FINALLY. After two weeks of being unable to wear shoes and 7 days of moving out of my apartment, I am able to get back on track and hit the pavement. I feel really, really behind in my training-- colleagues who are running marathons this year have halves under their belts already!-- but I know with dedication and perseverance, I can pull through. It is going to be hella tough; I did a three miler with Rodrigo the week after my stitches came out and I seriously wanted to croak. I think most of the difficulty I felt running came from my frustration of the situation as opposed to any inability. 'I was up to 8 miles before!' was all I could think, 'and now it's like starting all over.' Hopefully, with two week's time, I'll be back in a smooth groove that will allow me to just coast. And love running again.
So I went for a short late-night run yesterday to get myself back into gear. Granted my schedule said 5 miles, but at this rate, any mileage is good for me. There was a severe thunderstorm earlier, with tornado warnings and all. When the storm momentarily calmed, I went out. I took my time, enjoyed the warm evening air and run around the Rog, and with one mile of three left to go, it began to drizzle. Then rain. And then pour. Buckets of water left me drenched but more invigorated and pumped to continue. I made it home just when the loudest of the thunder boomed. It feels so good to be back, and even my squishy, sopping-wet shoes can't put a damper on that.
6 Hours, 29 neighborhood and numerous gel packs later, Chicago Marathon 2008 is finished! The temp reached 84 degrees that day, and 33,000 runners participated.
A big thank you to all of my supporters for helping to make it happen. Adrienne and Dave made sure I was fueled at mile 9, Teri met up with me at mile 13 to run by my side through the hottest part of the race, I bumped into Rodrigo and Addy at mile 18 while grabbing more gel packs, and Rodrigo found me on the bridge and sprinted the last 200 meters with me (in his flip flops!). It was awesome!
And even more amazing is over $700 will be donated to Hope Runs, which will help its children's program in Tanzania and Kenya. Read more about it at www.hoperuns.org. And fittingly so, the male Kenyans dominated the race this year. Read the Tribune's coverage here.
Along with all the congrats and hugs and handshakes, a question I keep getting is will I do it again next year. If you asked me around mile 23, the answer would have been a exasperated, exhausted and angry " NO WAY!" But a month has passed, the pain wore off, so only more time will tell. Running is addictive so odds are, another marathon is on the horizon. :)
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