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Official times

Yesterday in the mail I received my official split times and some other information from the marathon.

Official 26.2M time: 4:02:56
Average pace per mile: 9:15.9

I placed 11,424th of 33,027 total finishers.
I placed 8,355th of 18,690 males.
I placed 1,271st of 2,774 males aged 25 to 29.

Chicago Marathon

Some of you may know that I have been training to run the Chicago Marathon this summer. It started out as a long term goal, many months away when I started training in February. Time, as it is though, has a way of ticking away and inevitably, the big day came upon me. October 9, 2005. That date this summer has been a beacon to me. An end. A finish line. I ran four days a week since the official training began on June 7 and it all culminated this past Sunday.

So they start you off in these big pens depending on how experienced a marathoner you are. The elite athletes, the people who run a marathon in 2:07:00, start way in the front, obviously. Followed by those who qualify for a better position, etc, followed by the people who don't really know why they're there, like me. And everybody is wearing "throw away" shirts to keep warm before the race starts. Then they announce over the loud speakers that the race will start 2 minutes from now, so be ready. At this point, 40,000 people took off their throw away and literally threw it away. So many shirts and sweatshirts flying through the air. It was quite the sight to see. So then we start running and I was doing really well for the first 13 miles or so. I was able to stay with my pace group and I felt really strong and able. But then, i started to hit a wall. I walked for about 30 seconds a bunch of times. I was trying to run a 3:40:00 pace for the marathon, but i fell off of that around the 16 mile mark or so. It was really between miles 16 and 22 or so where I found myself wanting to die.

I saw a girl vomiting red chunks. It could have been gatorade; it could have been blood. Either way, it was coming out of her mouth rather than going in, so that wasn't a good sign. I saw another girl lying on the side of the course who looked like she was asleep. There was a man standing over her calling for a cop to come help. That was actually pretty scary because she looked like she could have been unconscious. Somewhere around mile 20 my leg started cramping up so i stopped to stretch it. So i was standing there, in a stretch position, with my eyes closed continuously reminding myself that the mind tires before the body and that there were only 6 miles left when a cop came up to me and put his arm around my shoulder, leaned in and asked me if i was okay and if I'd be able to finish this. I looked at him, smiled, and said, "Absolutely." Maybe it was just because my body was essentially shutting down at this point, but I was super emotional and almost choked up at his concern for me. I thanked him and ran off.

The most difficult part of the race was the last mile. One mile, it seems, is almost nothing. That thought, along with the anticipation of actually being done, proved to be a huge downfall. That last mile took FOREVER for me to run. We turned the last corner and had about 400 yards to go. At this point, I was able to see the finish line. I thought to myself, "That finish line isn't getting any closer. Look, all I have to do is run to there and I am all finished. 5 months of waking up before the sun to run before work and all I have to do is run to there and then i'm done. Just get there." And then finally, I was there. I couldn't believe it. I almost broke down into tears at how releived I was to be done. It was absolutely the most difficult thing I had ever done. My body hated me.

My official time was 4:02:56. I would have liked to have finished in under 4 hours, but give or take 3 minutes, I'm happy. I know its cliche to say so, but I think that finishing the marathon at all is quite the accomplishment. And I only say that because now I know first hand how true it is. So with that, some more facts: I was the 11,415th person to cross the finish line. 40,000 people started the race and around 33,000 people finished it. Relative to the 40k people who started the race, I finished in the 28th percentile. www.marathonfoto.com Select the Chicago Marathon 2005. My last name is Marinelli and my bib number was 20998. There are pictures of me running there. The seventh one down is me as I'm crossing the finish line. Its from pretty far away, so you can't really make out the agony on my face, but trust me, it was there.