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Chicago Marathon

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Location:

Columbus,IN,US

Member Since:

Jun 13, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

37 Marathons -- PR - 2:48:53 (Fall 2014)

A bunch of Half Marathons -- PR - 1:19:20 (Aug. 2015 - Converted)

10k - 36:30 Unaided // 35:25 (July 2014 - Aided)

5k - 17:28 (Aug. 2015)

1mi. - 4:58 (July 2014 - Track)

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

10k and 5k's to get back into the swing of thing this summer

Sept. 21:  Mill Race Marathon - Under 3:00.  LET's GO!  

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

R2R2R in Grand Canyon  5/18/19 

Marathon < 2:45

Half Marathon < 1:18

Top 10 in Bluegrass 10k

5k < 17

Personal:

400m/800m competitively in track in high school.  Took 15 years off. Started running again in 2010.  Married to my beautiful wife, Tiffany, with 2 little boys, now 4 and 6.  I'm a civil engineer working for the Indiana DOT in Seymour, IN.   I live in a slightly larger town about 20 miles north - Columbus, IN.  Originally from Lexington, KY.

 

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Barefoot Running Lifetime Miles: 4.00
Swimming Lifetime Miles: 6.20
Elliptical Lifetime Miles: 81.50
Vilano Road Bike Lifetime Miles: 1216.95
Vilano Bike On Mag Trainer Lifetime Miles: 277.85
Red Peregrine Velcro Lifetime Miles: 314.94
Red Peregrine NO Velcro Lifetime Miles: 171.83
Saucony Kinvara 11 Lifetime Miles: 237.33
Blue Arahi 4.2 Lifetime Miles: 662.17
Nordictrack TM Lifetime Miles: 358.98
Hoka Bondi 7 Lifetime Miles: 325.22
Race: Chicago Marathon (26.2 Miles) 03:04:30
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.500.000.0026.50

I was Jeff Mitchell in this race - thanks, Jeff!  He gave me his entry and a place to stay Saturday night :).  Went in this planning on making it a training run.  For the most part, I stuck to that plan.  Since Jeff's entry was in Corral L (Wave 2 this year), and on Jeff's advice, I snuck into Corral E in the first Wave (7:30 start, instead of 8:00 am start) 

After mile 1, where I somehow found a clear path along the right side of the street the whole way, it took about 2.5 miles to weave through the crowd and get some good work in.  I kept the pace at what felt like a relaxed pace, but not super easy.  Looking at the splits after the fact I remembered the bottle neck around the half mark where I nearly fell on my face - I was stuck behind a group and had to mount the curb to get around :)   Then, at about mile 23 I came up on the 3:10 pace group (huge group)  It took some energy to fight through and around this group, which finished off whatever I had left in my legs.  From there to the finish I felt tightness in the calves and hammies and took the foot off the gas. 

6:24, 7:09, 7:29, 6:35, 6:50, 6:46, 6:54, 6:43, 6:45, 6:47, 6:44, 6:56, 7:48, 6:39, 6:57, 6:54, 6:51, 7:05, 6:53, 6:48, 6:48, 6:49, 6:48, 6:56, 7:23, 7:52, 3:48 (0.5 mi.)

I wound up running an extra 0.3 mi. with all the weaving and poor curve management.  Ran an extra 0.3 mi.-that's funny to me for some reason :)  All in all, though, mission accomplished today: Great training run - felt relaxed most of the way and really had fun!!  This was my first experience with a race of this magnitude.  I have run plenty of large races - a couple times in the Indy 500 Festival Half Marathon (has 35k people), but nowhere near the crowd support and hoopla involved with this international event.  What a blast - 45000 runners, and an estimated 1.5 million spectators lining the streets of downtown Chicago.  There was non-stop cheering and signs and people everywhere!!  There was literally not a single place along the course that there was not some sort of crowd support.  The aid stations were also top notch - they were very long and simple - gatorade first and water second - I did not miss a station where I wanted either or both.

If I did it again, it would be as a legitimate race (as myself) - extremely flat and fast as advertised.  Weather pending, I think this would be a great place to PR for anybody.

The Kenyan/Ethiopian winner broke the course record.  I was only an hour behind him.

Jake and Fritz - you guys would've run about 2:12 in this race :)

Brooks Ravenna 3 - Orange Miles: 26.50
Weight: 0.00
Comments
From Jake K on Mon, Oct 08, 2012 at 09:09:07 from 155.100.226.191

Nice way to get in a solid long run. I watched the webcast... weather looked great this year. That's the key w/ Chicago... if you get a 40 degree day, its a perfect course.

From Andrea on Mon, Oct 08, 2012 at 10:55:07 from 72.37.171.52

Based on this "training run" you are really set to have a great race at Indy! Nice work there - you caught it on a perfect day.

From SlowJoe on Mon, Oct 08, 2012 at 11:53:27 from 69.131.141.92

Nice run, Joe/Jeff. That is definitely a cool way to do a long training run.

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