Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Home Stretch

It's that time.  I'm in the home stretch before the marathon.  My runs are now tapering back.  And I'm so glad!  I've never run so much in my life!  And I never want to run so much again in my life!!  :-P

Last Sunday, my running group was going to run the last 6.2 miles of the marathon course for prep.  They must do this every year.  They think it helps to know the course because at the end, you are mentally and physically drained.  So it helps to know the turns or the hills. 

My friend used her phone to track our run.


Last 6.2 miles of the Chicago Marathon course
 We started on the left side (near the Dan Ryan Expressway).  I guess what my pace leader says always gets people is the small turn going south away from the finish (see the turn near The Gap that goes down to 35th street), I guess a lot of people think we should be going straight but then you do that extra little turn south and it goes away from the finish and mentally that gets people.  Also, for those that don't run any runs in Chicago, there is always that hill on the bridge!!  Oh you know THE HILL!!  It's that little turn from North to East right near the finish (before you start going North again).  There is a bridge that goes over the train tracks.  It's the hill of death.  It's always at the end of the runs (5k's, 8k's, half marathons!!). You always feel like you are going to die!  And you always curse Chicago and the course designers right about that time!

Did running the end of the course help me in any way?  That has yet to be determined but at least it got my mid-week 6 mile long run out of the way early in the week.  And there is only about 1.5 weeks left until the marathon!  Seriously??  I can't believe I made it through the training program in one piece!  Just a minor ache here, an IT band issue there.  But I'm here.  And I'm ready to rock out the Chicago Marathon!!

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9/28/2011

    That's such a smart idea to run the last 6.2 miles - that's when the run is the hardest and now you know what to expect at least in how the course is laid out! You'll do amazing next weekend!

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