26.2 loooooong miles: my story

So my life has been pretty darn consumed by this whole marathon thing… it’s truly screwing up my blogging abilities! I thought you were supposed to get more energy from exercising…in any case, by the time the work day is over and I go to the gym and get home, I just don’t feel like sitting down to the computer to type more. I want to eat dinner and veg in front of the tv. I still need to figure out how to set up my wireless connection for the computer. I hear it’s pretty easy, but I have brain issues when I get home at night and the thought of messing around with something I’m not sure how to do seems to overwhelming to attempt… so I put it off. And now it’s been almost a year. Go me. I’ll have to tackle that asap…maybe this weekend. I’m a horrible procrastinator in case any of you didn’t know this about me…so enough blabbering, let’s get to the good stuff!

The expo! Holy moly this was a sight to behold. It was an event in itself! Alice and I attempted to leave my house a little before 4 on Friday afternoon. The theory is that it is less crowded on Fri than Sat plus it is a lot of walking and I needed to save my feet for Sun. We drove over to mccormick place which for those of you who don’t know is a convention center that is more of a small city. We drove around for almost an hour looking for the one parking lot that we were supposed to park in… and kept getting lost. Yes, it is that big with that many turns and it is so not well marked! We saw others getting lost too… it was pretty funny but so frustrating! We finally parked and made our way to the expo which was full of booths: everything from various upcoming marathons, to massage products, food stuff, to running gear, and even tooth whitening you could do right there on the spot. Of course this is also where we picked up our packets for the race and our new technical race t-shirts. They also had a huge Nike store in the middle of everything where I couldn’t help but purchase a new purple fleece and purple running shorts (in my favorite style) with the Chicago marathon 08 emblazoned on them. And I also got a nifty frame dealio that will house my medal, my bib number, some Chicago marathon artwork piece, and a little plaque with my super slow time on it. Gosh, the pressure, now I had to finish not only b/c of all of my hard work, but also because what would I do with this very nice $150 display thing if I didn’t earn my medal?! That would seriously suck.

On the night before the race, I made all of my preparations. I made a sign for alice’s parents to hold with my name on it. I colored in ‘harper’ to the front of my team in training shirt. I figured harper was easier to write and see on a shirt. Less letters. Incidentally, did anyone see that lisa marie pressly named one of her twins ‘harper’? and at the marathon expo, alice and I saw a very cute golden retriever puppy poking out of a girls tote bag. The dog’s name? harper. I’d find this much cuter if that stupid hobag’s son hadn’t named his daughter ‘harper’ in ‘honor’ of my granddad. It makes me want to throw up thinking about it. Thus, none of my children will ever have the harper name as their first or middle name. I digress. I got my water bottle filled up, I put the bib on my shirt, put the clothes out on the dresser, put the timing chip on my shoe, packed a bag for my stuff to check at the race, my sports watch, got out the body glide, the gu, the sunscreen (I burned anyways), and a bunch of other miscellaneous items that one probably wouldn’t think of if…I wanted to make sure I was totally prepared so I didn’t forget anything in the morning.

The morning of! I woke up early so I could have breakfast (a bagel with peanut butter) and that I could get fully prepared. Body glide, check. Sports waterproof sunscreen, check. Watch, check. And so on. I was ready! Alice, her uncle (also running), her uncle’s friend, and her parents all picked me up and we made our way to grant park… the starting point. We got close, but then we had to jump out of the car so that her parents could find parking and we could get to the charity tents and find team in training’s tent. I was very stressed out b/c I felt like we were running out of time. We HAD to be in the start corrals by 7:45 or we couldn’t participate. It’s was 7:04. Charity village was far. And then alice realized she forgot her watch. Without her watch, she can’t do her intervals which are 4 mins running and 2 walking. She was absolutely stressed out and about to cry. She wanted to jump in a cab and go home to get it. She thought she didn’t have any other choice otherwise without her watch she’d never be able to finish. I told her absolutely not. We have to find another way. The make that round trip, she would have definitely missed the 7:45 am time deadline. She didn’t have her phone so she couldn’t call anyone (didn’t know anyone’s numbers by heart). So her stressing out was stressing me out, but we made our way to the tent (which of course, was the furthest one from the entrance). We stashed our bags and I happened to ask if either of the girls happened to have a watch alice could borrow. One girl lent alice her watch which was fantastic. However, no one knew how to program intervals and we never figured it out so it was of no help there…we headed to the starting corrals and lined up with the pace we were starting with. We both started around the 12 min pace. In the huge crowd of 40k + people, we managed to find a few member of our team that we’d trained with all season and so that was nice. Alice was super relieved b/c they all adhere to the 4/2 pace too. However, they go slower than her. But, luckily a girl named Jackie was around and she wanted to do 4/2 but a little faster. So it ended up working out a-ok. Phew. Deep breath.

