{"id":67,"date":"2009-10-13T00:15:29","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T07:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rubschlager.com\/matt\/?p=67"},"modified":"2009-10-13T00:15:29","modified_gmt":"2009-10-13T07:15:29","slug":"marathon-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rubschlager.com\/matt\/marathon-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Marathon. Done."},"content":{"rendered":"

So after many weeks of training and exhaustion for my first marathon it is done. \u00a0I chose not to write this post straight away so that I could allow the experience simmer for a little while. \u00a0So before I get to the bottom line, allow me to babble on a bit.<\/p>\n

It was a cold day in the Windy City. \u00a0Jake “the hammer” Malone… er… wrong story. \u00a0It was a cold day. \u00a0A frigid<\/em> day to be precise. \u00a0It was barely 30 degrees F when we set out from the Palmer House<\/a>. \u00a0Angie and I met Sam on the steps to the Art Institute<\/a> and after a brief wait for the rest of my family who was running a tad late we set off for the start corrals. \u00a0The place was a mob scene. \u00a0Racers and spectators amok. \u00a0People piled on top of people. \u00a0In all the events I’ve ever been to at Grant Park<\/a>, I’d never\u00a0seen such a mob.<\/p>\n

After finding a place in the crowd I shuffled along after the starting gun went off. \u00a0It took nearly thirty minutes for me to cross the actual starting line. \u00a0The crowd of racers never really dissipated until the very last miles and even still there were nearly always about twenty racers around me. \u00a0During the first half of the race went real well, as expected. \u00a0The second half was a bit more intense, also as expected. \u00a0I’d made it to mile eighteen before I simply had to take a walk break. \u00a0My hip muscles, knees, and feet just couldn’t take the pounding of the running any longer. \u00a0However I wasn’t winded which was perhaps the oddest feeling. \u00a0For the rest of the course I took about four more walk breaks — each about the length of the beverage cup people (about 100 feet). \u00a0Again it wasn’t due to exhaustion, but more to pain in the act of running.<\/p>\n

After I’d crossed the finish line and hugged the Mylar blanket around my shoulders I proceeded to find a tent to go freeze in. \u00a0The temperature had rocketed up to about 45 degrees F, but I was in shivers when I finally located Angie and changed into warmer attire. \u00a0After hooking up with the rest of my spectator posse we headed back to the hotel for some much needed food and sleep. \u00a0As I mentioned in a previous post I was feeling sick, and I’m pretty sure I was running a fever that night. \u00a0I know I didn’t do much for the cold I’m fighting, and likely made it worse.<\/p>\n

So to bottom line it:<\/p>\n