Yesterday’s race was amazing. I’ll have videos up in a few days hopefully, but for now here is a recap of my race.
We crossed the start line around 8am. Adam took off in hopes of hitting his sub 4:00 time. My plan had been to run between 11 and 12 min miles, and depending how I was doing I wanted to push and finish at the 5 hour mark, but realistically I figured I’d finish about 5:40.
Well as we all know things don’t always go according to plan. Throughout the run I felt great, the miles were flying by! I stayed with in my desired pace most of the race, but was closer to the 12 minute miles towards the back half of the course. There was a period of time where I thought finishing in 5 hours was gonna be easy….
Cue the Heat.
It got hot pretty quickly. I was still feeling good around the 13.1 mile mark. I saw my friend Dave there, he came out to watch. After some high fives and a solid slap on the ass from Dave (yep I’m serious) I continued on. I was walking though the aid stations so I could make sure to take in an adequate amount of fluids. I was also taking Clif SHOTs or Shot Bloks every 5 to 6 miles, plus I had a CamelBak filled with Accelerade. So I was set.
At some of the later aid stations I was dumping water on my head to keep cool. I soon realized that even though I was feeling good, I wasn’t going to finish in 5 hours. The heat had slowed my pace, which was now bouncing between 11:30 and 12:30.
At around mile 20 I ran in to ChicagoNow’ers Dave Wallach, Pace of Chicago and Dan Malinski, CubicleDad, who were looking sharp heading toward the finish line right on schedule. I’m really glad I got to see them along the way.
I continued to trot along and just before mile 22 I ran in to my friend Beefy. He was pushing through some foot discomfort. We jogged for about a mile through China Town together before I went on my way.
My legs were getting tired as we turned on to Michigan Ave, but it was the last stretch of the race and not matter what I was gonna finish strong…. until mile 25. My quads cramped up real bad. I trotted a few more steps before I stopped to stretch for a minute. I got as loose as I was going to get and then I headed towards the finish. I fought the long hill up Roosevelt and made the turn on to Columbus. I was pumped heading towards the finish line, About 2 steps before crossing I took a running jump and landed right on the finish!!!
I DID IT. I FINISHED THE MARATHON. And over all I felt great. I stretched again for a few minutes grabbed some water gatorade… a beer and of course my medal.
When I got home, I uploaded all my race info like a nerd. below is recaps from both Nike+ and Garmin as well as a video that popped up when I uploaded to Nike+.
Today I plan on heading to NikeTown early to get my medal engraved, then after that I’m going to be sitting on the deck and relaxing!
I’ll have some more later, including a poll to determine my next challenge plus a new Nike+ challenge.
Phil Castello 
Congrats, Man. What an accomplishment.
I though maybe it was me you noticed with a power song but, no, my power song didn’t lead me to a strong finish just a short burst and then a fizzle. Even so I enjoyed the experience as much as you did.
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smith
ebooks with resell rights
You are a stud. So proud of you. You looked great out there. We need to find something next year…
More to come on that Dave… more to come on that… Make sure to vote!!!