Chicago Marathon Recap

You’ve probably been there before. You’re running fast and yet you feel like you’re floating. You try to push faster and you have another gear that you didn’t know you have.  You cross the finish line absolutely stoked with your finishing time, place and result.  Those are the days you train for and dream about and, when they happen, it is such a special moment.
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But there are times where that’s just not how it goes. You have to put in, seemingly, extra effort for every second faster per mile you’re trying to go. The group you’re running with just seems a touch too fast but you hope it’ll smooth out and you’ll start feeling better soon…because it’s the marathon and sometimes it literally takes time to warm up and start feeling good.

The 2022 Bank of America Chicago Marathon was the latter. I had an incredible opportunity to be in the elite field and have a chance to run with some of the best guys in the US. There was a pace group set to run 1:05:00 through halfway and that was going to be the biggest pack of American guys. And good weather was in the forecast. It was a terrific opportunity.

However, the race started and at times the pace felt fast. I was trying to be patient and stick with the tail end of that group, but in those early miles, it felt like it was a harder effort than marathon pace should have felt.

The decision was simple - go with the pack and risk the pace never getting that comfortable, or slow down and run solo for over 20 miles. Never hesitating or questioning during the race, I simply went with the group but tried to conserve as much energy as possible by staying towards the back of that group. My elite fluid bottle was on the 9th of 10 tables. At each fluid station, I would have to slow down as other people in the group grabbed bottles in front of me, which cost me getting 5 seconds behind the field. This was a tactical error I made - I should have pushed towards the front of the group to be out of the way and then I would have had a clear line to my table, rather than having to play catch-up afterwards. These surges off an already borderline fast pace probably put me over the edge…something that’s tough to do in the marathon.

After going through halfway in 1:05:08 (the fastest I’ve gone out in a marathon), the pace of the group picked up and I slightly slowed down. By mile 14-15 I was running alone and still had almost an hour of running ahead of me. This is where I dug into the mental training that I’ve been doing. I focused on running the mile that I was in,  

staying in the moment and not writing the story of
​how the rest of the race was going to unfold.

As I got closer to mile 20, my pace drifted slower and slower and it was physically getting really hard. When you’re in the trenches of trying to “explore your own human potential” (quoting Michael Gervais), sometimes it is simply a tough fight for every inch or every second.

​But, I kept repeating in my mind...
​what a great opportunity to test your character.
Instead of drifting down a line of “stinking thinking,”
​I rephrased it in a positive way. 
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This is truly where your character shows - in times of adversity. With that phrase in my mind and remaining as present as possible, I’m proud I finished as well as I could. I dug deep and kicked as hard as I could to pass someone in the final 200m because even though the result wasn’t impressive I was going to finish knowing that I left every ounce of energy out on the course. 

Photo credit: @dkelleghan

While I’m not writing a blog post about how the result was the best of my career and I finally took down a marathon PR, I am writing about maybe something even more meaningful - finding out who I can be when it gets tough.

Altogether this was the best marathon training cycle in both physical preparation and learning the process of mastery of craft, I feel I truly am exploring the edges of my own potential. While I may have gone over the edge in the first half, I would not change how I executed my race plan given how it played out. In one of Brad Stuhlberg’s Practice of Groundedness principles, it is important to "accept where you are." In Chicago I was not able to negative split and run 2:09 like three guys in that pack, but I’ll keep taking the swings and staying present in the approach to see how fast I can move my body over 26.2 miles.

In Steve Magness’s book “Do Hard Things” he writes about “raising the floor” of your performance and looking at results compared to averages.  Well, I’ve done 4 marathons in the past 10 months and while none of them broke my 2:12:28 PR, they are consolidating my efforts just above that level.  

10/9/2022 - Chicago Marathon - 2:15:50 - 29th Place
5/15/2022 - Denver Colfax Marathon - 2:21:08 - 1st Place, Course Record
3/20/2022 - LA Marathon - 2:15:18, 4th Place, 1st USA
12/4/2021 - California International Marathon - 2:14:10 - 6th Place

Sometimes the consolidation of efforts happens right before a breakthrough…