Back from Chicago

Some quick thoughts:

The air temperature was awesome. The wind? Not so much. I walked down to gear check at 5:20 in a sweatshirt and sweatpants and felt so comfortable that I decided I'd wear shorts and a short sleeve shirt. When I got back to the hotel and saw the weather reports with gusts up to 30 MPH, I decided to wear my long sleeve shirt, too.

We stayed at the Congress, which was just a few blocks from the start area. We walked down to the start the night before so I could get an idea of how much time I wanted to allow, and I decided then to check my bag early. This was one of the smartest ideas I've had in a long time, as I was able to head straight to the start from the hotel instead of worrying about getting to gear check.

I did end up with my name on my shirt, and "go ugly toes" on the back. The New Balance stickers worked out really well! Most people did call me mah-riss-a instead of mah-ree-sa, but it didn't bug me as much as I thought. I thought it was cool that a lot of the water stop people said my name.

Some lessons learned:
1) Vanity and pride have no place in a marathon. With that wind, I should've worn my tights. And I know better, because this was in my wrap-up from Chicago '02:
"But it was a good learning experience- if it's ever cold like that again, I'll make sure to pack my tights and wear them. I think having my legs wrapped would've helped."
2) Trust your training. On almost every long run I did, I started slow and picked it up. I'm beginning to think it's not a coincidence that the best feeling marathon I've had is the one in which I started out slower than my goal. I think it might be time to forget "go big or go home" and leave that for 1/2s and under.
3) Buy throwaway or tearaway pants for the start if wearing shorts.
4) It really is time to investigate nutrition, as I'm not sure that gel every 5 miles is enough. I started feeling kind of "icky" stomach-wise before my 15-mile gel, and I really didn't want my 20-mile gel. I still ate them both, but my stomach just felt off. I didn't even want to eat after the race (I only had 2 bananas and a few hershey kisses until we went to dinner around 5). Maybe I do need sports drinks.

Things were going well under mile 15. We then turned into the wind, and I just started struggling. My legs tightened up, and got worse every mile. I finally did stop twice briefly to stop (maybe miles 20 and 21?) and then I started walking though the water stops. I might have been able to push through it, but coming off an injury I think I was worried about hurting myself. I'm sore now, but after a few days of recovery I'll be good.

I can't find where I mentioned it, but awhile back I started doing some "visualization" while running hills on training runs. I practiced running strongly up the hill while thinking about coming up that hill right before the finish (sometimes imagining that I was chasing down 3:40). I was struggling hard at the end, but when I hit that hill yesterday, I flew up it.

I about lost it several times during the race. I was very excited at the start, especially getting into the pref II corral and as we walked up to meet the pref I corral. I almost hyperventilated after we crossed the start line before I relaxed. I started getting worried about my BQ as the miles got slower and slower; when I crossed mile 25 and realized I had 15 minutes to go it set in that I was going to make it. Hitting the "mile to go" sign ... and then hitting mile 26 and seeing the finish. I probably pictured a million times what it was going to be like to see the clock with 3:3x on it, but actually seeing it? You just can't do it justice.

Mile splits:
1 | 7:59
2 | 7:38 | 15:37
3 | 7:37 | 23:14
4 | 7:37 | 30:52
5 | 7:38 | 38:30
6 | 7:54 | 46:25
7 | 7:34 | 53:59
8 | 7:43 | 1:01:43
9 | 7:43 | 1:09:26
10 | 7:41 | 1:17:08
11 | 7:43 | 1:24:51
12 | 7:55 | 1:32:47
13 | 7:54 | 1:40:42 (13.1 miles 1:41:29)
14 | 7:45 | 1:48:28
15 | 8:03 | 1:56:31
16 | 8:05 | 2:04:37
17 | 8:12 | 2:12:50
18 | 8:20 | 2:21:10
19 | 8:56 | 2:30:07
20 | 9:07 | 2:39:14
21 | 9:07 | 2:48:22
22 | 8:43 | 2:57:05
23 | 9:11 | 3:06:16
24 | 9:39 | 3:15:55
25 | 9:47 | 3:25:43
26 | 8:57 | 3:34:40
.2 | 1:29 (7:25/mi)
-------------------------------------------
26.2 miles | 3:36:10 | 8:15/mi.

total time avg. pace 5K split 5K pace
0:23:59 0:07:43 0:23:59 0:07:43
0:48:03 0:07:45 0:24:04 0:07:44
1:11:50 0:07:42 0:23:47 0:07:39
1:36:10 0:07:45 0:24:20 0:07:49
2:00:47 0:07:48 0:24:37 0:07:55
2:26:46 0:07:53 0:25:59 0:08:21
2:54:50 0:08:03 0:28:04 0:09:01
3:24:19 0:08:14 0:29:29 0:09:29

So that wasn't as quick as expected. Real report to follow.