Illinois- Chicago Marathon- 10/22/2006

http://www.chicagomarathon.com/participant-information/general-information/

This is the first marathon where we decided to wear costumes! You may ask, why did we decide to do this? We had ran so many races and we typically frame our pictures for our walls. The pictures all started to look the same so we decided to change it up a bit! We decided that going forward we would wear something associated with the City that we were running in. Since we were running in Chicago it just made sense to wear Chicago Cubs Uniforms!

Wearing the cubs uniforms really made the event go fast and made it very engaging with the spectators. Many folks cheered very loudly when we passed them yelling “Go Cubs, Go Cubs!” The kids along the path made it a point to jump out and give us high fives!

Race Day

It was very chilly on race day and I am not quite sure we were prepared for this. It was around 40 degrees at start time and we were freezing waiting for the race to begin. There were also wind gusts of about 20 miles per hour making the temperature with the windchill around 30 degrees!   With the wind and the cold weather I was absolutely amazed, inspired and speechless at the number of spectators (upwards of 1 million) to support the runners on this day! There was not one spot on the entire 26.2 mile journey where there were not spectators!

This was one of the flattest courses we have ran to date which was definitely advantageous given the other challenges we faced that day! We had so much fun enjoying downtown Chicago and had the opportunity to see things we never would have seen without having embarked on this race.

I remember crossing the finish and it seemed as though it was 20 degrees. We never did warm up the entire race! We immediately ran back to the room, took a hot shower and then went out and had a few beers to warm us up! Another great day together!

Memories

• Deciding what costumes to wear
• 1 million plus spectators supporting us all the way
• Frigid cold, hugging each other to keep warm!
• The kids on the course cheering us on!
• Another Marathon done together!!