It was a pleasant surprise to receive my 5k beanie and race bib in the mail. I guess I missed the note on the website that said that US residents that had registered by a certain date will have their race packet mailed to them. That definitely helps in case there were flight delays getting into Chicago ahead of the Saturday race.
Friday 10/6
I had a morning flight with Southwest Airlines out of LAX. In the months leading up to this trip, both my outbound and inbound flights kept getting changed. When I first booked my flights, it was a much earlier flight as I had made a reservation at the LAX Economy Parking for about 3:30 am. Instead of arriving that early, I opted to snooze a bit longer and didn't leave my house until 4 am. The drive in was pretty smooth sailing. It gave me flashbacks of when I used to commute out to an office that was about a block from LAX. I arrived at about 4:45 am. Per the usual, as I approached one of the gates, it read my license plate and opened automatically for me. After finding an EV parking spot, I walked over to the shuttle area to catch a ride over to terminal 1.
EV parking in LAX Economy Lot
After getting through TSA security screening, I went over to my gate and found a spot to wait. It wasn't long before my friend joined me as we were on the same flight. When I checked the flight board, there was actually 3 flights to Chicago Midway all leaving at 7 am. While waiting, one of my friend's Instagram follower joined us. Among the 3 of us, I was the last one to board. They saved me a window seat, but I had to put my bag in an overhead compartment several rows behind.
Latino Heat!
Once we were airborne, I tried to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It wasn't bad, but I was tired and kept fading in and out. I might have caught 75% of the movie. I got the gist of it. It was a story of requited love between Bowser and Princess Peach, but I don't recall how Mario fit into that story. I'll have to make time and re-watch this movie and possibly update my review score. (7/10)
Arriving at MDW
Our plane landed at Chicago Midway International Airport at about 1:30 pm local time. I thought that I had to swim against traffic to get my bag, but fortunately for me, a fellow passenger was able to pass my bag up to me. After getting off of the plane, we made our way down to baggage claim. Since we didn't check any luggage, we went our separate ways to catch an Orange line train from the CTA Midway Station. It was super convenient to be able to pay for the fare using Google Pay. We took that over to the CTA Roosevelt Station and transferred over to the Green line. We exited at the CTA Cermak-McCormick Place Station. Since it was around lunch time for us, we ducked into the adjacent White Castle to get a bite to eat. It was my friend's first time eating here. I ordered their #3 Combo which was 2 1921 Sliders. I don't drink soda these days, but I opted for Barq's French Vanilla Creme Soda for my drink. Boy, these soda dispensers have gotten quite fancy. I had to show the guys ahead of me how to select their drink.
Taking the L
Lunch at White Castle
2 1921 Sliders combo
After we were done with our food, we made the walk over to McCormick Place for the race expo to pick up our race packet. The weather threatened a bit to make things interesting as it rain a bit while we were eating. Thankfully, it let up as we made the walk over so I didn't have to pull out the umbrella. In addition to there being a ton of foot traffic around the entrance of the convention center, there were also a lot of cars. Most of them were rideshares picking up or dropping off people. There were people out there directing traffic. While it was still crowded inside, it was less chaotic. We headed over to the East Building/Lakeside Center. Once we reached the entrance to the race expo, there were spotters stationed there directing people with roller bags to check their bags. Although, I wasn't flagged down to do so with my duffle bag, one of the bag screeners wanted to send me back really badly. Eventually after I informed them that the screener let me through, they reluctantly gave in and inspected my bags before letting me through. In hindsight, I think I'll voluntarily check my duffle bag next time since it was pretty crowded down certain aisles and especially in the official merchandise section. Per the usual, they had the race shirt pick-up down at the other end of the convention hall to force us past the merchandise and vendor booths. I pretty much only stopped at the pacer booth to look for my friends and the booth for the charity that I had fundraised for in order to get into this marathon.
PAWS Chicago
Race expo at McCormick Place
Expo haul
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Gear check bag
Heather!
After we were done with the expo, my friend retrieved his bag, and we headed back over to the CTA Station for a ride up to our hotel in the Loop. We took the Green line up a few stops and got off at the CTA Adams/Wabash Station. We were both staying at the Travelodge that was pretty much right across the street from the start and finish line for both the 5k and the marathon. When we checked in, my friend tried to get a room on the same floor as me, but they put him up on the 12th floor which was the top floor. I was given room #1108.
