Chicago Marathon Weekend- Day 3

Boy, was I sore this morning!  Luckily I think icing my knees the night before helped a little (Thanks for getting the ice Josh!)  After we woke up Leah watched some cartoons while I tried to catch up on reading texts and messages from the day before.  I was so touched by ever one of them but I still wasn’t ready to respond too much.  I was still feeling very physically and emotionally exhausted.  But I do want to express how thankful I am for all of those messages.  I never anticipated so many people thinking of me that day and tracking me in the course and sending so many wonderful messages and texts.  Thank you!  

We went down to breakfast around 8am but I didn’t eat much- hunger hadn’t quite kicked back in yet.  After breakfast we got ready for the day and took a nice walk to Millennium Park.  It was difficult at first but very soon it felt great to loosen up and get moving.  It was so cool to be walking around the city after running through it.  There were many things I saw that I remembered from the day before and it brought back good memories.  What a great race and weekend!  Leah loved the “bean” at Millennium Park and she was putting on shows underneath it.  Several times she shooed me away saying that I needed to get off her stage.  In hindsight I maybe should have put out a hat in front of her to collect money- recoup some of my “expo losses”. Ha!

After the park we went back to the room to pack up.  Leah had been asking ALL weekend to make a wish in the fountain in the lobby so I got change from the front desk and she made her wish: “I wish we could stay in Chicago forever”.  Then we had the car loaded up but left it at the hotel so we could still sightsee and stuff.

We left the hotel and planned to walk to Garrett’s Popcorn and the Nike Store.  When we passed Garrett’s the line was out the door and down the block so we decided to wait until later.  When we got to Nike (just a few stores down) it was a madhouse but I just wanted to look over their stuff to see if they had replenished some sizes they didn’t have at the expo.  We saw that they were engraving medals upstairs so we decided to do it there instead of stopping at a running store on the way home.  But my medal was pack in the suitcase.  In the car.  At the hotel.  Josh had a plan though.  Leah and I would wait in line for popcorn while we walked back and got the medal.  We finished getting the popcorn soon after he arrived back at Nike so we met him back there.  He was already in line for the engraving.  He waited in that line for me for 1 hour and 40 minutes.  What a saint.  While he was in line Leah and I browsed some stores and spent a while in the Disney Store.  After that, we all walked back toward the hotel and had lunch at Portillos.  Josh had a burger and salad and Leah and I had Chicago hot dogs- amazing!  Then we shared a strawberry shortcake.  After lunch we walked back to the hotel and began our drive back home.

Josh drove the whole way so I was able to rest.  As soon as we got in the car and started driving the exhaustion really hit me, so much so that I almost felt nausous.  So I was very thankful that he was driving.  Leah was unusually quiet on the ride home.  I mean, she still talked and sang up a storm but not quite as much as normal.  On the way home we stopped and had a nice Italian dinner.  I had some delicious sweet potato and goat cheese ravioli!  Before we knew it we were home!   Leah was delirious.  When I was getting her out of the car she was awake but a little out of it. 

She asked “where are we?”

So I said “we are home honey.”

And she asked “have I ever seen this place before?”

And I laughed and said, “yes, honey, this is our home, we live here.”

And she asked “have I ever been inside there before?”

(she was done with this trip)

Josh unpacked the car while I put Leah to bed.  Then I took a shower and happily crawled into my own bed.  It had been an absolutely wonderful weekend but I was happy to be home.

A few more thoughts….

CONGRATS to Team ADPi for being the top fundraising team for RMHC!  We rock!  I wish I had been able to stay at the dinner longer to be with all you as you accepted the award!  <>

Race Pictures:

I've realized a few things looking at these pics (if they are really representative of my form)  1. My knees tend to bend inward when I run- good info when buying shoes again. 2. I never thought I did this but it seems like my arms cross in front of my body.  I know this is bad form and I was surprised to see this.  Maybe the pictures were just taken at odd angles.  Either way, I will be aware of that more.  3. I have a very short stride.  This is not a huge surprise, especially on such a long run, but maybe I can work on that.

On taking a 3 year old to a marathon:

Ok, I’ve been battling with this.  I will start by saying that, for us, we would not have done anything differently.  We had a great weekend together as a family and even in hindsight, we would still not have changed anything.  When we made the decision to all go to Chicago for this race, it wasn’t even really a decision, we didn’t seriously consider Leah (or Josh) not going.  This sounds cheesy and cliché but we love each other and we love to spend time together as a family and Josh and I have regular date nights.  So it was automatic that we would all go. 

However, having Leah there did add a level of stress that I probably could have done without.  Even though Josh was a superman Mr. Mom AND incredibly attentive to me and so helpful, I was still AWARE of Leah’s needs, mood, etc, even if I wasn’t the one having to attend to any of it.  It is probably “best” (?) to go to a big race like this and focus just on your own needs.  To perform your best you kinda have to.  BUT I would not have changed anything.  The trade off was that we had a great weekend as a family.  I’ll take it!  (Of course, being fed sugary snacks by your doting father All. WEEKEND. really added a new level to Leah’s normal nuttiness!)

What did I learn?

I learned most about how I react to chaos and noise when I have a lot going on emotionally.  I love to socialize and have fun and listen to music and go to parties.  But, I leaned that I can only handle that if I’m not “feeling” anything extreme (stress, nervousness, overwhelming happiness, etc).  Does that make sense?  Like at the Expo.  It was loud and chaotic and crowded and normally that would be fun but I was feeling so anxious about getting everything done that day and ready for the next day and being everywhere on time.  It was too overwhelming.  After the race was similar.  I was on cloud 9!  But I was SO happy and SO exhausted and it was SO unbelievable that I felt myself really turning inward and being quieter and more introverted than I usually am.  I guess I learned that when I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about something, I like to be alone (or with family) just to allow myself to decompress.  I learned that when I’m feeling stress (even good stress) I just need quiet and calm.  I hope to be able to overcome this next year (I plan to run Chicago again for RMHC next year.)  I really wanted to be able to socialize more with our new ADPi/RMHC friends!

What’s next?

I know they say not to make any big decisions about running immediately after a race but I felt great!  I loved it!  And I knew that I would for sure run Chicago again.  Many of us also said that we would try to only run future marathons as a part of a charity team (preferably RMHC).  It really just heightened the whole experience, from training to post-race.  Not only are you running for a larger reason but you also have the emotional support of a whole team of runner as well as all of the race day hospitality and guidance and support.  I would certainly have been like a little lost lamb that morning if I hadn’t had someone telling us what to do where to do and when to do it.  Of course, I am running the Disney Marathon in January and I’m not on a charity team but that race is so fun and festive!  Bring it on!