little stiff but who cares!!!
Oct0920078:09 p.m.
Firstly, well done to us all, we finished the course and officially too...
Looking at the blog forums, alot of the official finishers were actually shipped back on buses and walked throught the finish line so although they have a finish time etc etc and a medal they may only have completed 18 miles, how rubbish, it would be interesting to see the stats for the ammount of runners who actually completed the full 26.2!!! which of course we all did!!!!
Chicago is a beautiful city and the marathon was great, i especially loved all the neighbourhood areas, of course after my disaster at Paris i knew to attack chicago at a leisurely pace!! so armed with my camelbak (best investment i ever made, and invaluable on the day) and yes pouring lots of water over my head to keep my body temp down i actually got to see and hear everything..
It was at mile 21 that i first heard the race had been stopped, and so decided to take a short walking break, but not for long!! by mile 23 there were helicopters with loud speakers and sirens galore going off, bit like being in the middle of a disaster movie... by mile 24 we were told very politely but forcefully to walk, i didn't argue (funnily).. I did sprint the last 400 yards though and so have a true finisher time of 5 hours 13 mins, and without any heat induced problems... Fantastic..
Robin didn't fare so well, he couldn't cope with the heat so well, but still managed a true finisher time of 5 hours and 2 minutes, he is a littl dissapointed but they were hardly optimum conditions.. Oh and he also didn't last very well at our after race bloggers drink party, oh yes guys i took him home and he was asleep by 7pm!!!! rubbish...
It was fantastic to see everyone with the ice hockey being a great highlight to the weekend, well done Nick, and special congratulations should go to a certain someone for their fantastic race time, a new pb, and in those conditions... i will leave you guessing as to who managed that one!!
Overall i know alot of people had problems in Chicago with water statiopns etc, the only significant problem i encountered was a lack of water spray areas to cool you down instead of having to use the drinking water, which unfortunately if you need to cool down your core body temp then you will use. If you were sensible then most problems could be avoided, and fun (sort of) could be had. it certainly makes the day one to remember....
Well done everyone...
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Comments (9)
Jogging_Jon 'Jo you are a hero and so is every one else who did the whole 26.2 miles. You have my absolute respect. Did they really give medals to people who didn't do the whole thing? And I thought Paris was hot. Well done, well done and well done again. Wear that medal with pride you deserve it.' added 9th Oct 2007
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Miss_Piggy 'WELL DONE!! Sounds like you did brilliantly, the conditions were awful. I can't imagine running in that heat....we started Loch Ness in frosty if sunny conditions! So good on you for doing it xx' added 10th Oct 2007
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Miss_Piggy 'Oh and ditto Jon above. you know you earned that medal!! respect x' added 10th Oct 2007
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Brooksy 'Great stuff Jo! That does sound hot and you have my complete respect for sticking with it in those conditions.' added 10th Oct 2007
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comicmuse 'Congratulations, Jo! Enjoy your rest - you've deserved it!' added 10th Oct 2007
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pip24 'Hi Jo, hope you had a good journey back. I'm starting to wonder if it was all a dream! At least I have the photos and medal as evidence! Still just sticking to the halves now you've had a few days to think about it?!' added 13th Oct 2007
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Moby_Dick 'Well done Jo!! Boy, did I think of you after what happened in Paris....soooo glad to hear you finished and in good health. Maybe something good came out of the French trip after all! Can't believe I nearly did Chicago instead of Loch Ness - if it wasn't for Miss P offering to run LN with me I would have been there and, knowing how slow I am, I would have been one of those ones ushered on to a bus. Doesn't seem right but how heartbreaking to go all that way and not complete, regardless of getting medal/t-shirt. We could have got a lift or a shortcut in LN (no-one about at the back you see) but the only ones we would have been kidding would have been ourselves. You all did incredibly well but maybe stay a bit closer to home next time? Recommend Loch Ness and I think a heatwave can be safely discounted. Well done to you and Robin - take it easy for a while now!' added 16th Oct 2007
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Richg 'Hi jo 2 weeks after the event have you let up on Robin now... ! I enjoyed the days after the marathon, although it was amusing when going around Chicago, you could tell the people that had done the marathon, had my feet up for most of mon and tues morning, which I saw the news reports, the figures that were said on Tv were just over 10,000 didn't start,10,000 dropped out, and just under 10,000 got cut off at mile 18, so 30,000 out of the 45,000 didn't make the full distance accoring to the TV figures. So we all did very well....I think if we went back next year it would probably snow! Have you entered London?' added 20th Oct 2007
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Pidge 'God it seems AGES ago! What a ridiculous weekend. Hope you''ve both recovered and are eyeing up next targets...I don't believe this "concentrating on halves" nonsense for a minute...but you'll have my respect if you manage to break this terrible marathon addiction - please let me know how if you do!' added 23rd Oct 2007
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