Thursday, September 10, 2009

Bank of America Chicago Marathon closing in....

I apologize for the huge lag between blog posts here. It has been a very busy summer for sure...

Today I attended the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Charity Operations meeting with Mike Reninger and Terri Devine-Ford. I tell you what - You would never believe how much work something like this is. The planning, the details, the last minute curve balls, the amount of people.... It's just mind boggling. We are truly grateful that the people at Bank of America, and the countless voulnteers, have dedicated their time and effort to such a huge undertaking.


So we went over many many details. Necessary as they are, it did become a bit monotonous.But we got to a point in the meeting when we began to discuss the effects of the crowd, different sections set aside for special groups in certain locations, and Charity Mile. This is when I snapped back to attention.


I have only run one other official marathon, and that was the University of Okoboji Marathon out in Okoboji, IA. There were barely any spectators whatsoever. I have run many training runs on my own of 26.2 miles or more, but never another official marathon.


In fact, in most of the ultras that I run, I can go for hours without seeing one person. Then, when I do, it’s usually my crew and the same 10 other people that are crewing for the other runners that are running near my pace. Not that I would ever get sick of seeing their ugly mugs, but c’mon!! A little variety wouldn’t hurt!! Haha….Just kidding of course.


So needless to say, I am most excited about just experiencing the crowd at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon this year. I am almost certain that I began my speed work too late in my training to realistically keep my goal of a sub-3hr finish in my sights. So today, I made a promise to myself to just run at a pace that I feel comfortable at, try to evangelize UFD along the way to anyone who will listen, and just take it all in. I think the crowd will really make the experience exciting for me in particular.


So we’d love to hear - How are you feeling? What are your goals? What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know!


We are very excited and ready to make this another successful race for everyone involved….