Stephen Colbert and his Indian friend Jay.

Before the End of the Race

I'm back. 'Twas a fun-filled weekend that was highlighted by my 3:54 finish in the Chicago Marathon, beating my previous best time by five minutes. Took me four years to improve on that PR in Maine. So anyway, here's the story of the weekend:

Friday
Deb and the girls dropped me off at the airport before they headed to New Jersey for the weekend. My flight was on time, I picked up my rental (a 2006 Chevy Monte Carlo) and got on the road to Peoria. After crawling through some busy Chicago-area traffic, I found myself on some seriously open roads. There is a whole lotta nothin' out there--just farmland and flat roads. It took me three hours to get to my brother's house, which is pretty nice. In his subdivision, the street signs include the names of people on the street, like a directory or something. Of course, JP didn't buy into that, so he left up the name of the previous owner.

Saturday
Got up early, had some breakfast, and headed back to Chicago. The trip was quicker, only 2.5 hours. I dropped off the car at O'Hare and took the CTA train to the city. After checking in at my hotel, I met up with Jon and Kerry and we went to the race expo so I could pick up my race packet. It was pretty jam-packed and just like the New York Marathon expo last fall, a lot of the official race gear was already sold out by the time I got there. We went back to the hotel and waited for Rick, who arrived in Chicago in the afternoon and went straight to the expo to pick up his stuff before it closed.

We relaxed for a while and then headed over to Scoozi's, an Italian restaurant, for our pre-race pasta meal. We got there a little early and had to wait to be seated because the place was full of marathoners. While we were standing near the entrance, I saw a guy walking towards us who looked a lot like Stephen Colbert. As he went into the men's room, I remembered reading in the Chicago Tribune earlier in the day that he was in town to serve as grand marshal of the homecoming parade at Northwestern, where he went to college. So when he came out of the restroom, I said, "Stephen!" He turns around and says nonchalantly, "Yeah?" and leans against the wall where we were standing. I blubbered something about being a big fan of the show and shook his hand and Jon, Rick and Kerry all said hi to him, and then I asked him if I could get a picture with him and he said "Sure." I handed Jon my camera phone and told Colbert, "I can be your one Indian friend," referring to the photo often used on "The Colbert Report" of him with his one black friend Alan. Colbert said "Good idea," and gave the classic goofy smile and point, although the pointing part was cut off. The place was pretty dark and the photo's grainy, as you can see above.

He went back to eat with his wife and three kids, but we were all awestruck at just how down-to-earth he was. We finally were seated a while later and chowed down some pasta and got back to our hotels early. We were keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts because it was looking like it would be rainy and raw in the a.m. Rick and I were staying right near Millennium Park, where the marathon started and ended. When I checked in, I found out our room had a king bed instead of two doubles, so I asked for a pull-out bed to be brought to the room. Of course, it never arrived, so both of us, secure in our heteroness, slept in the king, although I maturely placed my pillows down the middle like Les Nessman outlining the imaginary walls to his office. We planned on getting up at 6 and walking over to the park by 7. We had to get in our race corrals well before the 8 a.m. start. I was dismayed to find I had forgotten to pack my long-sleeved running shirt, so I planned to wear a short-sleeve shirt and the cheap Tyvek jacket I bought at the expo.

Sunday (race day)
Our wakeup call was set for 5:45, but I woke up at 5:30 to go to the bathroom and was wide awake. The weather reports seemed to indicate the rain was moving away, but also said to expect 25-30 mph winds as the race progressed. We got outside and it was damn chilly. I almost immediately regretted not wearing running pants, but I knew I would hate running a marathon in them, so I gritted my teeth and kept walking. We found the start area and split up; I was in the Preferred Start II corral (which was after the competitive and Preferred I areas) and Rick was in the open corral. He's way faster than me, but he forgot to send in proof of his race times and was stuck with everyone else in the back. Jon and Kerry were up with the faster groups.

I went to the front of my corral and stood with folks who were planning to run the race in 3:30, 3:40, 3:45. I was hoping for 3:55, but I figured starting up there was no big deal. After 30 teeth-chattering minutes, the race started. You could see shirts, sweatpants and other articles of clothing flying through the air as runners shed their outergarments and started running. After a few minutes, a light drizzle started, but it never got worse than that. The temperature was right around 40 and after the first mile, I was feeling pretty sweaty in my jacket. I took it off after a few miles and tied it around my waist in case I'd need it later. I felt good and ran strong, not trying to keep with anyone but just keeping a good pace going of about 8:30 miles.

I had a bottle of water with me but I never used it because the water and Gatorade stations were so well organized. Plus the cooler weather made me less thirsty than some of the other races I've run. As for the race itself, it reminded me of the NY Marathon in that you get to see the whole city. It was a blast. People were out in every neighborhood--Greektown, Chinatown, the South Side, Little Italy--and you could really feel the support.

I felt good physically throughout. My quads were tight and one of my arches bothered me at one point, but other than that, I was fine. I just kept going and never hit the wall, although the last three or four miles were more of a struggle. I brought my iPod and it definitely helped keep me going: I listened to all three Hold Steady albums, Danko Jones' Sleep is the Enemy, Fugazi's Repeater and then a couple of shuffle songs, culminating in the Sloan rocker "Ill Placed Trust" as I came in at the finish. Unlike New York and Vermont, I felt fine at the finish and was not woozy at all, just sore. I got my medal, posed for a finisher's photo and then met up with JP, Mary Beth and Elliot. I made a few calls and found out that Jon had finished in 2:59 (wow!), Kerry finished in 3:22 and Rick finished in 3:31. My buddy Bob finished his first marathon in 3:58, which is awesome.

We went back to the hotel so I could shower and get changed, and then we went with Rick out to lunch at a nearby Bennigan's so we could get the burgers and beer we'd been craving. Jon and Kerry met us there. JP and family took off afterwards and the rest of us headed back to relax for a few hours before going to the post-race party at Millennium Park. There were two party tents going; one was already full by the time we got there, so went to the quieter one with a jazz band and free Michelob Ultra (yecch--but we drank it anyway). Bob joined us there and we hung out for a while before going out for some deep dish pizza. By the time we got our food, we had already eaten bread sticks and had little room for the massive, heart-attack inducing slabs of pizza we had ordered (a large and a medium). We probably ate about half the pizza before we all were just full, so we ditched the rest and headed back to our hotels. Triumphant, but stuffed.

Today
My legs are feeling pretty sore, but they're not that bad. My flight made it back without a hitch and Deb and the girls picked me up. It's good to be home. As fired up as I am about my race, I'm still thinking that I'm only going to do one marathon next year instead of two. I just want to reduce the wear and tear on my body. I also want to do smaller races and try to run faster times in those, as well as get back to playing hockey.

Well, that's plenty for now. Time to drag my weary carcass to bed.