To say this was a long time coming would be an understatement – to avoid rehashing the whole story, I was meant to be there in 2019, got injured, deferred to 2020, COVID happened, and so there I was in 2023!
Given that I was busy doing touristy things and not having my laptop with me, I am only just writing this the day after returning home to Australia, 2 and a half weeks after the event, so the level of detail is probably not what it would normally be. I’m sure a lot of you will be thankful for that!
As I had previously done for Boston in 2017 I made it into a bigger trip, working my way from east to west. I started in New York City (because there is still so much left to do there even after 4 visits!) and a quick stop in Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (well worth it!) before flying into Chicago on Friday around lunchtime.
First stop was the expo where I was very restrained (just bought a hoodie and some chocolate and partook in a sneaky wine tasting!) as well as chatting to an Aussie guy at the Sydney Marathon booth who was going to be pacing the marathon (3:20 so I told him I definitely would not be seeing him on Sunday!) after having run the Sydney Marathon only 3 weeks ago! After this I went back and checked into my hostel (I was in a room full of boys, all marathoners and all looked like they were travelling pretty light which was good for me as I was not, and the room was not huge!) After some Googling I found a cool vegetarian/vegan joint a few train stops away for a Philly ‘cheese’ ‘steak’.
It seemed like there was a DJ in the bar downstairs until all hours of the morning, that did not bode well for a good night’s sleep the night before the marathon! (I later worked out that it wasn’t a DJ, it was every night, and it went ALL NIGHT LONG. Being on the 2nd floor meant we could hear it quite clearly from our room – perhaps the higher floors were quieter?)
On Saturday morning I met fellow Adelaide runner Chantel at her hotel to walk down to the 5k (because what could possibly go wrong? I never run the day before a race!) The plan was to go relatively easy but still decent pace. If not for the multiple times I had to avoid tripping on people who cut me off, it may have been faster but I ended up running 23:40. It was definitely the biggest 5k run I’d ever done, with over 9000 participants!
Chantel and I then went to a bakery for brekky/coffee (no coffee for me, I hadn’t had one since my flight to NYC the previous Saturday as per my usual pre-race ‘detox’)
I then spent the rest of the day wandering around the city (WAY too many steps for the day before a marathon!) before meeting Chantel at Eataly for dinner at the somewhat unusual time of 3:30pm! (That was the latest we could get in!) The waiter was a bit unsure if they could do the pizza without cheese (I genuinely don’t get why this is an issue – literally make the same pizza but don’t put the cheese on – it’s easier for them and I still pay the same!) but it was pretty good (paired with a nice Chianti!)
Chantel very kindly offered to let me stay in her hotel room which I gratefully accepted, so after dinner I packed up all my race gear etc and wandered down to her hotel (which would be not only quieter, but also closer to the start line). Because dinner was so early we ended up going to Nando’s for some chips and the guy there was super lovely and didn’t charge us!
On race morning I woke up early – around 5:15 from memory, with my start time being 7:30 (I had to be in my corral by 7:20). It was recommended to get there 2 hours before start time which seemed a bit excessive, so we had decided to aim for 1 hour. And staying in a hotel with many other runners, and relying on a lift to get down and out of the hotel, Chantel very sensibly suggested to aim for a bit earlier, to factor in having to wait for the lift! I got up and dressed, had my breakfast (granola and some kind of non-dairy beverage – they’re not allowed to call it ‘milk’ here!) and we headed out before 6am. Chantel didn’t actually need to get there that early as she was in the next wave after me, but she had booked the VIP experience so it made sense to get there early and make the most of it!
I wore an old hoodie that I had been planning to get rid of anyway, to discard at the start line. I also had a spare beanie which I had picked up for free at the expo and I didn’t especially want, but I decided I didn’t need that, as it was a bit chilly but not outrageously so. I took a bag with my race shirt (superstition dictated that I would not wear it until after I’d finished the race, although I did see a lot of people wearing theirs for the race itself) and new Chicago hoodie in it, to put on after the race. That was all I had in there, as I carried everything else (phone, money card and room key) in my pockets and Flipbelt. I also had, as I had done at Adelaide, some protein balls which I’d brought from Australia, and a Revvies to have around 30km (I finally worked out that there is an easy way to open those packets! You just peel it from the corner!). And for before the start, I had a V energy drink which I had also brought from Australia. (There had been a minor disaster when one of the two cans I brought, sprung a leak somewhere along the way! Luckily I brought two and one of them survived the journey!) In hindsight I drank it too early as the 7:30 start ended up being 7:50ish, and I usually have it half an hour before I start.
