10.10.10 - Gene's Perspective

A post-race email from Gene to his running buddies. His overall finish time was 4:26.

Preparing for a marathon doesn’t end with the training and the weekend was too busy for Katie, Tyler and I. We flew in Friday morning, checked in, got to downtown, ate, and went to the expo. Seems easy enough, but it zapped the energy out of us. We then met up with an old high school friend on Friday night and dinner took a long time so we got to bed late. Saturday, I went on the morning jog with the Leukemia team that I’ve been raising money for and toured the starting/finishing area. We then went to an early lunch that took a long time again with some good friends that live in Michigan. After we walked to a park and hung around for a little bit. I think I should have had better communication with my wife and friends to keep things simple and not too much walking. I knew I needed to be sitting down in A/C and not walking around a park the day before 26.2. It’s kind of hard to balance combining the marathon with seeing good old friends.

I meant to send out an email to my running buds, but with having a 7 week old and everything else, time really flew during the weekend. I spent a lot of time Sat night figuring out how to get a shower, etc since we would need to check out of the hotel before I got back. I apologize about it – I know some of you got an email and were able to track me.

Before the weekend, I was fretting over how fast I should run because it was going to be colder weather in Chicago. Ha! The day starting in the high 60s and went to the 80s pretty quickly. I wasn’t too concerned about the weather since I knew I was prepared to run in the heat – it’s just I couldn’t run as fast as I could in the cold. Runkeeper was having issues tracking me since we went through a couple tunnels and with the high skyscrapers it didn’t have the best approximation of time/distance. I haven’t looked at my garmin data yet, but based on the garmin during the race and the Chicago website, I ran a consistent 10 min mile through the whole race. I had enough energy at the end that I sprinted for the last half mile (including the sole/larger hill in the race).

For me the marathon was longer than 2 halfs. It was mentally challenging to pace yourself and know you still have a lot of miles in front of you. I prefer to run straight through and was glad that with the exception to refill my camelback a couple times I ran straight through. I’m not sure if I hit the wall or if I was too focused on finishing because my splits didn’t drastically change. They were maybe 30 seconds per min slower in some of the later miles, but like I said before, I still had energy to sprint during the last half mile. I ate 6 GUs, drank Gatorade here and there and maybe that help me avoid the wall.

The course was much more crowded than San Antonio, white rock, cowtown halfs. I spent a decent amount of time dodging people and going around them. I should have been closer to the front of the open corral, but I wasn’t and believe I paid the price by moving around people. There were many people in the last 6-8 miles that were walking. Pretty much at every water stop it seemed like 66% of the people were walking!

Chicago did an awesome job with coordinating the logistics. I would say it was by far the smoothest race I ran logistically. They really had their act together and had small things covered. I think the only thing lacking vs other races was the post race food wasn’t anything special. I think they had bananas and some chips! Whoopie. Cowtown had ice cream and chicken noodle soup – yum!

The crowd support was fantastic. My headphones died a couple miles into the race – I HATE apple headphones! Therefore, I had no choice but to listen to everything else and it was amazing how well supported the race was. For most of the course there were always fan support. In some areas they were going crazy and I loved it. I also appreciated the people praying for me. I knew there were many praying for me during the race and the sense of peace knowing those prayers were being answered in that I was still running after 4 hours straight! Having my wife there was awesome too. Even though we never saw each other, having your wife there in support of something as large as a first time marathon is huge!

I’m very pleased that I finished. I know that I can put together a better marathon time, but, really, this race wasn’t as much about my time as it was everything else. Raising money for blood cancers, running it in honor of my friends with blood cancers, completing a goal that I didn’t think I would ever try/do 1.3 years ago, and working though the struggles just to get to the starting line (injuries, time, financial, etc.). Worth every second of it!

My 2 cents…

-gene
P.S. – I did beat Oprah’s time!

10.10.10 - A Spectator/Wife's Perspective

Gene ran his first marathon in Chicago on 10/10/10. He also raised $3,500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I am so proud of him! We, amazingly and sadly enough, have three friends with blood cancer, so the race was run in honor of them.

Originally, when Gene told me he wanted to run this particular marathon I reminded him that we would have a newborn and that he would be running solo. He had read a lot about the excitement and crowd support in Chicago and really wanted his first marathon to be special, so he was willing to go solo. However, after baby boy was born I realized that I might be able to handle the trip. So I decided to just take the plunge and go for it. I really thought I would regret missing it if I didn't go.

Although the trip was in fact very tiring, I am so very happy that I went. KK went to her grandparents, but Tyler is nursing too frequently to leave behind so he came along. He turned out to be extremely portable. Feedings while being out and about were the main challenge. Other than that he was very happy to be transported around the City in his stroller.

As a spectator, the marathon was amazing. I have never been so excited to watch a sporting event. I was able to hook up with friends-of-friends, Suzy and Glen, who were watching their son race and they were so terrific to me. They had a full route planned out, and they helped me get the stroller on and off the trains. I was even able to feed the baby in their car at our second stop! I got to see the marathon at the start, middle, and in Chinatown at the 21 mile point. This never would have happened without Suzy and Glen's help. It was so exciting to see 36,000 people all running 26.2 miles! The elite runners were like gazelles - how can anyone on earth run that long at less-than-5 minute miles?! Blows the mind... At the start, it was just crazy to see wall to wall runners for over 45 minutes. There were cheering crowds lining the entire race, bands, Elvis, huge Chinese dragon heads... you name it.

It turned out to be a very hot day which makes me even more proud of my hubby. He performed so well considering it was his first marathon and it was sweltering. His own email to some runner buddies speaks best for his perspective so I will post that in my next blog.

"Goody Bags"

Katelynn is a huge fan of small toys and treasures, and also loves to gather her beloved items in boxes, purses, etc. The other day she created several "goody bags" and distributed them as "gifts" to mommy and daddy. She did this using only items already in her room and I didn't help her at all. I thought it was pretty darn creative of her and had to get a snapshot for posterity...

Smiley Boy

My little guy is two months old already - so hard to believe. He is turning into quite the love bug. He melts my heart on a daily basis. He is full of smiles, mainly reserved for me, the mama! I have found it interesting that he does not like the Baby Bjorn as big sister did, but would rather be in his pappasan chair or his car seat. It clicked the other day that his sister wanted to see the world... he just wants to see his mommy!

I highly recommend parenting a second! I am enjoying Tyler soooo much more than I did as first-time nervous mom and I am already lamenting the short time he will be a tiny, innocent little baby.

The Lie

Katelynn got in trouble today for her first big lie.

Lately I have caught her in a couple of tiny fibs. I have tried to use those opportunities to talk about the importance of telling the truth, explained ad nauseum that it is wrong to lie, etc. She escaped punishment because I figured we needed to lay some groundwork first.

Today she was allowed to choose a pack of gum at Wal Mart for good behavior during our shopping trip. I let her hold the package in the car but emphasized the importance of only putting one piece in her mouth. (I am a paranoid mom when it comesto choking.) I asked her halfway home if she had eaten more than one and she looked me right in the eye and said no.

We pulled into the garage and I was gathering up our things to take them inside. I asked her to put the pack of gum in a bag I was holding and she balked, covering it up in her hands. That's when I knew.... not only did she take two pieces of gum, but she knew it was wrong and was trying to hide the evidence from me.

A long session of timeout later (and after revoking all gum privileges), I had a big discussion with my almost-4-year-old about the truth versus lies. Here's hoping it sunk in... parenting is hard! (And I know, I know, it only keeps getting harder!)