Sometime on the road trip last fall, we decided to run the Chicago Marathon. We signed up in January and began training in March after settling into our new home here in Chicago. We began to get ready before the official "Spring Training" because spring training required us to run 2-3 miles. After gaining 20 lbs with 5 months of travel, 10 min (one mile) seemed impossible to Jen! So we started on the indoor track at the university running laps and trying not to get discouraged when 3 miles seemed an insurmountable task.
After 12 weeks of "Spring Training", Andrew was recovering from a collapsed lung, and we could both run 6 miles in about an hour. Now it was time for 18 weeks of official training. We ran 4 times a week including the long run on weekends. Usually we only ran together for the first half of these long runs. Once we had completed our 18 mile long run in early September, we ran the "Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon" to prepare ourselves mentally for race day. Jen's longest race until now was a 5k in college, and Andrew had run a 25k in college, so we needed this "practice run". We woke up at 4am with Jen's friend Diane, and took public transportation to the race. It was good to line up at the start and not cross the start line for several minutes. There were 13,000 runners in this race, and it was great for our confidence and prepared us for the motions and emotions of race day! We both had a great race and felt inspired and pumped up!
Then we completed the 20 mile training run in 3:45 and began to taper to prepare for the Marathon. The week before the race was full of rest, carbs, and intentional water retention! Race morning we pinned on our numbers, rubbed Body Glide on all friction spots, grabbed our Gatorade and headed to the trains. We lined up on the starting line (or 300 yards behind it) with 40,000 runners and it was already 80 degrees. Both of us felt great the first half of the race.
However, Jen started to notice problems at the first 2 aid stations... they were out of water and only had Gatorade. So by mile 5, people left the road and jumped in a fountain in the park, then they drank from it. Then all was well until about mile 14 when we left the shade of the tall buildings and were hit by direct sunlight for the first time. When Jen reached the aid stations at mile 15 and 17, they were completely out of water AND Gatorade!! People were desperate shouting things like "We're DYING out here!" Spectators started to bring out pitchers from their homes and fill people's cups and bottles. (Jen was thankful she carried a bottle during the race.) Some people picked up dirty cups off the ground to get a drink.
That's when people started collapsing. Jen saw people go down, and like the Red Sea, runners parted to go around them. Medics were on them immediately, and ambulance sirens rang out almost constantly. More and more people were walking, so it was difficult to run around them all. By Jen's mile 17, Andrew's mile 19, we heard rumors of the race being canceled and someone told us to walk. We were confused and mumbled amongst ourselves and decided to keep running. 2 miles later, police were lined up across the road and announcing from the car's megaphone speakers that the race was canceled and we were "urged" to walk. One man was shouting "Stop running! We're out of ambulances!" Andrew was allowed to finish all 26.2 miles walking, but Jen was told to take a detour or get on a bus to the finish line. She took the detour and ended up with a total of about 24 miles. We later learned that 45,000 people registered for the race, 36,000 showed up that morning, and only about 24,500 finished.
After months and months of training that took up 10-15 hours a week (or more including recovery time) this was a very disappointing finale. But, we finished, and we finished on our feet. One man died, over 300 got medical help, over 100 hospitalized, and 5 in critical condition still 24 hours later. So if you ever talk to us about it, maybe we won't say we "ran" the Chicago Marathon, but we'll say we "did" the Chicago Marathon. And, we were part of history. This has never happened before, and I hope it never happens again.
crazy! congrats friends on "doing" the marathon!
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