View from my room
After we got settled a bit into our rooms, we met up in the lobby and walked over to the nearby Lou Malnati's Pizzeria for dinner. While waiting for my friend in the lobby, I overheard a Spaniard tell 2 ladies that they should run the Valencia Marathon. The reason he gave was that it was very beautiful. I will have to look into that. We got to the restaurant at about 5:30 pm. It wasn't too busy so we were seated right away. We both ordered a personal sized deep dish pizza. My friend got The "Lou" while I got The Malnati Chicago Classic. It took just about 40 minutes for our pizzas to be brought out. We decided to split our pizzas so that we can make comparisons. I thought both were good, but the classic was better if you like meat. The table next to ours ended up giving us their leftovers as they had ordered too large of a pizza and were headed over to The United Center to catch a Dave Chapelle show. They told us that it was either that or give it to the homeless. After settling our check and on our way out of the restaurant, we had to swim through quite the crowd of people waiting to get a table. One of those waiting saw my Tottenham hat and asked if we were going to continue playing well in tomorrow's match against Luton. Man, I hope so.
Lou Malnati's
The Malnati Chicago Classic personal size
The table next to us gave us their leftovers
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped in at the 7-Eleven at the corner to buy some drinks. Prices were a bit high, but we weren't about to go out and hunt for bargains. I bought an Arizona iced tea with lemon and a liter bottle of water.
Drinks from 7-Eleven
Travelodge Sleepy Bear
Back at my room, I watched some WWE Friday Night SmackDown before taking a shower. Then I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's 5k before calling it a night. I ended up going with the orange OAR shirt.
WWE Friday Night SmackDown!
5k flat runner
Saturday 10/7
While getting ready for the race, I caught some of the Premier League Mornings buildup to the match. It should be an easy win for the Spurs, but the Spurs are pretty notorious for letting those easy ones get away! The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 am, so I met up with my friend in the lobby at about 6:30 am to walk over to the start line over in Grant Park.
Luton v. Spurs
Hotel lobby
Heading to the 5k start
5k start line
I mostly hung out at the back of corral A as my friend was in corral B. As the race was about to start, I moved over to the right side of the corral since late stragglers were still entering the corral from the entrance on the left side. That turned out to be a mistake as the corral would funnel through the starting line arch which had a smaller width.
Corral A
Almost time to run!
I started off the race at a decent pace. I wanted to put in a good effort, but not run all out. The first thing that I noticed was that both of my Achilles tendons were not sore. It has been quite a while since I've last run without soreness during that first mile! I felt like I was moving comfortably at about an 8 min per mile pace, but I couldn't really tell as the high rise buildings were throwing off the GPS tracking for my Garmin watch. Instead of pressing, I continued at the same effort. As I approached the finish line on Wacker Dr, I was pleased to see that I was going to finish in the 24:xx range.
5k finish: 24:23
Click here for my Garmin data.
5k finish
After I got my finisher medal and some post race goodies, I was going to wait for my friend. However, the finish area was a complete zoo. The volunteers in the finish area were swamped so they were starting to get aggressive in pushing the finishers along. I sent a text to my friend and opted to start heading back to my hotel room.
5k finisher medal
Post race goodies
I got back to my room in time to catch the very end of the match. Yikes, it looked like the Spurs were playing a man short due to some bone-headed plays by Bissouma which earned him 2 yellow cards. However, they were able to win and go to the top of table! Can't be doing that against better clubs!
Managed a win with 10 men
I checked my results and saw that my overall pace was 7:51 min per mile. It's been a while since I've been run sub 8 minute paces. Perhaps it's time for me to take off the training wheels and start doing more running workouts versus only walking.
At about 10:30 am, my friend and I met up in the lobby to do a little walking tour and hit a few touristy food spots for lunch. Here's where we went:
- Billy Goat Tavern: I took my friend to the original location on Lower Michigan Ave. This place was famous because of the Billy goat curse on the Chicago Cubs and an old SNL skit that was a parody of this restaurant. I ordered just a double cheeseburger.
- Giordano's: We went to the location at the Prudential Plaza on Randolph St. We arrived at about 11:40 am. This chain pizza restaurant was much larger than the Lou Malnati's that we went to last night. It was still early, so there wasn't a wait for them to seat us. My friend ordered the Chicago Classic personal pizza and I ordered The Special. The only thing different between the 2 was that his was with pepperoni and mine was with sausage. It took about 45 minutes before our pizzas were brought out. We both concluded that between the two, Lou Malnati's had the better pizza.
- McDonald's Global Menu Restaurant: The last spot we went to was here since they served items from their global menu. My friend doesn't do McDonald's, so I was the only one that ate here. Using the mobile app, I ordered their Ebi Filet-o. I was hoping that they would have items from Thailand or places that I've never visited. Still it was nice to be able to get something where I once thought that I was only able to get when I was in Japan!
