Yes, I know, I owe everyone an update on the Chicago Marathon - and that is coming post haste - but I could not let this momentous occasion pass without bringing it to everyone's attention!

I GOT MY FIRST MEAN COMMENT!

Not horribly mean, not vicious, but ... mean:

"Hey ummmm, not to be indelicate here, but...you are an attorney? Isn't that eight years of school? Your blog reads like a teenage myspace page. LOL. I have visions of you blowing bubble gum and playing with your hair. LOL. I REALLY do not mean to sound insulting, please don't get me wrong. I just thought attorneys had important work to do. You know, sixteen hour days, briefcases, powersuits, ambition, etc etc. I can't imagine any of those lawyers from 'Law and Order' would have time to maintain a blog. I know it's TV and all. Still, I had this sense that lawyers were higher than 'common' folk. LOL."

First of all, this person is obviously not familiar with my blog (yes, I use the term "blog" loosely, LOL) because she says:  I have visions of you blowing bubble gum... Ummm, hello?  I am addicted to bubble gum.  Hardly a day goes by that I DON'T chew bubble gum.  So you must be, like, psychic.  Ohmigod. (By the way, is this language myspace-ish enough?)

Yes, I am an attorney, and no that is not eight years of school; law school is only three years (although in my case, I did a joint JD/MBA program, so I did complete four years of graduate school after college, which does equal "eight years of school," although I don't think you can just limit the definition of "school" to college and graduate school, so let's throw elementary and high school in there, as well, so that would be a total of TWENTY YEARS OF SCHOOL).  That's a lotta student loans, my friend. 

And in response to this:  I just thought attorneys had important work to do. You know, sixteen hour days, briefcases, powersuits, ambition, etc etc. I can't imagine any of those lawyers from 'Law and Order' would have time to maintain a blog. I know it's TV and all. Still, I had this sense that lawyers were higher than 'common' folk. LOL.  Let me just say this:

I blog for the little people.

ROFL!!

Oh, I almost forgot this:  Your blog reads like a teenage myspace page.  So, I'm hip?  At my age, this is a compliment!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, enough fun and games ... the marathon.  Well, it was "ok".  I know, I know, it was Chicago, and yes, there were lots of runners and lots of spectators and it was a big event.  The race certainly delivered on its promises - but the outcome wasn't what I'd totally hoped for.

I finished in 4:52:31.  I expected to finish somewhere around 4:45.  I would have loved to have finished in 4:30 or under (my A/dream goal).  I guess it's frustrating because my 5K PR is 24:41 and I ran a recent 5K in 24:57.  I've run 4 half marathons, with the fastest being 1:59:49 and the slowest being 2:08:xx - so I *know* I am capable of running a full marathon in 4:30.  But I was soooooooo conservative, which actually was fine, because I was feeling good and did start to pick up the pace, but right as I did, I got this horrible foot pain/burning (which I have later determined to be something called "metatarsalgia"), which meant that not only could I not speed up, but I had to slow down somewhat.

Anyway, here's the post I made on dailymile.com:

My time was slower than I would have liked, but between a port-a-potty stop that lasted 5 minutes because of the line (I will *never* do that again), and a burning foot starting at Mile 23/24, I ended up slower than I would have liked.

I did run the race well in terms of my pacing (I had a slight negative split) and my race strategy . The only problem was that, I was feeling good around Mile 21 and had anticipated slowly and steadily picking up the pace, but around Mile 23 the bottom of my left foot started burning like it was on fire. I don't ever get blisters (and, in fact, this turned out not to be an actual blister, but it felt like a huge blister) ... so I found myself slowing down.

My splits:

10:06
10:06
12:37 (this was like, WTF? I don't know what happened)
10:19
10:30
10:36
10:38
10:22
10:40
15:20 (port-a-potty)
10:52
10:31
10:49
9:59
10:42
10:43
10:39
10:37
11:19
10:14
10:40
10:36
11:27
10:48
11:46
10:51
That only goes up to Mile 26. My Garmin says I ran 26.77 miles, and that's b/c of the slight detour to the port-a-potties.

All in all, not the worst not the best. I am planning to run a half marathon in December and hope I can get my running revenge on that course and hopefully break my PR of 1:59:49.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I am gearing up for White Rock, trying to incorporate some speedwork into my training, and hopefully I can beat my current PR for the half!