This was a half marathon I ran in the Chicago suburbs as a tune up for my first sub-three hour marathon. Here's what I thought of it in 1994:

There were lot's of people in the race, between 1600 (what the woman on the phone told me) and 4000 (what the guy at the starting line said on his megaphone). We were all crowded into two traffic lanes. I had spent the 15 minutes before the race in line for the port-o-potties. I did some stretching there and the my warmup sprint to the start line. It took 10 seconds to cross the starting line and then another 30 to 60 seconds for the crowd to thin enough to run as fast I wanted. I started at the 5:00 per mile pace line and there were too many people talking about 8:00 per mile paces. They shouldn't have been up so far!

My first mile was in 6:14, everything included. My two mile split was 12:20, so a 6:04 second mile. At three miles I was at 18:48; a 6:28 third mile? The four mile split was 25:00 so a 6:12 mile and a 6:15 pace. The miles went on like this, fast then slow and then fast again. I started to wonder about how accurate the markers were. I did stop for water every other mile (there was water every mile), but I don't think it slowed me down that much.

The volunteers handing out the water were inexperienced. On my first stop I tried to get water three times and ended up knocking the cups on the ground. The fourth time I took the cup with both hands to be sure. They water volunteers held the cups out rigidly and didn't allow for any relative motion between themselves and the runners. Thus there were several cups knocked to the ground. Also the water was quite cold and my stomach started to hurt a bit.

A minor injury that has been bothering me a little lately is the outside backs of my knees. While driving my car and shifting gears, when I push the clutch and the the gas pedal the rear tendon (?) on the outside part of my right leg aches a bit. It hurt at the beginning of the race. But it never got really bad. Hopefully ice, stretching and ibuprofen will get me through the marathon.

The day before I had carbo loaded a bit too much. Two big potatos for lunch and then a big plate of pasta for dinner. I also ate three Power Bars and a half a loaf of bread and drank a big container of Power Aid, the Gatorade like stuff form the Pepsi people (it was $1.00 cheaper). I don't think all that stuff had enough time to work it's way through my system.

The race teperature was okay. Mostly sunny, 54F but very windy. It seemed like we spent most of the time running into the wind. That may have just felt that way since I was running so fast for so long. Mile five came up at 31:00, a 6:00 mile? It didn't feel like I had run it that fast. I slowed up a bit to save some for my negative split. I think this was a bad idea since the mile markers probably weren't all that accurate. Mile 8 came at 51:04, the three miles I had just run were at a 6:41 pace? Mile 9 came at about 57:00, I ran a 5:56 nineth mile? Then I crossed the ten mile mark right at 1:03, a 6:00 mile. In general all the miles went very quickly.

After that I knew I should push it, so I pressed harder. I was a bit confused as to the course. I saw some people running a few blocks to the right of me, so I assumed they were in front of me and I would have to make a U-turn soon. I was wrong, they were behind me and I had a left turn coming up. The last mile of the race had an up hill in it. We crossed an express way. Lot's of people died. Several people who had passed me back around mile nine were falling back behind me. At the top of the hill I thought I saw the finish line, so I kikced harder. I was wrong. There was one more left turn and then about 200 yards before the finish. I seriously wondered if I could make it running that hard.

There hadn't been lot's of specators on the route, but there were plenty at the finish line, so I didn't want to poop out. I didn't want to be passed either. The guy ahead of me was about 25 yards in front and I didn't think I could catch him. I didn't hear anyone behind me and thought I was okay. Just then a short guy came up on my right. I didn't have anything faster so I thought he'd whiz by me. I was wrong again. He didn't have anything at all. After a few seconds together I realized he wasn't going to pass me. I left him behind and finished at 1:23:25, a 6:22 pace overall (and the last 3.1 miles at a 6:35 pace?).

According to the pace chart I have this points to a 2:56:21 marathon and my 8K time points to a 2:54:58 time. So maybe I can break 3:00, but 2:55 might be in doubt. Then again, the 8K course was hilly, the half-marathon was windy and my tactics and strategy were suspect. At the worst I suspect I will qualify for Boston and run a PR in Washington. At the best I might actaully run in the middle 2:50's.

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