Four Hours Thirty Minutes

MarathonCrew, originally uploaded by andebos.

Running Chicago was a blast! Hearing onlookers shouting my name, the sights of the city, the ever present voices in my mind saying, "keep going, keep going." As strange as it may seem, the last three or four miles (which were my wall, though I don't know if I felt a "wall") I ran through the entire Superman script in my head from nearly start to finish. Seemed to keep my mind occupied enough that the pain and realities of the race were distant to the point that I just enjoyed running. I finished, thanks to our amazing pace group leader Jerry, who carried a huge sign the whole race, right at four hours and twenty eight minutes. I was pleased with my time considering it was the first marathon. After the race we all re-connected and it took us about thirty minutes it seemed to walk the ten blocks or so back to the hotel, as we moved at turtle speed. That night we hit the cheesecake factory and chuckled as everyone all around the city had a slight limp or slowness about their movement. There's a sense of community knowing you all did something together. It was just a great experience overall and one I think I might have caught a disease for...we shall see with time. I was going to run yesterday but with the disgusting monsoon, decided to pass. Today we have winds strong enough to shake the entire house, and when I say shake, I mean shake. Thanks for everyone's prayers with the training and actual race. I felt a great sense of accomplishment and am eager to begin speeding up my running. Here's to Chicago! Don't ask me what these clowns are wearing - they're still delirious from the run it appears. I mean, you didn't see me wearing anything weird in the pictures do you? Like a zebra striped bathrobe, I mean, why would I be wearing something like that? Luckily I was the one with taking the pictures!