Yesterday I ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon! This was my 14th state and my 19th marathon. Here is my recap and review.
Race: Bank of America Chicago Marathon
Location: Chicago, Illinois.
Size: Big! Over 37,000 marathoners. (But no half option! YAY!)
I am running the Chicago Marathon in just one week! If all goes well, this will be my 19th marathon and my 14th state! Woohoo. I had signed up for this race hoping to make a big jump in my PR and finally snatch a BQ. But taking over four hour to finish the Mesa Falls Marathon was a big reality check for me. Sounds like a BQ might be a few races off…
But what are my race goals? And what have I done to try to hit them?
Last week (yeah, the one that ended four days ago — I’m late! Sorry!) was just OK in terms of fitness progress… TONS of things going on at work that had me a bit stressed at times and interfered with my desire to sleep and/or go to Orangetheory. BUT! I also found out that I got in to the CHICAGO MARATHON (!!!!) through the lottery. I’ve been wanting to do this race for YEARS but for various reasons haven’t made it happen. 2016 is the year! So I’ll wait to check off Oregon (my backup plan) and instead get ILLINOIS. Shockingly, I have never been to Chicago. I don’t even think I’ve flown through Chicago… CRAZY. As soon as I found out I was picked (which was right when I woke up because the Chicago people, unlike the NYC people, are merciful and send you a nice notice at 4:30 am instead of making you check your credit card statement a million times a day), I booked a non-refundable hotel for race weekend and made this this official. So… as some of you may know, Chicago is a pretty fast course. Which has me thinking… This is probably a good time to get a new PR and see how far I am from a BQ time… BUT FIRST! Vermont City Marathon. So here’s what I did this past week… Continue reading
athlettuce 