It's Really Hard ... Not Running the Marathon ... Jody's Story of the Chicago Marathon

When talking to Jody about this week’s blog, she mentioned that she had written something. The day after the marathon, she wrote a short piece about her experience. This post is that story, written on the Monday after the race…

Donald told his marathon story – now it’s my turn … but as the spectator.

Donald got up a little before 6 AM. No alarm clock necessary. While he had every right to be nervous and excited, I was surprised - he appeared calmer than me!  By 6:45 AM we left the hotel, but by his fast walking pace; I knew he wanted to get the race started.  Because the starting area is secured, I only walked with him for a block before giving him one last hug and kiss.

It was 1.5 hours before he would start.  Now what?  I ate breakfast.  I checked the internet.  I packed our bags – all FIVE of them! I checked out of the hotel and hauled our things to the car parked a block away.  (How/why did we ever bring so much stuff?)

Then I hit the course.  The night before, we went over my plan on the route. With 40,000+ runners, there needed to be a plan.  The early part of the race goes through downtown and has large crowds. I focused on the second half of the race when the going would get tough.   I planned to see him at Miles 13, 17, 20 and 24.   I would always be on the left side of the road so he would know where to look for me in the brightest pink shirt ever worn specifically to catch his eye.

Surprisingly, it did not take me that long to walk to the 13.1 mark. By 8:30 AM, I got to my front row street curb seat just after the 13.1 mark, and settled in with warm cup of tea on the chilly morning.  Time to wait for the runners to come to me.

The wheelchair athletes were the first to reach the halfway point - inspirational with huge ovations from the crowd.

The elite men then ran past in a small tight pack.  They were cruising and the race officials required motorcycles and pedal bikes to stay with them (see the video that I took).  The leading women were pounding the pavement five minutes behind them.  It was amazing to see how calm they were, with stonewall expressions – very focused. This was not the same for most of the runners behind them.

[Editor's Note: In the video, you get a sense of how loud the crowds were along the route. It was like this for about 80% of the marathon! Still causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.]

As the minutes ticked by, I became increasingly more nervous.  I would continuously check my phone to get the runner tracking to see where Donald was.  Was he running too fast in the beginning?  What was hurting? And how badly did it hurt?

Oh, the variety of runners I would see.  Young and old.  Some hardly had a sweat, some were grimacing in pain.  Some were dressed up as cartoon characters or superheroes.  There were runners who were blind who had a team of guides in yellow running with them. There was also a woman who passed with two prosthetic legs…. Amazing! Lots of signs in the crowds, some wittier than others.  Donald said he saw a sign that said “Jay Cutler would have quit by now.”  Classic.

Then finally! I saw him coming by way.  It was great so see him with a smile at the halfway mark.

After 10 seconds he was gone…. Thankfully I had a short cut planned and hustled to the next spot.  I saw him looking really strong at mile 17, feeling the pain at Mile 20, and on the back stretch just before mile 25.  Every time he was smiling, when I knew his body must be hating every step at that point.  By noon, the sun was up above and I was warm myself … and I wasn’t running in the middle of a concrete street.

There he goes!

When I saw him right before mile 25, I ran with him for a short period.  I told him “You got this…10 minutes more… you are going to run all the way to the finish!”  After that, I felt guilty.  It was probably more like 15 minutes and what if he pushed too hard and fell over? When the notice on my phone came through that he finished - relief and joy.

Finding him at the end of the race was easier than expected.  We walked slowly back to the car.  I was surprised in that he was moving quite well.  (Just don’t ask how long it took him to get out of the car after the two-hour ride back to Milwaukee.)

At 7:08 AM this morning, he wrote an email to me with a link for another marathon next year.  Average runner?  I’d say he is bit better than that, with a cup of crazy thrown in! Congratulations Donald!