July 21, 2014: Still Here

The fact that I’m writing this blog means that I survived the half marathon yesterday.  It was a great experience.  Although my feet are killing me, my legs are sore, and my left ankle & knee are in bad shape, it was all worth it.

So why run a marathon, half marathon, 10K, or any other race?  Well, there are lot of reasons.  I saw many t-shirts talking about the reasons to run.  I saw names of diseases, like down syndrome or cancer.  I saw names of individuals who people were dedicating the run to.  I saw t-shirts that talked about faith, and “running for God”.  For me, it was two-fold.  It was a commitment I made to my wife after she ran last year’s half marathon, and it was also a chance to get involved and participate in a sporting event instead of always writing about it.  So, now I’m going to write about this.

My pre-race steps went something like this:  a good pasta dinner the night before, a decent night sleep, and a fruit smoothie & banana before the race began.  I was wearing my “running shoes”, which were thrown out after the event.  My wife didn’t think wearing these were a good idea, and then I reminded me she bought these for me; and then she reminded me that was 7 years ago.  OK, good point, but using one of my dad’s old tricks, I had 2 pairs of socks on, which was really going to help me.  Well, I’m not sure how much good that did except make my shoes a little tighter.  What I really needed were some calf sleeves (?) like I saw a lot of people wearing.  I also saw people wearing strips on their calves, like the ones Derrick Rose wore on his neck the last time he was playing.  I thought, now if I had some calf sleeves and some “strips”, I’d be ready to rock.  Instead I went with 7 year-old shoes, 2 pairs of socks, some old gym shorts, and a shirt from one of my previous runs… for cred of course.  As we got to the event, I couldn’t believe how many people were there… thousands of people already lined up ready to begin the race.  I started getting a little nervous…

We were supposed to report to corral 35, which would be the 35th group released to run.  There were probably about 100 people in each corral.  The corrals were released to run every minute.  So deciding not to waste all my energy walking to corral 35, we cut in about corral 20.  With 20 minutes to start time, I thought I started recognizing people that I knew.  Looking back, maybe I was just imagining this all, although I thought I did see one guy I grew up with…  As we approached the start line, my most important accessory was ready to go:  my iPod.  I don’t think I could have done the race without this.  I don’t typically listen to my iPod that much, but for something like this, it’s a must.  Actually, I think people who wear there iPods everywhere they go are idiots.  Like the people who wear their headphones in a grocery store… Excuse me, there’s a whole world out here… take your headphones off for a second and have some social interaction for God’s sake.  At least take them off to check out, as the cashier tries to talk to you, and you’re listening to Can’t Touch This, you idiot.  Take off the headphones people!  OK, well for this event, I would say 80% of people had them on, including me, and that’s OK in this situation.

As we began to run and head towards Lake Shore Drive, there were many sights along the way.  The first sight, which was not part of the marathon crew, was this guy with no shirt, full of hair, with a big gut, holding his little dog, that had a doggie vest on.  Wait, he wasn’t holding him, he was curling him… yeah, like working out with his little dog as the dumbbell.  I thought I had seen it all…  My wife and I laughed about this as we continued to run.  Next came the 12 FT tall clowns, which WERE part of the event crew.  There were a lot of these people on stilts along the race path.  There were also a lot of people holding signs… here’s a few that I remember:  “Run you crazy Mofos run”, “I thought you said RUM”, and probably my favorite “Sweat is fat crying”.  These signs and all the people along the way were actually very motivating.  At the very least, it took your mind off the pain that starts to set in.
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The first third of the marathon was great.  In miles 1-4, we ran most of the way, which shocked me.  I began to think off all the times where I was running…. like in little league, running around the bases in a pair of jeans whose button broke between 1st and 2nd base.  I had to hold my pants closed as I continued running.  Thankfully, I hit the ball so far that I still made it home safely.  Or about the time when I played on the St. Rita baseball team, and we ran down Western Ave… I always finished last.  Or maybe I can run as fast as the time when one of my buddies was pissing in a guy’s gangway who came out of his house with a shotgun.  I’ve never ran so fast in my life.  The things that go through your head while running….

In the second portion, miles 5-8, we half ran and half walked.  About mile 6, my left ankle started bothering me.  I remember all the times I sprained my ankle while playing basketball.  Only one thing to do… tighten up those shoes, and keep playing, or in this case, keep moving.  Once you stop, you’ll be in bad shape.  We also stopped at a port-a-potty during this portion of the race.  All that Gatorade and water had to be let out.  If you’ve never been in a port-a-potty, thank your lucky stars.  The one I happened to pick was especially nasty.  As I lifted up the lid to go, someone had “missed” and there was “chocolate pudding” all over the seat.  As the person after me went in there, and told them, that wasn’t me…

The last portion of the race was survival mode.  In miles 8-13, we primarily walked.  The great thing about this race was that we did it together… who else would I rather have by my side, as we held hands (and held each other up) as we crossed the finish line.  It took a little more than 3.5 hours, but we made it… and that was the goal here.  Check it off the bucket list….

So that’s my live reporting from a Chicago sporting event.  It’s much better than talking about the Cubs today, who got swept by the Dbacks, or the Sox who lost to Houston (they did win their series though).  Hope you enjoyed my story, as we will return to regular scheduled programming tomorrow.  I thank my wife for all of the above, because without her, this story would not be possible.