It’s only taken me almost two months to write this recap and ironically I’m gearing up to train for my next races! I’ve been planning to write this recap for a while, but also wanted a good amount of time to process it all. I still can’t believe that I ran a sub 3:45 marathon at 9 months postpartum. It feels absolutely crazy to me, but when I ran it and finished it felt absolutely given. My race mentality was so strong and there was never a doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t attain my race goal/hit my race plan. My coaches (I joined the Chicago Marathon training group through Lift Run Perform) put together an amazing training program and I never felt like I was burnt-out leading into the race (and even during- which has happened often in previous training cycles).

I chose this race because it seemed easy to drive to with the littles (5ish hours), a hotel was within walking distance to both the finish/expo/start line buses, and it seemed like a well-executed race (spoiler: it’s my favorite race I’ve done thus far). We stayed at the Hilton, which was about a 1/2 mile from the finish and 1/4 mile from the race expo- which we walked to both. We also used my Hilton points, so ended up with a free nights stay!

The expo was at the Glass Museum which was so cool! It was smaller than I thought it would be, but the race swag that was included with our entry fee was amazing (a wine glass, champagne, & a 1/4 zip which is great quality).

We sadly didn’t do the tour of the museum (next year!), but we did wander around the gift shop and pick up some gifts for family. We also should have booked a suite at the hotel, but it was actually really relaxing because we got in so much nap time (thanks to the babies nap schedule). We got to the hotel on Friday night (I also started my 3-day carb load the day before- using Featherstone Nutrition’s carb load guide) and I packed most of the food I ate leading up to the race. Which happened to include lots of homemade pretzels!

The babies did so good on the drive there - we stopped around 3 hours to swap drivers and offer them bottles/diaper changes. They weren’t very interested in eating (too much excitement!), but they also lost interest in the drive around the 4 hour mark. We did room-service that night for dinner just to make things easy and we’re all in bed by 8:30pm!

Saturday was pretty uneventful- I did a short shakeout run around downtown that morning while the babies napped and then we walked over to the expo. My shakeout run was also the slowest pace I’ve ever done before a goal race! It was around 10:30 pace. We walked over to Wegman’s that afternoon to pick up a few groceries (it was right across the street which was convenient!) and a lot of Gatorade was consumed. We went to the pasta dinner and listened to Deena Kastor and Bart Yasso speak (they both didn’t speak much- which I was super disappointed about) and were in bed by 8:30pm.

I slept the best I’ve ever slept the night before a race! I think I got something like 9 hours of sleep. I really wasn’t nervous for this race because I was so confident in my training and race plan. I think this mindset helped me so much. I woke up around 5:45, pumped, and got ready for the race. I left the hotel around 6:30 and walked/short jogged to the start line buses (less than a mile away). There were so many amazing volunteers and runners around that I never felt alone going to the race!

Once I got to the start line, I did some dynamic stretches, used the bathroom, tried to do some self-release of the boobs (no luck- it’s pretty hard to do in a portapotty when you can literally hear people vomiting in the portapotties next to you… sorry if that’s TMI!). It was super windy at the start, so I hung on to my warmup clothes until 10 minutes before the final drop bags could be collected. Once I dropped my bag, I was able to find space in the warmed tent that they had at the start (so nice!) and just kept repeating my race plan in my head. My plan was: 8:45s through 10k, 8:35 through the half, 8:32-8:40 through 20 miles, 8:25-8:30 last 10k. Here’s what my race splits looked like:

Once I lined-up, I remember thinking how grateful I was to have 4 hours (by myself!) to just run ( LOL motherhood certainly brings about weird perspectives!). I also had the cheer tracker that the race offered, which turned out to be awesome. I highly recommend. It came across with each mile marker with my split and my expected finish time (which was really exciting to hear the ETA continue to decrease through the race). The weather was perfect- 50s and overcast. I kept my mittens (I threw those around halfway) and my buff as an ear warmer on for a good part of the race. I also took a Maurten gel (non-caffeinated since I was still breastfeeding) every 40 minutes and mentally- took the race one mile at a time. I also had scratch in my water bottle and took water at almost every aid station.

The race course and support was awesome. The water station volunteers were so supportive and the course only had a few sections where there weren’t any spectators. I ran with a few people and hung with them for a few miles, which was so fun (I hung with one runner for about 5 miles and she really helped me during a tough stretch around mile 18)! I kept staying positive- even when it felt hard and never strayed from my race plan (mentally). I remember hitting mile 24ish and wow - did I start to get emotional! I thought of my Dad a lot and of the babies and of every hurdle I had to overcome to get to where I was right then. I thought of all the support I got from Alex, my Mom, my in-laws, and friends. I thought of all the PTSD that my birth experience was overshadowed by. I thought about the babies and their families that I cared for in the NICU. And I thought about all those training runs that sucked, that didn’t go as-planned, that went surprisingly well, and those that had to be skipped. I drew strength from all of these thoughts and honestly they carried me until mile 25.5ish. This is where I passed by our hotel, crossed over the bridge, and headed onto Main Street (where I knew Alex and the girls would be!). I honestly didn’t think I could run any faster at this point, but somehow found another gear. I ended up running a sub 7:00 minute pace for the last 0.2 to cross the finish line!

I crossed the finish line both in shock that I actually did it and not surprised at all because I knew I could do it. I believed in myself so strongly that I had no doubt that I could execute this race well. The finish line feeling was so exciting and I still get chills thinking of it. The race medal (all glass!) is also so beautiful.

Seeing the babies afterwards was just… everything. I wanted to show them that you can be a mom, go through a completely difficult year, and still keep chasing your dreams. Just because I added a new title to my name doesn’t mean I have to let-go of those other titles and goals. I’m already looking forward to Wineglass 2023 😏