Bret

Chicago Marathon - I had a pretty good result today.  Richie and I had planned to run together after having missed a couple of opportunities to run earlier this year.  He ended up with a pretty bad cold but insisted that he was up for the race. He sounded terrible and was coughing a good bit.  Nevertheless he was running 8 min pace - which was probably slightly slower than my fitness but I wanted to enjoy the event with him.  I could tell though around 12 miles he started to “yo-yo” and when we approached the 15 mile mark - he told me that he was at his limit and was not going to finish.  We talked about it a bit but I think he could tell that I was feeling well and so we agreed that I would not hang back or coax him along.  

So - feeling the opportunity to maybe get down to a 3:25 finish - I did some quick math and thought I needed to run 7:30’s for the next 10 miles.  I proceeded to do that for the next 3 miles but seeing the strain on my heart rate - I moderated to mid 7:40’s.   Around mile 23 - the wind and the rain and the miles slowed me down a little.  When I could calculate that I was not going to get down to 3:25 - I ran the last 2 miles just around 8 mins - finishing at 3:27.   

I am pleased with the race.  Part of me thinks that I might have run a bit faster if I had not stayed with Richie as long as I had; but maybe the lighter effort helped me to sustain later in the race and negative split.  

I connected with Richie afterwards and he was fine and happy that I continued on and ran as well as I did.   All in all - a good day.