It seemed like an eternity that I was standing in a queue for security to get into the race village, and then once I finally got in, there was another queue for the bag drop. All the while I was messaging Chantel who was sending me photos of her luxurious VIP area with no queues and crowds, which was greatly appreciated (lol)!
By the time I’d dropped off my bag, I joined the portaloo queue for about 5 minutes, realised it wasn’t moving, and that I was going to be pushing it to get to my corral before it closed at 7:20 so I ended up ditching that plan and went straight to my corral. It turns out that portaloos in the USA are drop toilets rather than flush toilets like we have in Australia, and when I found that out later, I was not disappointed that I’d missed out!
I took my hoodie off a bit earlier than I needed to, again thinking that my 7:30 start time meant I’d be starting at 7:30. In the corral I saw a few pacers (actually a lot of them!) as well as people with bibs on with times on them, and I wasn’t sure what that was about. (I later found out that the official pacers held signs, kind of like the paddles that crossing guards hold, but shorter and lighter. The ones that had the bibs on their backs, were just AIMING to run the time that was indicated on the bib. I would not have wanted that – not only did I not really have a specific time that I was aiming for, but I would not have wanted people to know – what if I had an absolute shocker and I ended up running half an hour over my goal time, everyone would know! Whereas I could also NOT advertise my goal time and no-one would be any the wiser!
Anyway I positioned myself around the 3:40 pacer to start with, and I would just see how that went. I didn’t have a goal time other than I wanted to beat Boston which was just over 4 hours (and that should have been a cakewalk, as Boston is WAY harder!). My goal was to enjoy it and get that medal at the end. If I could also run a good time that would just be a bonus! Anyway based on recent form I thought I should be able to manage around 3:40 pace, at least for the first little bit, and then if I crashed and burned I should still be able to get under 4 hours comfortably.
I don’t remember a lot of detail of the race itself, fortunately I wrote myself a few notes on the day after, to jog my memory.
The course is flat (mostly) and goes through a whole lot of very eclectic neighbourhoods. Basically it is a tour of Chicago in the form of a marathon (much like the first marathon I ever did, in Liverpool in 2014). I remember early on, running under a road (there was a lot of that) and kind of wanting to stay under there as it was warmer, protected from the elements!
A few times along the way I saw Aussies in the crowd. I didn’t know any of them, but I still cheered every time I saw one. From memory there were 2 inflatable kangaroos and at least one Aussie flag. And I saw a few people with ‘Travelling Fit’ tops on, which is an Australian company. So I knew there were a few of us out there!
Like in the 5k, I did have to avoid tripping over other runners a number of times. In this case it was mostly people who saw someone they knew in the crowd and just made a beeline for them, with no awareness of the possible carnage they were causing!
I mentioned before that the run went through a bunch of neighbourhoods such as Chinatown, Little Italy and Pilsen (a Latino area). There were people cheering along the sidelines most of the way along the course but there were specific ‘Cheer Zones’ where people were encouraged to gather, which made for a great atmosphere! This was where I managed to get the bulk of the high fives (similar to Boston, I wanted to soak it all up as much as possible, and getting involved with the crowd was part of that! I also wanted to pat a dog, as there were many of those along the way, but I thought I should really ask the owner if it was OK, and that would mean I’d need to stop, and I really didn’t want to stop!)
There were also bands on course, I can’t remember the detail of that now but I’m pretty sure I remember there being a pipe band at some point, and I do love hearing/seeing a pipe band!
Chicago has a lot of bridges, particularly across the Chicago River. and we crossed a few of them. Most if not all of them had a ‘red carpet’ section. I quickly learned that crossing the red carpet was a lot more pleasant than running across the uncarpeted grating! It was partly luck and partly anticipation that meant that I mostly managed to run on the carpet (you needed to be on the correct side of the bridge, and if you weren’t, it was a bit fraught to try to get across!)
Like at Adelaide Marathon I managed to avoid stopping or walking at the drink stations. A few times I had some failed attempts to grab a cup (I recall 3 attempts to get a cup of Gatorade at one drink station!) but mostly I was able to successfully take a cup and successfully get most of it in my mouth – cardboard cups definitely helped with that, as I could make a spout).
There were also ‘aid stations’ which I thought were drink stations but they were more medical stations, band-aids etc. Fortunately I did not need to use them!
