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<\/a>At the expo, ready for the race the next morning.<\/p><\/div>\n
Like last time when I went to Chicago, I went with my friend Kevin.\u00a0 Kevin helps with driving, and it is nice to not be alone in the city.\u00a0 He also helps with driving, especially on the return home with a 12 hour drive ahead of us.\u00a0 Our first stop was the race expo to pick up the race packet.\u00a0 Chicago Marathon has one of the best expos you will find at a race, and the process it super easy to quickly pick up the packet and shirt.\u00a0 \u00a0Runner’s World was there too, and they were holding some Q&A event while I was at the expo.\u00a0 We didn’t stay too long.\u00a0 \u00a0Time can slip by quickly at the expo, and it takes some time just to get out of that area and to the hotel.\u00a0 Knowing we still needed lunch, we left to go find some parking.<\/p>\n
<\/a>You have to get real Chicago pizza when in Chicago! This was a post race meal by the way.<\/p><\/div>\n
Fast forward to race morning.\u00a0 It was about 56-57 degrees early that morning.\u00a0 The temperature doesn’t seem bad for running, but it was expected to get up in the 70s later that day, which it did.\u00a0 \u00a0I listened to music before the race but not during. Usually I do, but Chicago is an unusual race. There is so much going on that I don’t need the music. I’m really tuned in to the crowds and everything going on. In the beginning, my Garmin GPS watch was acting crazy!\u00a0 For the first mile or two, I tried to not go out fast, but my watch was not accurate, and I might have been running faster than I wanted.\u00a0 The tall buildings in Chicago really make it tough on GPS watches.\u00a0 \u00a0Anyway, I did stay on goal of being under 2:10 for the first half of the race when I crossed 13.1 miles around 2 hrs, 5 min.\u00a0 \u00a0Perfect.\u00a0 But it was getting hotter, and I was feeling the heat.\u00a0 So in the second half, I slowed down some and ran it about 18 minutes slower, but I NEVER walked!\u00a0 I was pretty pleased with that, because in my first 2 marathons, I had to do a run\/walk to some extent.\u00a0 I finished with a time of 4 hours, 23 minutes – my best marathon time to date.\u00a0 If we had the weather that we had back in 2014 (at least 10 degrees cooler), I think I could have fared even better.\u00a0 But on that day, I was very happy with my performance.\u00a0 \u00a0The one thing that I dealt with in the previous two marathons were stomach issues and nausea – it can be crippling.\u00a0 I did not have that problem this time around, and hopefully I have figured out how to prevent it from happening.\u00a0 I do not think I ever “hit the wall” in this race like I really did at Marine Corps Marathon.<\/p>\n