Bottom Of The Barrel

Chicago: A Marathon Story

Where did it all begin? Believe it or not the roots of this story are found in a bookstore. An airport bookstore to be exact. In December of 2003, on our way home from Florida from a Christmas trip to see my wife's Mother and husband, we bought the once famed South Beach Diet book at the Tampa International Airport. Having read this book, we tried the diet and it did work in the short term and I lost 20 pounds. Boy I was a porker.

One day at the gym late that winter, I saw a co-worker running on a treadmill and I thought I might give it a try now that I was a bit lighter. I enjoyed running but really hated the gym. The treadmill, for me anyway, is boring and I find it hard to run for any good distance, which at that time was about 2 miles.

Soon the spring of 2004 came and I thought I would give running outside a try. The first day out, I put on my headphones, cranked up Disturbed and took off. I got about 200 yards before I stopped, completely out of breath. This turned out to be much harder than at the gym but the scenery was so great that I had to do it again. I soon learned how to pace myself and found outdoor running to be a great stress reliever.

In June of 2004 I ran my first race, the Harpoon 5 Miler in Boston and had found 5 miles to be a great distance. Later in the summer, I saw a plaque at my friend Tim’s house who ran the 2004 Boston Marathon. What was truly inspirational about that situation was on that particular patriots day it was 86 degrees by mid-afternoon and it was the hottest marathon Day in Boston since 1976. I was told, from a runner who has finished a marathon to a new runner who was toying with the idea of running one, "You can do it!" On that warm summer day I did not believe him.

For my 34th birthday, I received The Runner's Handbook from the same guy who ran that very hot 2004 Boston Marathon and I read it cover to cover. Bob Glover’s book contains so much information about running, diet and training but it was the true life stories that really inspired me. Maybe it was the one about a one-legged man or perhaps it was the one about Fred Lebow’s nephew running for his late uncle. I’m not sure what is was, but the book showed me it was possible to run further and that’s what I did.

In October of 2004, I completed my first half marathon in Lowell, called the Bay State Half Marathon. I felt great finishing a race over 13 miles in length and after that I really felt I could really go for the whole thing. At a Halloween party a couple of weeks later, Suz and Brian, marathon friends of ours, suggested Chicago as my first. A fairly flat course, contained all to the city and tons of runners and spectators. Again, I was encouraged by fellow runners that I could do it.

January 1, 2006, the first day for registration, I signed up on for the Lasalle Bank Chicago Marathon to be held on October 22, 2006. I was really going to do it and now I was committed. Now that I was signed up, I used the Running Handbook to develop a training schedule to build up to 20 miles and be as prepared as possible for the longest run of my life. Interestingly enough, along the way, I inspired several more runners to give this crazy sport a try. 8 of us ran the Harpoon 5 miler in 2006. Good job to Lisa, Kim, Kym, Scott, Sandy, Steve, and Rachel. The same race I had run for the first time 2 years earlier. Even more exciting was that 2 of the 8 were even more inspired and the three of us ran the Boston half marathon a few weeks ago. A big congrats to Kim and Kym, you guys did great.

So here we are, finally at the day more than two years in the making. In 2005, I ran a total of 600 miles and 2006 so far it has 715 leading up to a single day and 26.2 miles in and around Chicago. All starting in an airport bookstore in Florida and hopefully ending in Millennium Park in Chicago. See everyone on the other side.

posted by TheWino @ 7:58 PM