have moved much more slowly. I saw Bonnie again at this stage, as I worked my way around the Chicago loop, then heading west to begin the second half of the race.
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| Half marathon: no problem! |
I began to feel uncomfortable by this stage. I had run nice and slowly, nonetheless my quads were getting sore, the ankle was bothering me, and I was getting warm. 30K at 3:28:13, I was beginning to slow down, just when I wanted to stay steady. Doubts began to creep into my mind. My mantra changed to "Glide", to remind myself to run with good form. That helped, but the soreness in my quads was beginning to limit my stride. Then just past the 19 mile sign, we turned onto 18th Street, into the heart of Pilsen. This was originally a Czech neighborhood, but in the mid-20th century became more Latino. Happily, the crowd support dramatically increased, which helped me pick up the pace, at least for a few minutes. Then things grew quiet again, turning south on Halsted Street, passing the 20-mile mark. My watch was at 3:44:26. On a good day, I could expect to finish the last 10K in an hour. That would have smashed my negative split goal, and possibly have given me my second-best finish. I tried to maintain the 2:00 run / 0:30 walk intervals, but was having trouble forcing myself to resume running. The neighborhood became more industrial, not much stimulation. Turning east onto Cermak Road, I saw a runner down on the left, although he was conscious, attended by medics, and seemed to have a leg problem. We went down into an underpass below an interstate highway, where it was so dark that I had to remove my sunglasses, after I nearly collided with a slower runner. I didn't think that there was anyone slower than me out there. On a bridge crossing the Chicago river, another runner was down on the right, again conscious and receiving care. He looked like he was completely exhausted. The temperatures were now uncomfortably warm. By this time I had received a second sponge, to periodically squeeze over my head, even down my legs. At the water stops I took an extra cup just to wet down the sponge, which was a good move. Fortunately all of the aid stations were well manned with plenty of Gatorade and water.
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| Somehow I didn't hear Bonnie calling my name |
Now I was entering Chinatown. Crowd support increased again, along with the sounds of drummers, so loud that I completely missed hearing or seeing Bonnie. I wasn't expecting to see her at Chinatown, but she took the "L" from downtown to the Chinatown station. Turning right under the Chinatown Gateway, I fondly remembered coming here on a couple of occasions for authentic Chinese cuisine. That helped me to continue for a few more minutes. But the route passed through another interstate interchange, most of which I walked through. 35K at 4:07:18. I had covered that last 5K at a 12:30 min / mile pace, which wasn't going to get me to the finish line in a negative split. Around this point, I noticed that the alert system had changed from yellow (moderate alert) to red (high alert). At that moment, I failed to deploy my fight mantra. It was just a matter of getting to the finish. Passing the mile 22 marker, all I could remember was how difficult the 22 mile long run had been two weeks ago.
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| Still upright but obviously exhausted |
The race route was now on an access road paralleling Interstate 90, in what I called mile "twenty-awful". Everything hurt, so much so that the twisted ankle wasn't necessarily my biggest problem. Finally, we crossed the interstate on 33rd Street. I had forgotten the details of the race map, and was dismayed when we turned south(!) on State Street. I even said to someone running near me, "We're going the wrong way!" We were on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, which looked much nicer than I recalled from a visit many years ago on a snowy winter day. There were not too many people to cheer us on, as we passed the mile 23 sign. Turning left onto 35th Street, that was now our southernmost part of the run. Crossing Michigan Avenue, then turning left onto Indiana Avenue, finally in the home stretch of this very long run. At 31st Street, we made a jog onto Michigan Avenue, approaching the mile 24 marker. "9 laps on the track", as Coach Carl would say. Had I felt better, this is where I could have made a move, only 2.2 miles to the finish. But instead I decided to conserve energy and walked for a couple of blocks. After crossing the interstate highway, I returned to the run - walk plan for the rest of the way. I began looking for the Willis Tower as a landmark far in the distance. Crossing Cermak Road, right before the mile 25 sign, I heard Bonnie call out - I turned and waved and perhaps even managed to smile! 40K at 4:51:24, wow, that was a 14 min / mile pace for the past 5K. A sub-five hour finish was now impossible. With only "5 laps" to go on the track I thought I should run the rest of the way, but ... I didn't feel well enough to break the run - walk pattern. I remembered how I had picked up the pace at the end in the New York City Marathon, but today I didn't have that strength. I just didn't slow down as badly as I had from miles 20 to 25.
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| Mile 25 |
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| Thank goodness for the sponge! |
Shortly before reaching the right turn onto Roosevelt Road, the runners were constricted to the left side of the street, as the "800 meters to the finish" sign came into view. That made us run a little further, when I was trying to follow the blue chalk line marking the shortest route to the finish. There were a couple of course marshals, who pulled someone off of the course. Aha, a bandit without a bib, who wasn't going to get into the finish area to pick up a medal. Roosevelt Road was uphill, crossing a train track, but I was prepared for that. I just took my time, even took a 30 second walk break. The road was a lot longer than it had looked from the pace car in the 2019 television broadcast, such a long distance between the "400 meters" and "300 meters" sign. After forever, we turned left onto Columbus Drive. 200 meters to go. I could see the finish line up ahead. We passed over a timing mat, to signal our names to the announcer. I listened for my name, didn't hear it, but there were quite a few runners around me. The music into the finish line was "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. But there was no lightning to spark my legs to speed up into the finish. At least I ran and did not walk as I crossed the finish line. 5:08:30. My second slowest marathon - the slowest being the one that I foolishly ran injured.
My first thoughts upon finishing were that I was glad that I wasn't running anything at all the next weekend (the PNC 10-miler and 5K in Atlanta on October 17) and that I was 100% comfortable with my resolution not to run a marathon in 2022. I was disappointed that I didn't run this marathon better. The twisted ankle at mile 17 didn't help. But I just wasn't prepared to run 26.2 miles on this day. After a few days of reflection, I felt better and more accepting about my performance. My training was limited by factors beyond my control. I began to focus on the remarkable fact that I recovered in time to get into good enough shape to cover the distance from start to finish.
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| The Chicago Marathon was really well organized in every way. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a big city marathon! |
More importantly, I left Chicago with a more balanced view of my time here. There were some good times, some tough times. I have no regrets about permanently escaping the harsh winters. But I now have a lot of positive memories from this trip, even with the tough marathon experience on Sunday.
