Chicago Marathon 2011

By: Mark Ulrich

Even though I blew up and just didn’t have a great day, I’m actually happy with my effort, a few good things happened along the way.  Here’s some details.

It was 62f at the start and low 70’s at the finish.  Beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky.  Not a lick of shade on the entire second half of the course.  There was no real wind in the windy city for us either.  It was also strangely hot, the temp’s don’t do it justice.  Not sure why, but it sure felt hotter than it actually was.

Being in corral B, I was suprisingly close to the start, it only took me one minute to get to the actual start line after the gun went off.  Since there we so few people in front of us, we were nearly at goal pace as we crossed the start line which isn’t necessarily a good thing.  With so many people, you had to keep up with traffic in the early miles or risk a potentially dangerous situation of getting run over.  There was no “slow lane”, you had no choice but to keep up.  I was with the 3:10 group as planned, but it felt like we took off fast.  Traffic jammed up some around the turns (which there are quite a few in the early miles) but then we really took off fast in the straight sections, I knew we were going too fast but there wasn’t much I could do about it.  Due to the skyscrapers downtown blocking the garmin, the data from those early miles was incorrect.  At one point I looked and the garmin said 2:36/mile pace, then a few seconds later said 19:55/mile pace.  At the finish, my garmin read 26.8 miles.  Looking back at the splits online, we were right at goal pace through 5k, but I know for sure we were sub 7:00 pace for parts of it.  Looking at the second 5k split, we averaged 7:06 for the second 5k and I was still with the pace group.  We even slowed considerably at mile 5 because they finally realized they weren’t pacing the 2:45 group apparently.  I was actually letting them go by mile 5 because I knew they were going out too fast.  When I hit mile 5, my garmin read 5.5 miles, so I knew not to believe it from that point forward.  Luckily, I had a racetat (temporary tattoo) with all of my targeted mile splits which was really helpful.

Unfortunately, the damage was done and I was already hurting and completely drenched with sweat at mile 5.  The third 5k we finally settled into marathon pace and felt pretty good, but by mile 9, I knew 3:10 was not going to happen.  It had been a stretch goal, so I was fine with tracking 3:15.  New gameplan: at that point I mentally switched to the 7:26 pace for a 3:15 and had 2 minutes in the bank.  Game on.  I let myself go a tad slower hoping to rest up a little from the damage in the early miles.  I felt good through these miles and wished I had targeted 3:15 from the beginning because I felt like it may have been able to hit 3:15 if I had done so.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  Looking back on the heart rate data, my heart rate was between 163-172 from miles 2-20 which shows the pain started early

By 30K, I was really hurting and knew even 3:15 was out.  I started running from water stop to water stop and walking through the water stops.  The water stops at Chicago were HUGE which was a good thing, you could drink 2-3 cups of water/gatorade if you wanted to.  The water stops were probably 150 yards long, so I walked at least a minute each time.  Between mile 21-25 I walked 6 times (you can’t hide from the foot pod data).

The bad parts/mistakes:

• Went out too fast despite being led by the pace group (which is disappointing)
• We stayed with a friend’s family which meant no money spent on a hotel but I was sleeping on a thin mattress on the floor for 2 nights before the race.  In the future, I’ll just spring for a hotel, before an A race is not the time to get cheap
• My stomach bothered me starting around mile 5 or 6 which almost never happens to me. I think it was just the heat and exerting myself, I’m not sure I made any mistakes there
• The heat was a real bummer.  I’ve never seen a finish line so somber.  I did not see one person high-fiving, talking about PR’s or BQ’s which you always see at finish lines.  It was like a horror movie with people hobbling like zombies and no smiles to be seen.

The good parts:

• Particularly when I settled into the 7:30ish pace from 15K-35K, I felt comfortable and knew I could hit that for a marathon had I not gone out so fast early.  These miles were quite comforting knowing I wouldn’t get it done today, but a BQ is certainly do-able.
• I recognized the trouble by mile 5 and adjusted the gameplan on the fly quite effectively.
• Other than the walk breaks, I my cadence was 88-90 nearly the entire race
• Having taken 6 walk breaks and missing 3:15 by only 8 minutes ain’t half bad.  Another indicator that 3:15 is do-able.
• I built confidence in my ability to pace myself.  I no longer feel the need to run with pace groups.  On this day, I was a better pacer than they were.  (Funny side note – a guy actually pulled up beside me at mile 5 and asked to run with me because the pacers were all over the place and I was much steadier.  Nice compliment)
• I never really felt good during the race, it was just one of those days.  With the heat and going out so fast, it just wasn’t my day, but I built more confidence about my ability to deliver a BQ. I’m not down about the race at all, quite proud of the effort actually.