Sunday, October 07, 2007

I survived the Chicago Marathon 2007!

In case you haven't seen the headlines as yet, here are few for your reading enjoyment:

Chicago Marathon Cancelled After 1 Dies And 302 Go To The Hospital
Intense Heat Ends Marathon Prematurely
Chicago Marathon cut off mid-run as heat kills 1, sickens hundreds

BUT... I made it. It was maybe my hardest marathon ever of the nine, but I got through it - barely. Very ironic that I was in my best marathon shape ever to suffer through today.

I finished in 3:32. Note I chose the word "finished", because I cannot say I ran the whole way. I wouldn't have survived. I could have ended up like the poor guy who died after running today. What an absolute tragedy.

There were many who did not even finish, or were not given the option to finish due to the race director's decision to call it.

Half way mark: 1:36 - Second half: 1:56. It was not pretty. I hadn't walked this much on a marathon course since my first in 2001. But I lived to tell.

Time to lick my wounds. Going to sleep now. Will write more later when I arrive in China this week. Did I say I love marathoning???

17 comments:

wayfool said...

ryan... strong work! If it were me, I would have bagged it at the halfway point. Impressive, and you still averaged 8 min. miles.

As for future marathon, I thought I'd throw out a couple ideas. There's the California International Marathon (Dec.) and my personal favorite so far, the Austin Marathon (Feb.).

i'm sorry the weather was so lousy.

Arcane said...

Congratulations in any event. Smart thinking to back it off. Always look for the silver lining I guess. This'll give you another month of training to get sub 3 in December. Good luck!

Ruslan said...

Congrats Ryan - 3:32 is still a Great time (at least for me). There would be better races! P.S. Foreign blogs officially prohibited in China (incl. blogger.com), at least my friends in Shanghai, Qingdao and other places can not read, can not post. Try it..

yumke said...

Hey Ryan, so glad you were able to get it done. I was tracking your time around after teh halfway mark and I knew it was a tough day. Congrats and have a good trip back to China!

LeahC said...

congrats on running a smart race. It was brutal out there!

Triseverance said...

Smart smart smart, it's only a race. Sorry you did not get the day you were looking for but you survive to fight another day.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on a very smart race. It is too bad that the weather didn't cooperate but all the training that you have done will still pay off when you run your next marathon (hopefully with much better weather)!

Nitmos said...

Nice job to play it smart and safe. Congratulations. A strong finish considering the conditions. good thigs come to those who wait I guess.

Darrell said...

Wow! Way to hang in there to the end. I say a smart finish is better than a DNF.

MNFirefly said...

Wow! That's totally amazing!

TC said...

Nice job out there. You have been an inspiration for me all season. Glad you finished. Glad you are healthy.

iJuls said...

Great job, considering. I don't know what your goal time was, but I am impressed. I was there. It sucked.

Anonymous said...

So glad you are okay. And what an amazing time considering the conditions!

Anonymous said...

Here is a T-Shirt that most of the runners from this past weekends Chicago Marathon can relate too.

Chad said...

Nice jog. All that training is not lost. It will carry over to future (faster) marathons.

Enjoy your recovery.

Ruslan said...

Ryan, I made some "investigations" about posting in China. Foreign blogs prohibited - true. Blogger.com works but you can not go directly to your page. My co-worker, manager from Shanghai did one nice thing recently. In order to open any *.blogspot.com he went to www.goodwaiter.com (web proxi) and throu that page he get to my and others posts. So, posting from China works. Hey, can you consider Sun, Nov 25 Shanghai marathon? 90% that I run 3:40 marathon there.

Jessica, a Austin Runner AND triathlete said...

congrats on finishing and running smartly. my heart goes out to all that endured Chicago 07!

how about Houston 08 for a marathon? It's sold out but they are doing bib transfers....