It has been an amazing journey again, with me logging the most miles so far in my running adventure, and taking on two 20 milers all by my lonesome. But, I've still got two weeks to go, so I'm trying to relax and maintain, yet not over-do it. For instance, I'm back down to doing one workout per day. I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM as opposed to 4:30 AM, since I'll be running this evening. In other words, I got 8 hours of sleep! This is a trend I hope continues. This past Saturday, I ran my final long run in double digits. 12 miles. It was a good day. Since it's so dark and cool out in the mornings, I gave myself leave to sleep in until 8 AM and then go for a run. It was nice to run in the sun and not feel it's death rays. In fact, I had a hard time keeping my pace slow. Every time I checked Joanie Garmin, she showed me averaging a 9:45. Not good, but good at the same time. Ohhhhh long runs, how you mock me. I'm considering commissioning a scientist friend to study my hypothesis that cold makes you faster.
Sunday, of course, was the 2009 Chicago Marathon. The weather was PERFECT. If you had a good run and enjoyed the weather, you can thank me for not signing up. I guarantee if I had signed up, it would have been 90 degrees with 88% humidity. If you had a bad run, don't look at me. All I did was cheer my ass off in the cold. My buddy Jen and I met our other CES buddies Leslee and Jane at Jane's apartment, near mile 5. We wanted to see the elites roll by, and roll by they did...
Apparently, they were on world record pace for a while.
The guy in the gold singlet (not the bright yellow one...he's more in the middle of the pack) in the above picture is Sami Wanjiru, the eventual winner and new course record holder. Oh yeah, and he won the gold medal in the marathon last year too. Oh and he's only 22.
It was amazing how focused they were. We were the loudest people there and these guys didn't break, not once. Absolutely incredible. And incredibly hot. What? I can stare...
I did yell, "I'm single!!!" a few times, with a few responses. A girl can try, can't she?
There were some pretty inspirational sights as well, such as the wheelchair competitors, the Veterans in the hand-crank wheelchairs, and the dudes with no legs.
We also saw the women's elites, including Deena, who couldn't help but look our way and smile once she passed us. Seeing the elite women up close was interesting. They are so lean that often, in magazines and television, they appear so much taller than they really are. These ladies were shorties all the way. It was cool to see Berhane Adere, who schooled that Romanian chick during the 2007 Chicago Marathon.
Note: Not my pic, and not from this year
It was so much fun spectating this year! I had to stop and remind myself at several points on Saturday that I was not getting up to run a marathon on Sunday. And it's always fun to hang out with the Lakefront Angels.
Some Russian chick won, and this was her second marathon. Apparently, she thought it was a little too cold for a marathon. Really? Seriously. Be careful what you wish for...
So congratulations to everyone who ran this past weekend. It's pretty impressive, and I doubt that feeling will ever go away. In fact, I hope it never does!
3 comments:
Awesome experience just to watch... I blogged about it, too. Even though I booked, I JUST missed the men's lead pack. Where'd you watch from?
Also, did you name your Garmin? Haha, a friend of mine told me I HAD to name my Garmin but yours is the only other instance I've seen ever it.
ahhhh SO fun to spectate chicago!!! I WANT TO RUN IT!!! but only with weather like this years :)
YAY taper!!!!!!
I loved spectating the Chicago Marathon in 2002 (I think it was) and running it in 2003! It's a fantastic race!
Good luck with the rest of your taper!
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