Chicago River
Trump Hotel & Tower
Billy Goat Tavern
Double Cheeseburger
Chicago Tribune
Giordano's
The Special Deep Dish personal size
James M. Nederlander Theatre
McDonald’s Global Menu Restaurant
Wireless charging
Ebi Filet-o
Washington Street Bridge
After that little food tour, we headed back to our hotel. I might have tuckered my friend out as he wasn't used to all of that walking! That's all I do these days on a daily basis so I was very much used to it.
For dinner, we did our own thing since I had a charity team dinner over at the Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse at the intersection of Dearborn and Kinzie St. Our buffet dinner was located on the 2nd floor. After checking in at the table and getting my name sticker, I found a seat at my assigned table #9. After chatting with some of my tablemates, I got up to get some appetizers. Before joining the food line, I got my picture taken at the OAR banner near the entrance. It was nice to meet new people and my fellow charity runners. As for dinner, we were called up by our table number. While waiting, I got some coffee as I was feeling pretty wiped out.
Marina City Goldberg
Appetizer
Coffee
Buffet dinner
I left as soon as they were done with closing remarks. It was already past 8 pm, my regular bedtime. After getting back to my room, I took a shower and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon. I put on the NLDS game 1 between Arizona and the Dodgers. Yikes, throughout his career, Kershaw has been notoriously ineffective during playoffs, but that was a huge clunker! Can't blame this one entirely on bad pitching as the Dodger bats were non-existent. Can't win a game if you can't score! The Dodgers ended up losing 11-2.
Pretty views at night
Marathon flat runner
NLDS game 1, Arizona vs. Dodgers
Sunday 10/8
I woke up pretty early to get ready. My friend had an evening flight home and the hotel couldn't give him a late checkout, so he stored his luggage in my room. We headed over to The Blackstone at about 6 am. I wanted to take a charity team photo at 6:15 am before heading over to Grant Park for the Marathon Maniac photo by the Buckingham Fountain at 6:30 am.
The Blackstone Hotel with the OAR charity team
6:15 am charity team photo
6:30 am Marathon Maniacs photo
Take 2, Glen was late
The obligatory Buckingham Fountain selfie
After that, we started heading over to our corrals. Along the way, we managed to find a cache of portapotties were the lines were significantly shorter. Once we got that out of the way, we had to get going as my friend was starting in wave 1 and there was quite the crowd of people all trying to make their way into their corrals.
Found shorter portapotty queues
It wasn't too bad for me in corral F since we were starting in wave 2 at 8 am. Since I wasn't planning to run out too fast, I queued myself up at the back of the corral. I waited there for my friend as she was stuck in a much longer portapotty line.
Waiting at the back of the corral
Stacy
Here we go!
I ran with my friend at about a 9:30 min per mile pace. I could tell that she wanted to run a bit faster, so after about the first 5k, I stopped telling her to slow down and let her go. She would end up finishing in about an hour ahead of me! I really don't like being the one slowing someone else down.
Mile 2.4: Wintrust Bank on La Salle St
Mile 3: Marshall Suloway Bridge (Wacker Dr and La Salle Dr)
Mile 12.9: Wells Street Bridge
Mile 12.9: Wells Street Bridge
Halfway at Wacker Dr and Randolph St
Having reached the halfway point in 2:15:12, I was hoping to maintain that same effort. However, I knew that I was already running out of stamina as my current level of fitness only allowed for me to run about 8 miles comfortably. Every now and then, I would pull over to the side and pull out my phone to take a picture of something interesting, anything to distract my mind. Nearing mile 16 on Adams St was the United Center off to the right.
Mile 15: Chasing unicorns next to Skinner Park
Mile 15.2: Charity block party
Mile 21: Cermak Rd and 22nd Pl, oh yeah!
Mile 21.1: Fellow OAR runner, Julie
Mile 21.8: Made it to Chinatown
Mile 24: Next to Illinois College of Optometry with fellow OAR runner, Aurelio
As I was approaching the final right turn onto Roosevelt Rd, the course marshal at that section was diverting everyone over to the right lanes. Well, this one older lady whom I believe was competing in the Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships cut me off which nearly caused me to run into her. We had been running around each other for pretty much the entire race, so maybe she got tired of seeing me! During that final turn, I bumped into a guy carrying the Taiwanese flag. I spoke a little with him in Taiwanese which was nice. I congratulated him on a job well done today before turning on the jets and emptying whatever was left in my legs for that final sprint down to the finish line.
