I'm a Marathoner!

I did it! I finished the marathon! It was definitely a rough 26.2 miles thanks to the unseasonably warm October weather. As in temperatures in the 70's and 80's. I finished in 4:45:42, which is 19,341 out of 36,159 finishers (38,131 runners started the race.) And yes, I'll probably do another one. I love a good challenge and want to improve my time. Plus, I enjoyed running through the different neighborhoods with 1+ million people cheering us on.

I ran with a friend until I hit the wall around mile 18. Between miles 18.6 and 21.7 my pace slowed from 10:31/mile to 12:22/mile. Ouch. You can tell that I'm hurting and thinking to myself, "Eff, this sounded like such a good idea six months ago."

But I couldn't let down my cheering squad. My family took the L around the city to cheer while John rode his bike around the race course. Here's a picture of everyone in their matching shirts. They even hoisted up an extra shirt so I wouldn't have problems finding them.

After the race we went to Eleven City Diner for an awesome brunch. They serve breakfast all day as well as some killer corned beef sandwiches. I had the Eleven City French Toast and chicken apple gouda sausage and enjoyed every single bite. I would definitely recommend stopping by there for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Once again, I'd like to send a big thank you to everyone that cheered (including the crossdressers in Boystown) and to all of the volunteers along the race course. There's no way I could have finished without your enthusiasm, crazy signs (i.e. "Run like you stole something"), water, Gatorade, and garden hoses. For now, I'm taking a little time to recover, but will run an unofficial half marathon with Jess in November. Then we'll see about my next full or half marathon :)

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