Many of the crowd were holding signs. A popular one was “You run better than the government” which is probably equally relevant wherever you come from! (Possibly not QUITE as relevant as it would have been when I ran Boston in 2017!) There were also people holding signs that said “Touch here for a power-up” and I tried to touch as many of these as I could!
I did not look at my watch from the time I started to the time I crossed the line. I think from memory I did the same at Boston, as similarly, the time was irrelevant. (This was also one of the reasons I ran 4:00:19, because I’m sure if I’d known how close I was to 4 hours, I would have been able to get under!). It was easy enough to do, as I was wearing my arm warmers. After a few kilometres I’d rolled them down as I got warm pretty quickly, and then rolled them back up near the end as I thought it would look better in the photos, but all the while they were covering my watch and I needed to make a conscious effort to look at it (which I didn’t!)
At least for the first half, I was trying to catch the 3:30 pacers. I had started somewhere between the 3:40 and 3:35, and despite not having a time goal, I thought it would be nice to get another sub 3:30 and prove to myself that Adelaide was no fluke! I knew that I would have a bit of a buffer even if I didn’t catch the pacers, having started a little way behind them. I did catch them around the halfway mark but they quickly got away from me again. I forget the exact moment that I passed them and did not see them again.
Towards the end I heard someone telling someone that the marathon world record had been broken by Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum – so this was indeed an auspicious day!
I was expecting to see mile markers, but I was happy to see there were also kilometre markers, because I’m used to kilometres and pretty much the whole of the world does kilometres! Weirdly, in the last kilometre, there were metric signs! I remember 800m to go, and then 300, 200 and 100. And I remember that although it was a flat course, there was a hill (OK probably more like a speed bump) at the end!
So I crossed the line, and then finally looked at my watch to see the result – my official time was 3:27:05 – to say I was stoked with that would be an understatement! Could I have beaten my PB 3:26:21 if I’d known how close I was? Maybe, but I didn’t really feel like I had anything left in the tank at the end. I never really hit a wall as such – probably around 30km it started to get a bit hard but not even really as hard as you would expect in a marathon.
Then it was time to collect my medal and go get my bag with my new race top and hoodie, as it started to get cold quickly, despite the foil sheets that we all got given at the end!
I wanted to get a finisher shirt, so I went straight to the Nike store, as they would only have limited supply and I didn’t want to miss out! The atmosphere at Nike was like a party, the staff were all cheering everyone that came in with their medals on! I bought a T-shirt for $US70 plus tax which is OUTRAGEOUS but I figured I wasn’t going to do this again so why not? (The other options were a half zip long sleeve and a spray jacket – I shudder to think how much they cost!)
Chantel was a bit behind where she wanted to be, so I had plenty of time to get back to the hotel for a shower before she got back, and then headed back to the hostel to drop off my stuff. Soon after that Chantel had organised to meet some other Aussies at a local pizzeria (Pizzeria Due, the second place in Chicago to serve deep dish pizza. Pizzeria Uno was of course the first) and I joined them. I may or may not have eaten an entire (cheeseless) deep dish pizza myself – which was quite a feat but not surprising given that I’d just run a marathon!)
It was too early to go to bed so while I had a load of sweaty running gear in the washing machine, I went to the bar at the hostel and met a bunch of other runners who I ended up having a few drinks with. They were a great bunch – a few from Scotland, (one originally from Finland and one Aussie among them), and then an Irishman and an American from NYC came and joined us.
The following day was Medal Monday so the rule is you have to wear your medal all day and you definitely don’t look like a dick for doing so! Chantel ended up getting free stuff/discounts from a few places but I got nothing – other than lots of ‘Congrats’ which was, to be fair, nice!
This was an awesome experience, and it was a bonus that I was able to also have a good run myself. As a world major that you don’t have to bust your arse to qualify for (unlike Boston) it’s one that I would recommend to any runner that likes flat marathons. It doesn’t hurt that Chicago is also a great city!
Would I do it again? Probably not – there’s so many other events I want to do and travelling overseas is EXPENSIVE! But I would not hesitate to recommend it – great course, vibrant crowds and fantastic volunteers!
Having pretty much given up on getting the 6 world majors (which will certainly be 7 by the time I finish) I’m now thinking MAYBE I might keep it in the back of my mind. Cost is the main factor which will stop me! Tentatively I think I might aim for NYC in 2 years!
And that’s my marathon running finished for a little while!