On Roosevelt Rd, approaching the final turn
Finish line
Marathon finish: 4:58:58
Click here for my Garmin data.
My only goal for this race was to finish in under 5 hours which would beat my time (5:09:20) from the only other time that I've run this race back in 2010. It was a much warmer year back then, so I was thankful for the cooler weather conditions this year. Shortly after crossing the finish line, I pulled out my phone to get my usual finish line pic. Apparently as I was putting away my phone, I didn't realize that I had stepped into some vomit. A fellow female finisher next to me pointed it out, but she then said that it was okay since someone had already put vomit absorbent on it. Then I proceeded down the finisher chute and collected my finisher medal. I then got a mylar blanket and some post race goodies and drinks. I then checked my phone to see where my friend was. He wasn't feeling well, so he had gone back to The Blackstone to wait for me.
Finish
Finisher medal
Goose Island Beer
I showed up to The Blackstone Hotel and was given an OAR finisher medal. After finding my friend and setting down my stuff, I went to the restroom to get cleaned up a bit. I came back and grabbed what I thought to be half a hamburger. Instead it was a vegan Portobello mushroom burger. That first bite was a surprise for this big time meat eater! Hey, it wasn't bad! On the way out, I grabbed a bag of Miss Vickie's sea salt potato chips. I need to replenish the salt after a marathon!
OAR finisher medal
Post race goodies
Salty chips are the best after a marathon!
After getting back to the room, we got cleaned up and relaxed a bit. It was sad to see in the news that Hamas had carried out a rather large unprecedented surprise attack within Israel's borders. You just know that the upcoming retribution will be severe. We placed our order for an early dinner at Carson's. I wanted to share a bucket of rib tips, but it turned out that my friend ordered a brisket sandwich. Online ordering was a bit glitchy as we had selected a pick-up time of 4:30 pm, but it kept showing up as 6:30 pm when the order was completed. We gave them a call just to make sure and we were reassured that our food would be ready when we showed up at 4:30 pm. During the walk over, my friend and I saw a pickup truck drive by with people waving the Palestinian flag. The American population these days are not the same as before. I don't think there's currently a clear majority in America that are pro-Israel. The walk over tired out my friend as he wasn't expecting the walk to be that far. It was just west of the Navy Pier. It seemed like the staff here was not all on the same page. Our order had not been started yet and was still showing a pick-up time of 6:30 pm. That's okay, we're flexible. Then when our food was brought out, my friend wanted a beer, so we asked if we could eat our food in the bar area. One employee said yes. Then when I was opening the bucket, another employee rushed over in a panic telling me that I couldn't do that. The bucket of rib tips was only for to-go order. Whatever, just get on the same page with your answers. We packed up and headed out after my friend was done with his beer.
Bucket of rib tips
Along the way back to the hotel, we crossed the street in front of The Congress Plaza Hotel. Shortly after I warned my friend to watch out for a speeding pedicab, the passengers shouted at us. It turned out to be our friends in that cab! What a coincidence! They told us afterwards that they had tipped the guy extra to go fast. He was definitely going fast! Shortly after finishing his sandwich back at the hotel, my friend started heading out for the airport to catch his evening flight home.
Secret elevator button
Monday 10/9
I was packed and left my room at about 9 am. I tried to just drop the room keys at the counter, but the guy at the front desk looked confused and asked me to get in line. I believe he was a newbie that was being trained. That sure made me feel bad since it looked like I was cutting in front of the people that were in line. When it was my turn, it was a different employee that helped me. He obviously knew what he was doing. He took my keys, saw that I had booked with points, and wished me a nice trip home. Next time I'll just leave the keys in the room. From there I walked over to the CTA Adams/Wabash Station to catch an orange line train to Midway Airport.
Took the orange line to MDW from Adams/Wabash
MDW > LAX
When I landed at LAX, I was in a bit of a rush as my gut was kind of rumbling. It wasn't one of those impending explosive diarrhea variety, but I could tell that it was getting there. I guess perhaps I shouldn't have chugged 2 bottles of unrefrigerated chocolate milk before heading to the airport. While on the bus ride over to the Economy Lot, I saw that there were unusually more people out in front of the Tom Bradley International Terminal. I would later see on the news that there were quite a few people from Israel that had fled their country due to the recent terrorist attacks. I waited until I was dropped off at the Economy Lot before using the restroom. I knew that I would be stuck in early evening work traffic, so I had better take care of that before getting on the road! On the way out, the gate didn't automatically open as I had expected. Perhaps it was because I was leaving a day earlier than my actual reservation. Anyhow, I had to pull up my QR code and scan it in order for the arm to raise.
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