Chicago Marathon 2021

Running has never been my “thing.”  I do it when I am told.  I run when others invite me with them.  Sports forced me to run.  My First Marathon Chicago Illinois 2021 Thoughts Feelings Experience

My college roommate is one person that I completely respect.  He and I have a special relationship.  We might not talk for a year but everything just flows when we do.  We both would do anything for each other.

So it is him, Pat, that says, “You want to run the Chicago Marathon in 2021?”  I already applied and you can put in for the lottery.

Instant anxiety fills my body.  My brain says, “Your not a runner!” “Why would you do that?” “Are you kidding me!” “Who in their right mind would run 26.2 miles when we have cars.” “Chicago isn’t that cool anyway.” “How would this even be possible.” “Who would you train with?” “How are you going to find the time?” “Isn’t that expensive?” “You’re old!” “You haven’t even run more than a 10K!”  “Are you CRAZY!”  These are just a few of the ongoing fights I fought with my brain throughout the entire process.

I wake up the next morning and decide that I AM DOING THIS.  I mean, I have to get “accepted” first right?  Chances are slim right?  I won’t make the cut right. 🙂

A few months pass and then I get an email, “Paul, I got accepted, did you?” Instant anxiety fills my entire existence.  There it is…  Congratulations on being accepted to the Chicago Marathon 2021!  Holy @#%&

What am I going to do now?  I guess I need a pair of running shoes.  These Dunhams $35 Nike shoes will work right. 🙂

I walk into my first “Running Store” totally green.  Yes, I want to vomit, I want to leave, I want to just throw my money at them and grab the prettiest shoes and run out.  But I don’t.  What I find is an amazing owner who holds my hand and walks me through everything.  Of course, after he laughs about my current “running shoes.”  He educates me on the best way forward, laughs at the fact that I haven’t even run a half marathon and I am running a full, questions my sanity, then takes all of my money. 🙂

Good running shoes are EXPENSIVE!  And of course, you need the shoes, insoles, and socks…

Now I am a “RUNNER!” Right?

Not yet.  I haven’t downloaded my running app yet.  Pat tells me to join a running group.  In Petoskey?  Do people run?  I look at my dog and ask her, “Do you want to go for a run?” She is ready!

Shoes, check.  Insoles, check.  Socks, check.  Running app, check.  Earbuds, sweatproof, check.  Running watch, nah.  Shorts, I got some.  Shirt, anyone works right? Water bottle, hmmm.  Covid times so no drinking fountains.  I have to work through this minor complication.  How is my dog going to be leashed and watered?

And START…  The app tells me to start running.  I have Spotify playing, my lab on my hip, and we are barely moving.

This will be an experience!

I get to see a lot of Petoskey that I would normally never see.  It is fun to explore new areas and depend on my app to just tell me what to do.

The first training is for a 20K that I will meet my friend Pat in Madison and complete with him.  This will be the longest run of my life.  It is like 12.4 miles?

Other than feeling like I am going to die, the 20K goes well.

Maybe I can find a half marathon before running the full marathon in October?

Nah, I’m too stubborn for that. 🙂  Just keep training and life will be just fine.

I go from training with my lab up to about 5 miles, to training by myself up to a final of 21 miles.  Yikes!   When I tell my friends where I am running they say, “Why are you doing this when you can drive?” 🙂  I kind of agree…

One of the toughest parts is trying to manage my kids when I have them and the long runs in the Summer.  I do everything from sitters so that I can run to kids riding their bike while I run to just all out not running while I have them.  It is a struggle, probably one of the largest ones for me.

My life becomes the Marathon.  I start dreaming of greatness and how amazing this will be to finish, or qualify for Boston, or continue to an Ultra Marathon, or, or, or…

Am I going crazy?  Maybe.  Maybe it is just all the hours I log in my running.  The shoes that I burn through.  The food that I crush.  The new friends that I meet.  The hundreds of people cheering me on.  The locals that I run by regularly.  The smiles that just make my runs.

