Race Name: Chicago Marathon
Race Distance: 26.2 miles
Finish Time (hh:mm:ss): 05:48:27 (Fast mile is 1st mile @11:01, Slowest mile is 24th massage mile @16:11, Average pace: 13:17)
Here is the account of my first marathon training, preparations for the race, feelings I have gone through before, during and after Chicago Marathon. through this race report. If you are a person who likes to watch than read, go to my video version of the race report.
Photo Slideshow of the Chicago race
My First Marathon By the numbers
5 months of training
81 running sessions including 2 half marathon races, 18 Long runs, 19 Track workouts
8 pounds of weight-loss, 2 inches trimmed from waist
25 Gallons of gatorade drinking, 70 gu gel packets consumption, loads of pasta eating
427 miles of pure running, making 2 pairs of shoes worn out
170+ friends, colleagues, well-wishers were contacted to create awareness of Asha\'s mission
9 thousand+ dollars funds raised from 80+ donors, 6 companies matched funds
4 nights, 5 days away from family to run the actual marathon in Chicago
1.5 million spectators/cheering crowd watching the Chicago race
33,000 finishers out of 45,000+ registered runners and one of the proud finisher
200+ member TeamAsha 08 family including 4 coaches, 20 mentors, 10+ co-ords
ONE Final Full Marathon Race at Chicago Marathon 08 that is 26.2 miles in 5:48
SINGLE Mission of running a marathon by creating awareness & raising funds to under-priviledged kids in india
Getting into the TeamAsha Program
Just about six months back, met my old friend & boston marathon finisher Raghavan who put a seed in my mind to run for a marathon by taking TeamAsha training. I checked out Team Asha website, their training program and their mission. I liked their concept of Train-Run-Educate and immediately registered for the program just by trusting my friend\'s words & team asha without completely visualizing what is involved in it. Now, I have signed up for the program, I have no choice but to follow the program to the dot.
Training for the marathon race
Joined the Team Asha program 3 weeks after they launched this year\'s program. Talked to mentors Krishna, Deepu & Simmy and they all mentioned that I have enough time to cover this up. I used to attend all the weekday (mon, thurs) short runs, track work outs on tuesdays and long runs on Saturday mornings. Doing the warm up runs, stretching, run and stretches after the run, ice-baths after long runs became a routine for the last four months. I enjoyed all the long runs and constantly amazed by the dedication of our coordinators to give selfless support to runners. They picked nice trails like Sawyer camp trail, Crissey field trail, Las gatos creek trail, Helleyer Park, Shoreline Park, Oracle Trails for our long runs and made food/water arrangements through out the course. I have started to realize that running is lot of fun. Most of us ran SF Half marathon 2 months into the training and it gave experience on what to expect in prep for race & race day experience. Confidence started building up as I ran 16 miles, 18 miles, 19 miles, 21 miles (max during the training) and mentally prepared me to go for the race. Thanks to coaches & mentors for their 1-1 advise & tips during the training and I was happy to complete the training without any injuries. Was just hoping to finish the marathon run strongly without any injuries.
During this training, I ran with Shoreline group, Baylands Morning Group and Rancho Early Morning Group. Had fun running under moonlit, starry nights. I made some good friends, found entertaining running buddies in the process and get to know more about Asha & Team Asha.
Five months passed just like that and October has finally arrived.
Tapering Days
Our tapering days started. Last two weeks are supposed to be tapering weeks. Especially, last week was real slow week. Excitement was building up to run the race and at the same time we were not running much. Mind & body are behaving bit weird and checked with Coaches. They said that it happens that way, just take it easy and enjoy the taper. I had been religiously drinking liters of water/gatorade, eating carbs where possible.
Days before the race
Counting the days to go to Chicago, Excitement is building up, Reading all sorts of articles on marathon prep etc, Doing my final days of fund raising thinking that it is hard to get funds after the race completion. Along with Vivek, Chinmaya and Laxman, went to Chicago in AA flight Friday before the race. My cousin Udai came to the airport to pick me up. Plan is to join the Team for carbo load dinner and stay in hotel with them Satuday night. Saturday was a jam pack day. Morning, visited my friend in Chicago suburbs and went to Aurora temple to get blesssings from Lord Venkateswara for a great race.
Cousin drove me to the Marathon Expo happening at McCarmick center in Chicago downtown for race packet pick up. It was such a huge event and hundreds of people flooding the booths etc. Got my bib, checked the timing chip is working, get some goodies from booths, took some pictures and left the place to go to hotel. Reached hotel just in time for Carbo load and told my cousin to show up without fail for cheering me at the race. Met the whole team for the first time there and everybody is in good moods. We went to D\'s Little Italy restaurant by Yellow school bus. While waiting for the food, coaches Char & Raman gave some final words of wisdom for tomorrow\'s race. We have been watching the Chicago raceday temperature for almost 10 days and it has been continuously raising from 68-80+. As coaches mentioned, I am just counting on the training I had gone through and I am in full spirits & high confidence that I would do good. After the pasta load, we came back to hotel, arranged the stuff for tomorrow\'s race. Hit the beds early after having chit-chat with my roomie Ganesh.
Pre-race
Got up at 4am, get ready quickly and joined the team for breakfast at the downstairs. After hearing about other runners experiences about the cramps during the long races, I had decided to carry some salt tablets with me. Balu was kind enough to offer me few. I didn’t know at that time that I will be using during the race. Bus promptly started at 5:30 from the hotel and driver dropped us closer the Charity Village (place where all the charities set up their tents and it has exclusive access to the runners running for these charities). It is amazing to see how many charities, runners running for a cause. Asha Chicago chapter setup a nice tent with all the amenities for the runners. We could drop of our sweat bags in the tent itself.
