C H I C A G O 🏅 M A R A T H O N
2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣
🚨🚨🚨 Long Post Alert 🚨🚨🚨
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| Flat Dan Ready to Represent |
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| Walking to Grant Park |
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| Found my Gate |
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| Found my Corral |
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| Waiting to go in as once you're in you can't leave |
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| Throwaway pants staying on |
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| Throwaway jacket also staying on |
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| Pants are off...almost ready to go in |
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| Sun is slowly making an appearance |
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| Corral view |
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| Lots of choppers covering the event |
Running through ‘29’ neighborhoods & I have to say the crowd support was absolutely amazing 📣.
I have not seen so much support in a city. It is like nothing I have ever seen from any of the races I have done. The city really did an amazing job.
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I had zero time goal going into this & I just wanted to soak in the experience of the Chicago Marathon race weekend.
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The first 5K I was in the zone & keeping my continuous running pace. I passed the hotel & there was Mei-Ling with a sign made from a cheer card from 2022 Team Imerman Angels: Berlin, Chicago and New York City Marathons along with Isabelle, Mireille ‘a sister, I tossed my gloves to them & carried on 🫣.
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| Moving up to the start |
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| Last selfie. Jacket is now gone. |
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| tuning out the anxiety and getting ready |
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| almost go time |
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| Seeing ML and Isabelle at the hotel was great. |
I was doing well through to 10K at the 9/10K mark I had to hit the porta potty as it was still early on in the race so I went off to the “relief zone”. Once I got back on the road I was focused and feeling great 👍🏽 . The crowds were still unbelievable! They really made this enjoyable.
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| Still moving |
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| Charity lane |
I hit the halfway point of the marathon and still doing well.
Once I hit about 23K I was feeling some pain in my left quad so lucky there was an aid station with Bio Freeze. I lathered up & kept going but that didn’t seem to last long. I went another couple of K & had to finally walk 😭 & I needed to stretch. I’m pretty sure many others were feeling the effects of the warm weather and leg cramps.
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| United Center |
So many thoughts went through my head.
Was I not hydrating?
Did I not fuel properly?
Was that left hamstring injury ailing me the week before?
Was it the 5K & then walking about 36K steps the day before?
So many doubts hit me hard. I posted on my story that I had hit my max & that I would keep plugging away at it.
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Throughout the course many of the Gatorade Endurance stations I used but then I found that the electrolytes were not working for me & making my gut feel off. Also running through a big city the smell of raw sewage 🤢 hit me on top of that did not help. So I added more water to my bottles.
(One thing to mention is that hydration vests with bladders were not allowed but I saw many with vests but with soft flasks which I could have used to carry my own nutrition but that didn’t help me on this race had I known 🤷🏻♂️. I’m sure I read it somewhere but I didn’t want to take the chance as it was they didn’t even check my hydration belt. 🙄)
As the race wore on so did the increase in temperature 😰. By the time I hit the Mexican/Chinatown areas I had texted Kiera & Mei-Ling saying I had to walk 😓. Legs were cramping no matter how much I stretched. Although the quad stretch was a nice relief but as soon as I went back to the road the cramping started back up.
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I told them I don’t care I will finish this race no matter what & that is what I did. The family knows me well enough I’m too stubborn to throw in the towel. The beauty of the tracking app is following my little avatar along the checkpoints.
Also my chat group also told me to just enjoy the event!
The next 10 kilometres were small bits of running cuz you know race photos 🙄🫣📸
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| Selfie Fail while running |
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| Entering into one of the loud sections |
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I persevered & carried forward. At one point I saw Mireille & ran with her for a few moments & we were both on the struggle bus. She was focused & just kept moving. I let her run her race & I fell back. By the time the 23 mile marker came I was 5K out. More bouts of running & bio freeze. It just wasn’t happening. I came across a fellow Team IA & we compared notes & we both went with the mantra to get it done even if we had to walk it in.
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| About 32K where Mireille kept going |
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| Almost there |
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If you have not done this race the last mile has you turning from a Main Street to an on ramp back to the finish. It was about a 400 m slow climb & I had to stop part way & walk to the top before I could reach that finish. Once I saw the finish line in my sights I picked up my pace & didn’t look back. I pushed through the pain & not sure if my face showed the grimaced look but I did it upright. Maybe not smiling but I finished a world major marathon. 🙌🏽
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Kudos to Mei-Ling for travelling with me on this journey and being my personal valet for these crazy races. We had a lot of lessons learned being in Chicago. Navigating in a city that neither of us have never been before. We both put in a lot of steps and experienced a lot of the city together.
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| Architecture Boar tour - day after the Marathon |
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Another shoutout to Michelle who we hung out with a lot on this last race weekend & letting us tag along on her 2nd Abbot World Major event. I’m pretty sure she can get to her six ⭐️ medal!!
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Also thanks to Brent Smyth for the flight bookings & allowing me to represent Team Imerman Angels. I may not have hit my goal but their Halo Hospitality & inspiring team were top notch 🙌🏽
Enjoy the photos/videos I did take while on course.
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| Team Imerman - 2022 Canadian Edition |
