Got Back From Chicago Marathon

[Husker Z]

Hey guys, I had mentioned it on here before that I was going to run the Chicago Marathon this year for my first marathon. Well, it was this past Sunday and we had an absolute blast. I had been training with a buddy I grew up with and have been great friends with my whole life and he now lives here in KC too. Anyway, we didn't run together during the race, it's just not easy to run with someone and we're not into talking while running, but he caught up with me right at mile 21 and we were able to cross the finish line together, which was an awesome deal. We were late entrants into the race, so we had to run for a charity, so we chose the American Liver Foundation as his dad died of liver disease right after we graduated from high school. When we were finishing the race, he pulled out a photo of his dad running and held it up as we finished, very cool moment for him, to say the least. He'd mentioned many times that he pictures his dad running next to him a lot during training.

Anyway, we had a blast and did pretty well overall, we finished with a time of 3:25:xx and we placed 3,3xx out of 45,000 entrants, so we were pretty happy with that.

I did have major leg cramps at mile 24.5 miles and wasn't sure I was going to be able to run to the finish, but managed to change my stride and hobble the rest of the way. I had a goal of 3:30:00 to beat my dad's marathon time and I was able to do that, so I'm pretty pleased. I'm just now back to where I can walk normal again, so I'm feeling good.

I did manage to get a speeding ticket on the way home, in Iowa, so that just added to the weekend costs, but I feel like Iowa needs a lot of help in their road department anyway, so I feel good about contributing.

 

[imported_Luster]

Wow... Congratulations! I remember those days.

Hard to believe it, but 30 years and 100 pounds ago, I used to do triathalons... some of my best memories!

Again, congrats... sounds like a great time!

 

[Husker Z]

Wow... Congratulations! I remember those days.

Hard to believe it, but 30 years and 100 pounds ago, I used to do triathalons... some of my best memories!

Again, congrats... sounds like a great time!

Ha, it's funny, one thing I kept thinking about when I was running is how crazy those guys are that run those Ironman Tri's. I can't imagine that.

Even the shorter distance Tris would be a son of gun, I think. I commend you, for sure, that's tough. Just changing from one sport to the other would be rough.

 

[imported_Luster]

Ha, it's funny, one thing I kept thinking about when I was running is how crazy those guys are that run those Ironman Tri's. I can't imagine that.

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Oh my gosh.... I could never do an ironman! The ones I did were a 1.1 mile swim, 25 miles bike and 6.2 mile run. (After I got off that bike it was more like a WALK!)

How did it feel to cross that finish line?!!!

 

[Husker Z]

Oh my gosh.... I could never do an ironman! The ones I did were a 1.1 mile swim, 25 miles bike and 6.2 mile run. (After I got off that bike it was more like a WALK!)

How did it feel to cross that finish line?!!!

Ironman or not, ANY tri is quite an accomplishment, that's tough stuff.

There was no feeling like it Bill, to be honest with you, quite a rush. I tell you, there is a corner right before the "sprint" to the finish and I was convinced I was NEVER going to get there. I hope there is no video of me, my legs were giving out and I couldn't run normal because both of my hamstrings would have locked up on me. Live and learn, but I simply dehydrated, the weather was so cool (29* at start) that I didn't drink near enough and my biggest mistake was NOT walking through the aid stations to get enough gatorade and I flat out dehydrated. I won't make that mistake next year.

 

[imported_Luster]

The last Tri I did, it was 90 degrees with 75% humidity. Even though I was chugging water the entire time, I couldn't keep up with the water loss!!!

I got dehydrated and was sick for a week!

Why did I quit doing Tri's?

Had 4 kids.

 

[Old Pirate]

Congratulations Husker Z, Now that's a major accomplishment for the both of you. Thanks for sharing it here with us!

 

[Husker Z]

The last Tri I did, it was 90 degrees with 75% humidity. Even though I was chugging water the entire time, I couldn't keep up with the water loss!!!

I got dehydrated and was sick for a week!

Why did I quit doing Tri's?

Had 4 kids.

That's scary stuff, you hear a lot of horror stories about that.

Having 2 kids ages 4 and 1 made the training a challenge, for sure. I committed to getting all of my runs in early in the morning, but hitting the trails at 5:00 on a saturday morning was a tough thing to do. But, I'm really glad I did it and if/when I do it again, I learned a lot and will change quite a bit.

I do know why 1/10 of 1% of the people in the US complete a marathon though. I had two 20 mile training runs and didn't think they were too bad and figured the 6.2 at the end would just fly by. WHOA, was I wrong, that final 6.2 is a mother-trucker. They say at 20 miles your body has used every bit of fuel you have in your system and from that point on your body is simply searching for things to burn. Well, that is 100% true, pretty sure my body just decided to use whatever was in my hamstings for fuel.

Pretty cool deal though. If you're going to do a marathon, do it in Chicago, just an awesome course and 1.5 MILLION spectators is truly an awesome sight.