All of us did a warm up run, stretching routine, multiple photo sessions. Coach Raman was keep on saying adjust your pace at the start as temperatures were going to raise during the day. I decided to listen to his advice as I always did during the training.
We started walking towards the start line.. You should see the crowds.. Thousands & thousands everywhere.. My excitement is building up.. As wisemen once said, if you had make it to the start line, you will finish it. Now, I made it this far.. I should finish this off. I have been thinking positively and not giving a chance to bring any negative thoughts. National anthem was played before the run.. Along with Praveen, Swamy, Durgesh and Ganesh, stood bit closer to the start line even though we know we can’t run at the pace mentioned over there.
During the race
Exactly at 8am, race started. By the time, we reached the start line, it was 13 minutes late. Praveen told me that he will run with me for some time and follow my run-walk strategy.
Even though, I try to slow down in the first mile, crowd kind of pushed me to run at 11 minute pace. We moved to the right lanes (like traffic) to slow down a bit. Next 5-6 miles, I ran with Praveen and we got lot of good comments on our Asha T-shirt. Cheering crowd was simply superb and I was confidant that crowd will make me finish the race. This is one of the reasons, I picked Chicago Marathon as my target race. Running very strong just under 12 minute pace. Crossed the half marathon mark at 2:36 (9 minutes faster than SFM) and feeling happy about it. I am trying to talk to the fellow runners on the way, giving high-5\'s to the spectators, reading the nice banners they put up. Whenever I see, \'run daddy run\', it was reminding me about my kids and giving me more energy to run.
I have seen people stretching on the way and I thought of following them. That was a mistake. I never stretched in the middle of my training runs. My muscles started pulling a bit and decided not to continue. Moved forward. After running a mile or so, around 16th mile, I started noticing mild cramps in my quads. During the last 5 months of training, I didn’t experience any cramps myself other than listening about them. I feel like talking to somebody I know at that time. I didn’t want to mess up my first/last(?) marathon. Still 10 more miles to go and I don’t want to push myself with that pain. Before cramps get worse, I used my weapon in store \'salt tablet\' (thanks a ton Balu for sharing them in the morning, it saved my race) and praying that they will go away. Walah.. Pain disappeard in 5-10 minutes. Started running strong for the 3 miles or so. I had only 2 left and thought of using them wisely for the next couple of hours. I started feeling the mild cramps again and decided to take another salt-tablet. I started experiencing some shoulder aches and as Coach Tony said, adjusted my posture to take deep breaths. At that time, my cousin called me and told me that he is waiting for me at Mile 23. That gave me some strength & hope to have a shoulder massage from him there.
Temperatures were raising and Event Alert System changed the color from Yellow to Red (means potentially dangerous, slowdown and just listen to your body). I am trying to recollect all the great time I had during the training, the impact I am making by doing this marathon to kids in india, all the support I got from my frineds, donors, personal satisfaction, becoming a role model to my kids etc and kept running.
Arrangements through out the course were great and they over prepared compared to last year. I heard that they (chicago) don’t want any hiccups in the arrangements as they are bidding for Olympics in 2016. What ever is the reason, we are enjoying all of it. Stopping at every water/gatorade stop and pouring water on my head & body. After certain point, we were getting ice cubes as well. I put some of them under my cap to get some extra cooling effect. Loud music was playing at the water stops, there were some live stage shows through out the course. Whole race covered 27 neighborhoods in Chicago and even some of the long time resident friends didn’t see some areas. Lion dance was being performed near china town. I have been trying to capture these moments in my tiny video cam.
Finally, reached the 23 mile mark and so happy to see my cousin Udai, his wife Meena waiting for me with bottles of water. First thing I asked him is to give me a quick massage to my shoulder muscles. That gave a huge relief. He ran with me for quarter mile or so and I told him to wait for me at the finish line.
I am almost there. Final three miles to go. Good that buildings were blocking the sun a bit and I could run under the shade where possible. I saw Gurpreeth at 25th mile mark and he ran for half a mile or so with me. It gave positive boost to my final mile.
Final yards.. This is it.. I am finishing my first marathon.. Strong.. Feel like having my olympic/climb-everest moment.. Crowd was cheering.. Goose-bums are coming up.. Crossed the finish line with a big smile on my face.. Wow.. What a joy.. It is something that money can\'t buy.. need to be earned..
I AM A PROUD, HAPPY, STRONG FIRST TIME MARATHON FINSHER!
Post race
Got some flowers from Meena congratulating. Happiness everywhere. Took my finisher picture at the booth, had a mist shower at the giant fan blowing water. Met my cousin & his wife after walking another quarter mile or so. Found out that we need to walk another half a mile or so to get to charity village. No choice but to walk.
Reached our Asha tent. Most of the runners finished by then. Had food at the tent (everything is tasty except gatorade), took pictures, gave/got hugs from my team mates, got a nice massage. Excited to see my old college friend who ran through Asha Chicago Chapter. Thanks a ton for Chicago Asha folks for the arrangements.
Final words
It was wonderful experience to get trained thought Team Asha to run my first ever marathon. This 5 month journey brought me some great friendships, realization of my own strengths, memorable moments, happiness in giving back a bit to community.
Thanks a ton for the coaches, mentors, co-ordinators, fellow teamasha-08 runners, my friends, my donors and my family to make my first marathon a success. Without your constant support, encouragement, advice this would not have been possible.
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