Chicago race report:
This was not what I hoped for. My goal was to run 3:25 in Chicago. It was my first race there since 3 straight from 2016 to 2018. Unfortunately I had my first DNF.
There were times during training that things seemed more difficult than they should’ve been. But late in the training cycle things started to click. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was real fitness gain, or a combination of the 2. The last few weeks of training were mostly strong. For my last long run I made a late decision to enter a 30k. My plan was not to race it, but to run a solid long run pace (for me, this would be MP + 40s or 8:29). Instead I averaged 8:08 and was conversational for 2/3rds of the race. This was a confidence boost 3 weeks out. 2 and 4 days later I crushed my workouts. So between the 30k and these 2 workouts, I was starting to feel really confident with a couple weeks to go before race day. 12 days out and I had 2 more workouts left. On Tuesday (12 days b4 race day) I had a 6x1 @ mp -10s. I felt really good and on mile #5 I felt a little something wrong in my hamstring. It was fairly dull, but I kept going and finished 5 and 6 pretty fast. During my cooldown, almost at the end, I felt something sharp in my hamstring. I immediately stopped and walked it in. Wednesday was my off day and Thursday was gonna be my final workout (10 at MP). I showed up and decided to just run easy and forego my last workout. This is basically all I did until race day. I had a couple easy days right before where I mixed in some strides. All systems seemed ready and I was cautiously optimistic.
Selinda (wife) and I got to Chicago early on Friday. We didn’t get a ton of sleep but were pleasantly surprised the hotel let us check in Friday morning. We grabbed some breakfast and then went to our room and took a nap. When we got up, we headed to the expo. The expo went smoothly. The lady that checked us in was originally from Louisville, so we chatted a couple minutes. After the expo, we hung out at the park a bit and then walked up Michigan avenue and got an early dinner at Giordanos. Friday was fairly chill and Saturday was totally lazy. I got an ez 3 miles on Saturday morning. Ate breakfast, napped, watched college football, and generally did nothing. It was a very productive pre race day. We met some KorfEdge people for a great dinner and had a relaxing walk back to our hotel.
Sunday morning I got up and everything seemed great. I put my 325 temporary tattoo pace band on, signaling to myself that I was committing to race this thing. I planned to start behind the pace group, eventually catch them mid race and then potentially pass them late if things were going well. My PR is 3:25:04 so this seemed like a reasonable plan to me. If things got rough, I figured I could hold on for sub 3:35 and BQ.
Met some guys before the race and everything was going well. Got in the corral and found the 325 pace group. The pacers got to the starting line quite a bit before I did, and with me intentionally going slow mile 1 they were out of my sight pretty quickly. I wasn’t concerned because I knew they were probably only 30 seconds ahead and I’d eventually catch them. I picked up my pace during mile 2 and 3 and even dialed it down a bit because I didn’t want to overdo it early. Everything seemed good and I figured/assumed that the longer I ran the more my legs would warm up (loosen) and I’d have smooth sailing.
Around mile 6 or 7 I felt a little dull pain in my hamstring. I grabbed a sample bio freeze I had stashed away and quickly slapped it on to deal with it. I thought even if it was phantom pain, the menthol would mask it. After a couple miles it worsened, but I hoped it would just go away. I tried to shorten my stride. I remember not stopping at the medical tent around 9 and wishing I had. I knew there was another med tent coming after 10 so I started deciding what I might do. I wasn’t ready to quit… I was hoping they’d be encouraging and have a real solution for me. I stopped there and they just wrapped it tightly. I was out quick and was hopeful this might solve my problem. I certainly wanted to give it a try.
Over the next 2 miles I was trying to find a cadence that made everything feel normal. I felt like I was limping a bit and the dull pain wasn’t going anywhere. Also, I decided that if things got to feeling better by me slowing some, that I’d just throw out any time goals and finish the race. But if that wasn’t the case, I’d rather make my decision to pull the plug early before it was too late.
Things weren’t getting any better. In fact I was slowing down, obviously not running relaxed, and I was thinking about my hamstring every step. At this point I realized my wife would be somewhere around 12.5 miles on the course and we’d be within a few blocks of the hotel. Running another 14+ miles much slower than plan and in increasing pain didn’t sound all that fun or smart. Plus I knew I had a half marathon coming up in 3 weeks and if I felt good I’d have a shot at a PR. I figured if I gutted it out to the finish, I’d probably be sidelined a while and would only have a stubbornly earned medal to show for it. So I quickly made the decision that I’d just run until I saw her and then let her know I was pulling the plug.
It sucked quitting the race. It would’ve sucked more quitting late in the race. I doubt I would’ve been able to make the decision to DNF at mile 20 or later. It was an easier choice to make this decision when I did. Who knows if it was the right decision, but I felt like it was the smartest choice with the info I had.
As soon as I stopped running, the leg felt better. Walking on it was no issue. A few times (later in the day) I’d feel some pain if I misstepped off a curb or did anything else odd.
With all the detours, it took longer to get back to the room than I hoped. I had planned to change and try to get to the finish line to cheer some other runners. By the time I cleaned up, sulked, etc, I would’ve missed most of the Louisville runners at the finish. Instead, we just tracked everyone and celebrated all the finishers from our hotel.
Even with a DNF, Selinda and I had a great weekend. The weather was good and we had a nice relaxing time. There were plenty of great results by others, so it only makes sense that there would be some failures in there too. This was my turn to not have things not work perfectly. I got plenty of sympathy on Strava and in person. Several people offered me congrats because they saw my poster hanging out of my backpack, but I had to let them know I was unable to finish this year. There will be more races in the future.
This is a really long race report, especially considering I didn’t get to the halfway point. Count your blessings as this would’ve been way longer had I been able to finish the race.
I also had to make another bee line for the porta potties. I guess I was well hydrated! I slowly walked to mile 27 to meet up with friends and family and my youngest gave me roses! 
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