Am I a machine?  This app is becoming my boss.  I don’t want to make the app mad.  You better run Paul, or else…  the else is the punishment at the Marathon.

There comes a time that the Marathon just seems like a walk in the park.  Really, Paul, you were once afraid of a Marathon?  Just run Paul.  I mean, is it really that complicated?

I’m not a vomiter.  Is that too much.  I’m sorry.  But really, my stomach is tough as nails.  I have to be REALLY sick.  The good news is that I never toss a thing. 🙂  That has to do with my stellar eating habits.  Right!

Let me tell you about my eating habits.  If it exists in the kitchen or the store, fair game.  I don’t stop eating, I don’t stop drinking, I don’t even get more sleep.

My Marathon running friend on the East Coast tells me, “No drinking alcohol, 10+ hours of sleep a night, sex is ok, plan good meals, stretch a lot…”

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…

Yeah no.

Paul’s routine includes sticking to a three-day run week, eating whatever I please, drinking when I want, getting a good night’s sleep but not 10 hours, and what is stretching? 🙂

I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy doing all the training.  I did most of it solo with my headphones and water belt.   The furthest I ran was to Alanson, back the Petoskey harbor, then to Kilwins.  I wish to Kilwins for ice cream but, no.  That was 21 miles by the way. Yikes!

Keep in mind that I hadn’t even run a half marathon yet.  I still haven’t to this day.

I won’t speak about all of the blisters, injuries, emergency bathroom trips, running out of water, feeling like poop, internal struggles, and giving up a lot of other opportunities to train.

One thing I can’t stress more is to find a great pair of shoes that fit you and make sure to get an insole that works best for you.  It means everything!

This brings us to Chicago and the big weekend.  My friend who originally got me to run is out due to an injury.  He is still coming for the party though!

Here we are.    Back to where I lived 20+ years ago.

All I can say is butterflies in my stomach.  I don’t know what to expect.  My head is all over the place.  I have never run this far.  I have never been around this many people at once.  This is absolute chaos!

The day prior to the marathon we go and get my bib number and goody bag. 🙂 What I see is madness.  We walk, and walk, and walk, and walk and finally get into a line that is probably a mile long just to get my bag!  What!!!  It took a good couple of hours to get in and out of there.  Yikes!

By the way, we walked like 9 miles or was it 12 I wasn’t counting,  that day before the marathon.  Her watch was counting though.  🙁 Probably not the best training technique. 🙂

All that training and the day is here 10.10.2021.  So many questions.  So many unknowns.  So much running.  So let’s go get this!

There was never a doubt that I would cross that finish line.  I knew that my body was ready to have the punishment of a lifetime ahead.  I also knew that my brain wouldn’t allow me to not finish.

This start line…WOW!  I got there about 1/2 hour before the first phase of runners started.  The energy you could feel was intense.  There were three moments in my life when I felt that time of energy flowing through my body.  One was at the start of the sled dog race UP200 in Marquette, Michigan when I was photographing the dogs from like 10 feet away and they were pumped!  The next was the I-500 when I was photographing in the pit and the first lap after the start the sleds come screaming down the straightaway faster than I ever want to go in a car, much less a snowmobile.  The last was when my high school team beat Traverse City in football on their Homecoming and they were ranked number one in the state and in the top five in the nation.  I’m sure there were more but these three really stand out.

All of the hair on my body was standing straight up.  Full-on goosebumps.  I’m doing everything to slow down my heart rate and relax.   Standing meditation.  Sitting meditation.  Stretching.  Lastly, I am cueing up my book that I am going to listen to on my run.  Yes, a book!  🙂  I know I’m such a nerd.  The book’s length is three hours and twenty minutes.  Some of you may know that this is the qualifying time for Boston for my age group for men.  I figure if I have an epic day, and if I finish before the end of the book, then I qualify for Boston on my first marathon.  That would be epic.  Not that I would run the Boston but qualifying would be fun. 🙂  By the way, the book is Unfu*k Yourself by Gary John Bishop

And our heat is up.  We slowly walk to the start line.  Music blaring.  The announcer is pumping us up.   Not sure he needs to do this. 🙂 We start.  Slow down Paul, slow down Paul, slow down Paul.

