2023 Chicago Marathon Race Recap!

My Chicago Marathon Race Recap to my coach: 

Having had two days in the city prior to the race allowed me to figure out the transportation and allowed me to get my bib and do some sight seeing a bit, two days prior. The day before the race I enjoyed my shake out run so much down by the lake. I just couldn’t wait for race day!!! I spent the rest of the day in my room reading Deena Kastor’s book and couldn’t put it down. I was taking away so much on the mental side of racing. I walked to CVS and got a marker and wrote my mantras on my arm.

“Make them proud”

“Find a thought that serves you better”

“Stay in this mile”

“Define yourself”

“Keep going”

“Smart… Fluid…brave” 

I was in a good headspace despite traveling alone to a new city (yes I’m 45 but the anxiety of this can be a lot for me). I told myself I’m going to stay positive. I’m not going to go to the negative. If my legs are sore, focus on my arms. 

Got into my corral earlier than I wished I did. It felt rushed by the time I got through security and got to gear check. All the corrals used the same gear check (I’ll come back to this later because it became a shit show) and waited in the portapotty lines twice. I had wished by the time I got in the corral I had one more chance to use the bathroom but the lines were too long and I wasn’t sure I could leave the corral and get back in. 

The race starts, my feet were numb. Most of us were shaking in the corral because it was so cold. My feet didn’t thaw out till mile 3 or so. I manually lapped my watch and I was glad I did. It was all over the place for the first 3 miles…6:00 min miles to 11 min miles so needless to say I didn’t trust it. I don’t think that it settled in till probably mile five. I told myself to stay conservative in the beginning. My legs felt good and I was happy about this! Stopped to use the bathroom at mile 2 and was so glad I did. Off I went after that. Occasionally I’d give a surge of 20-30 seconds or so to change up the muscle groups I was using and then settle back in. Your pace plan was in my head. “Mile 4 if you feel good feel free to pick up the pace” :) I knew I didn’t want to go past 8:15-8:20 through those first miles. Got to 8 and was feeling good. Told myself get to 13 feeling good. I took it one mile at a time…”make them proud” “stay in this mile”…Focused on my form and when I got tired, my feet felt flat. “Get the pop back Robin” and I did. I was all in today. Gels every 3 miles, sipped water from every water stop (there were so many!!) and sipped on skratch in my hand held. “Channel the energy of the crowds and save it for later. “

Mile 13-21….stay Fluid. Keep turning the legs over one mile at a time. Mile 17 and 18 started to feel hard. “Make them proud” The breathing increased in effort, prior to this I was able to notice it was calm and even and still breathing through my nose. My aunt told me my grandfather (Avid marathon runner) would be running along side me and I channeled this, pictured it actually. I said, “ok gotta start to work now”. Get to 20, one mile at a time…then it’s a 10k. Also channeled Ali on the Run’s resiliency in these tough miles. 🫶At mile 21 I would start to chip away…one mile at a time. “I could treat this as a progression run one mile at a time…” ( I don’t think that exactly happened😅). “Stay in this mile” and “making them proud” was my go to. Mile 22.5 you see the 24 mile mark on the other side of the out and back. This was tough to see but I knew if I got to 23 staying strong that I would head back and hit 24. Then it was two miles….gotta go. “Find your form, make them proud”. I pushed in mile 24 and got to 25. I got confused because an Abbott blow up said 400m but we hadn’t hit 25 yet so it threw me off a bit.   Channeled the crowds energy. Hit the one and only hill and I knew when I got to the top the finish was in sight so I pushed. “Elbows back, knees up”. Crossed the finish line with my hands up, knowing I had a PR because I had run so well but didn’t know my official time. 

The walk to water and the medal was long and slow. There was no one at the finish for me but there was an older gentleman in the 75-79 age group that I saw along the race and he pulled me in. I stayed with him and was amazed at his strength. I thanked him for helping me get there and he said “no it was your training and your consistency”. 😃🥰

At that point, I had to get back to gear check. It was so disorganized and crowded with all of the first 5 starts coming in getting their gear at the same time. It was disappointing that a marathon of this caliber doesn’t have a better system  for gear check. Runners were collapsing and frustrated having to be on their feet for another 45 min to an hour at best.  We were cold and hungry and while appreciative of the volunteers, we knew there could be a better system. But runners are awesome and everyone was working together and it just makes me love this community so much!! Nothing could put a damper on this day. Yes the PR was awesome, but the real win was how I learned to race mentally today. That is what I’m most proud of!!! Thank you for getting me here!! I can’t believe I’ve gotten faster as I’ve gotten older!