5…4…3…2…1! Now, hurry up and wait! Seriously. They let the really good marathoners go five minutes ahead of the pack. Five minutes later, we started but it took about twenty minutes to cross the start line. My time did not start until I officially crossed the line. So, off I went. Through 29 different neighborhoods of Chicago. My favorite neighborhoods were Boystown, Pilsen, and China Town. Boystown b/c as we turned on to Broadway, there was a band playing “On Broadway” and then there were the super gay guys all dressed up and cheering us (literally as cheerleaders) on. Then Pilsen. As we ran in to Pilsen, the sign said welcome to Mexico! Hmm. Ok! They played all kinds of fun festive Mexican music. And then China Town. It was near the finish line, but it was fun b/c they had a couple of Chinese dragons dancing for us. I can’t really remember what mile was where, but I know I heard my name and saw a sign for me around mile 8 or 9? Surprise! It was my friend Nicole (not the Scripps one) and her husband, Chris cheering me on. I had no idea they would be there so that was awesome! Then at mile 13, I knew to look for Alice’s parents. There was the sign I made! They also handed me some gu, and off I went. (gu is a small packet of nasty tasting stuff to give you energy b/c you burn so many calories). Also along the way Megan and Trish were cheering us on, but I never saw them. Alice did though! And another great surprise I wasn’t expecting was my name to be called out in the middle of the ghetto by devon! What?! Wait!! I hear my name “Katherine!” and it makes me look b/c I have harper on my shirt and it sounded like a voice I knew. And it was! A sweaty hug and a couple of self portraits later, I had to continue down the road to the finish line! I loved all the support. It was so great!! There were also so many people watching along the way. Many offered cheers, high fives, cookies, pretzels, encouragement, and in some cases they sprayed hoses on us – it was so freaking hot!! And a few times we were offered cold beers for free… I thought that might make me puke. No thanks. I passed. But even in all the heat, even as my knees, hips, feet and everything else was dying…. I continued to push forward thinking about all the reasons why I was running this race. Becky and matt’s mom, my grandpa, all the people who made a donation, my parents, and lastly but most important…that damn display plaque I bought that would be arriving in 4 weeks. If I didn’t finish, I didn’t get a medal and I would feel stupid about ordering the plaque. Just kidding. Well sort of. What truly kept me going was thinking about how much I had trained and how much effort I had put forth. I was not going to quit! Just keep going…every step you take is one step closer to the finish line. Cheesy, I know. But true nonetheless.

With a little more than a mile to go, I’m looking ahead of me and I see a purple tank and black shorts with a familiar blond pony tail…it was alice! I raced to catch up to her and we were both exhausted. But, it was so awesome to spend the entire race apart and then somehow meet up unplanned at the end when there were so many people out there. We ran the rest of the way together and even crossed the finish line at the same time. I know, it sounds so cheesy, but it was such an emotional moment and it was so amazing to have someone to share it with! And with that, just like that… we had finished 26.2 miles.

After the race, we hobbled to get our medals and then to get back to the team in training tent. Once there, we promptly signed up for the people to stretch us out… that was amazing. And we sat. and then her parents made their way over to the tent and we made our way home. Cab to car, then car to home. Once home, I jumped in to the bathtub and dumped Epsom salt in there (part of the previous night’s preparation). A lot of it. I read somewhere that it helps sore muscles. Once clean, bathed and showered I made my way to the couch. I ordered dominos and ate my pepperoni and mushroom pizza with zero remorse or regret or guilt. And then I was done. Just done. It was 7pm and I was exhausted. So I went to bed. Where I couldn’t sleep all night b/c I was so sore I could barely move. Literally I had to pull my legs up to get them to lift. And the worst part was, it seriously felt like I had to get up every half hour to pee. I drank so much water on the course, but never peed. But once I did, holy moly I had to a lot. I can barely move and yet I have to roll out of bed, sit, stand, and all the things that are normally easy (like walking) hurt like hell. But, I feel incredibly accomplished. I wonder what race I’ll do next…

me and alice at the finish line!
running at some point... no idea what mile this is...