I ease into my stride I have practiced for 7 months since the snow was mostly gone.  I feel good, really good.

And then the crowds start.  Holy crap.  Where did all these people come from?  Then I see my girlfriend and give her a quick kiss.  Let me tell you how tough it is seeing someone you know unless they literally run out onto the road.  It is literally a where is waldo puzzle.  People everywhere.

Along the way I hear a lot of yells including Superman and Superdad and Dad and GO and Lookin Good, and Keep it UP, and You Got This, and Water, and You OK?, and…  Bands, megaphones, crazy people, insane people, morning drinkers, people offering shots, I grabbed a PBR at the end of the race from a fan, dressed up people, and the list goes on.  It is a PARTY in all of the neighborhoods.  The locals come out to party and celebrate their heritage and neighborhoods.  It’s intense to say the least.

I run past my old house at Diversey and Sheridan.  I tried to take a couple of pictures.

I was doing really well for the first half marathon.  On pace to qualify for Boston.  Then at mile 15 I had to make an emergency stop at the porta-potty. 🙂  It wasn’t long but it slowed me down and the restart was tough on my muscles.  I slowly sped up.  I followed this little Puerto Rican man, judging by the shirt he was wearing, for the next four miles.  Then it hit me.  Right about mile 19 my legs said, “SORRY.”  My brain said, “Let’s GO!”  My legs said, “Sorry!”  For the next 6-7 miles I fought my legs.  If I could have run on my arms I would have been good.  Just not my legs at this point.  My legs were gassed out but still going, just not fast enough.

At mile 22.5 the book ended.  I was bummed but I knew that I wasn’t on the pace I had planned.  I continued on, slowly.  It is like my legs just put it in first gear and kept chugging along.  People were passing me and I could not speed up.  I was passing the walkers but that was really all.  My legs were done.

I didn’t even bother putting anything else on my headphones.  I just listened to the crowd.  They were amazing.  I wish they would have given my legs a little boost.  They didn’t.

Oh my, the finish line!  I’m literally crying in joy to see it.  I’m scanning past the finish line to see where I can collapse out of people’s way.

It was tough.  Tougher than I had ever imagined.  I am SO thankful that my body allowed me to do this.

I find a place in the dirt because there is no grass and collapse.  Cell service is horrible and my friends and girlfriend are trying to find me.  I’m lying looking up at the trees.  I’m thinking that I can die now and be just fine.

A text comes through, “Where are you?”  I take a picture straight up and say, “Right here!”  She texts back, “I know where that is.  I’ll be right there.” The last two pictures below are a mug that she bought me with the picture I took.  Good times.

After about 20 minutes I decide that this beer that I am drinking and this dirt all over me from lying down are not that appealing.  How am I going to get off of the ground?

I roll to my side, push with all my might, get one leg underneath me, get to my hands and knees, and slowly right myself.

I’m getting texts now and I’m texting back.  There are tens of thousands of people on the street.  I start walking back to the hotel.  One thing I do have is my room key.  My phone is acting weird.  There’s no service.  Then a text comes through.  Then my text sends.   I’m so over this cell phone I just want to lie in bed.

Somehow I make the 6 blocks back to the hotel and to my room.

A shower and bed never felt better for an hour.

Thank you, Chicago!  I don’t know if I will ever be back but it was amazing in so many terrible ways.

By the way, as the sign said, “If you haven’t sh*& yourself yet, you are already a winner!”  I am happy to say that during this entire training I never sh*$ myself.  I’ll leave you with that visual. :-O

I did not take any of these running images.  They were all taken by my friends who came out to watch.  None of them are professional.  I did take the starting line images and the metal images.

First Marathon Chicago Illinois 2021 Thoughts Feelings Experience

Paul Retherford Ran Chicago Marathon