On Sunday 9th October, I was fortunate enough to fly the flag for Maryhill in the 2016 Chicago Marathon.
Since visiting family over here in my childhood, Chicago has always been a city close to me and one I was eager to return to. As one of the 6 Marathon Majors, and with a fairly accessible ballot system (albeit at £130 for international runners) it made sense for me to make this my next big challenge after London in 2015.
Compared to my last marathon in April last year, I felt my training and preparation this time was much better, both in terms of speed and miles put in. Nevertheless, I had the usual apprehensions that I hadn’t done enough long runs and might struggle towards the end, so I knew my goal of 3:20 would be a tad ambitious.
Arriving at Grant Park for the 7:30am start, the conditions were almost perfect for marathon running. Clear blue skies, no wind and not too warm. The organisation was impeccable as you’d expect from such a big event, and despite there being 40,000 runners, the starting pens never felt crowded at all. I experienced no over-crowding problems, compared to London, and had to force myself to calm down after clocking the first 2k in just over 7 minutes!
The first 10 miles went by in a bit of a blur as I enjoyed the unbelievable enthusiasm of the crowd and their often hilarious banners (If Trump and Clinton can run, so can you etc). I was going at a consistent pace for the first half, clocking 46:20 for my first 10k and reaching the half way point at around 1hr 37. It wasn’t really until 30km in that I began to feel my legs burn, and as time wore on I knew I was going to have to adjust my expectations to sub 3:30. Coming through Chinatown at mile 20 was a massive slog, and I was very grateful to the encouragement of the Nike Pacer teams to keep me going. Thankfully, I managed to grit out the last few miles and even got a wee sprint finish to ensure I came in under 3:28, which meant I had taken 20 minutes off my London time last year.
If anyone is ever considering a far flung marathon I would heartily recommend this. Near faultless course, great crowd and fantastic volunteers. Within 10 minutes of crossing the finishing line I had been handed 2 pints of local craft lager which went down a treat. My finish time means I have PB’d in all my distances in 2016, so a massive thank you to all the Harriers who have helped me along the way this year.
The race was won by the Kenyan Abel Kirui in 2:11:23. Of the near 40,000 finishers, I came 4,210th in 03:27:48.
