Chicago Marathon Recap

October 7, 2012
26.2 Miles

I can't even begin to explain in words what this marathon was like. Here is best I can explain it.

Friday... Expo for bib pickup
I went with my friend Nikki and we had so much fun exploring the world of running.

This was the most crazy awesome expo I have been to. I even ran into Hillary. She is a friend from back in Ohio who had been training really hard and she did awesome on her first ever marathon.

Hillary and I.

3:25... wake up, eat breakfast, get ready to leave

4:10... picked up by my neighbors Misty and Dave

4:45... leave the Target in Munster for the race

.... the rest is kind of a blur...

6:40... In starting corral for about a hour. I made a plan to run the race with Sue a fellow runner. Another runner Jeromy was also making a plan to run with us the entire race. Here we are waiting to go to our starting corrals.

7:40ish... cross the start line and we were off.

Around mile 1 I was so high and I even spotted a runner whom started me running and I haven't stopped since... Nikki... Lets just say I was so excited to see her... The Chicago Tribune loved my reaction so much they put me on the FRONT PAGE!!!! Lets just say when I woke up this morning and someone said I was on the front page I was in shock and even more in shock when I saw this...

They also caught this picture of us...

Mile 1-5 seemed to fly by... then we made it to the local Calumet Striders water stop just after mile 5... here we are looking strong. 

Miles 6-17 Seemed to just click by. There was so much to see, so many people and so much encouragement. Jeromy and Sue both laughed because my name was called out so many times they felt that they should just call themselves Deanna. 

Miles 17-20 Seemed to take forever... I was really starting to feel the race. Sue was also. After mile 20 she just couldn't keep up anymore... I honestly was even asked what happened to you that last part of the race... I have no clue. I just mentally started talking to myself and the miles seemed to click along. I was not going to let this race stop me. My stomach hurt and I wanted to vomit at every bad smell I passed. 

There was so much crowed support from Wrigley, Little Italy, China town... all of them were simply amazing!! The best signs I saw were... Chuck Norris has never run a marathon, Do Epic Shit, and Runners have balls... all other sports just play with them. Here is also a video my boyfriend shot... I have no clue where this was but its me running.

Then I hit mile 23 and I knew I could do it. I looked down at my watch and knew I had a good amount of time to beat if I just maintained my pace. My boyfriend caught this picture of me around mile 25... you can see the exhaustion in my face... The crowed made me feel so amazing though. They were so uplifting consistently telling you that you could do it. 

Overall I finished!!!! 

Place Gender	4571
Place Age Group	1036
Place Overall	15038
Finish Time	04:13:54

It was 1 minute and 6 seconds better than I wanted... It was also marathon personal record by 8 minutes! I can't believe I was able to kick it in so much at the end and finish it up.

The NWI Times even wanted to know what I thought about the marathon.. Click here for the article.

Again there are not enough words that could describe how this marathon went. I was overall amazed how well I did. I guess the NWI Times article summarizes how I really feel... Never give up.