On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I am SO GLAD I did not run the Chicago Marathon Sunday

Instead, on Saturday, I ran in honor of the Chicago Marathon.

My last year's Chicago Marathon t-shirt and a 312 showerbeer. Yes, it was a mid-day showerbeer. No, I don't have any shame.


For some reason, last week I breezed through 20 miles and felt pretty okay at the end. Saturday, I breezed through 13.2 miles and went home to take a long nap and moan about how sore I was. Not sure how that works.


I was sporting some pretty high fashion post-run wear, though. Let me tell you!


And I may have taken a really, really long nap with my dog. One of us had the sleep of her life. The other one of us thinks that her dog has bad breath. And is heavy.

You know who did run the Chicago Marathon, though? My sister. True story: she was pacing the US Women's Soccer Team. Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, and 13 contest-winning fundraisers from the general public all did the marathon as a relay for charity, and my sister was the chosen pacer. (She's the one below with the dark hair who is not wearing the requisite Nike shorts.)


They started right on the start line. With the elite runners. And they finished en masse. In the middle, they tried to ditch my sister. She was the only one going the full distance - each of the charity runners was only going about 2m. Thus, none of them needed water and didn't want to stop to let my sister get water. Finally she broke down and had to stop at a certain point, after which she lost them. So she Rosie Ruiz'd a couple of miles off the course to meet up with them at the end. (I hope she didn't take a medal, marathon cheater.)

7 comments:

  1. That must have been neat for your sister...You know how Facebook sometimes displays people's updates from exactly one year ago? Oddly, yesterday FB showed yours from last year, which was about how you decided on your Halloween costume, which was a disheveled marathoner (after you ran Chicago).

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  2. Super jealous of your sister, but super sucky of the girls not to let her get water. I think she deserves the medal, personally.

    What's up with the 312 beer and the Chicago marathon?

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  3. Goose Island sponsors the Chicago Marathon! And also, it's delicious. Yum.

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  4. Not to get all pissy at the Chicago marathon or anything, but why did they make one person run a full marathon to pace a bunch of people running 2 mile relay legs? That doesn't make sense.

    That said, it's really cool that your sister is a big time running stud without Nike shorts.

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  5. How cool that your sis got to pace the team! But lame that they tried to ditch her :(

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  6. Heh, I wondered why her stats disappeared mid-race!

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  7. That's a pretty awesome gig your sister landed, although it blows that no one wanted to let her get water. Still: awesome!

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