The Chicago Marathon

These pictures above bring back SO many memories of what Dan and I did exactly a year ago today.  Yesterday we got up and I spent most of my morning watching coverage of the marathon- reminiscing about what mile we would have been at when the first place runner was at mile 25 (definitely no where NEAR him obviously), and of course what I remember are all the good memories- how the whole city came together for the race.

After watching just 5 minutes of the coverage I looked over at Dan and said "I wish we would have ran it again this year."

Now, I say that FULLY aware that I have been steadily running 3 miles all summer ... pushing 4.5 on my "long runs," so I say that without having all the hard training behind me.  But there is something about watching the coverage of the Chicago Marathon that makes it almost look glamorous.. and almost .. dare I say it.. easy.  I mean, come on, you can't tell me that when you see that 40,000 people ran it you aren't thinking: psshh, if they can do that, I definitely can do it.  The people, the city, the pure joy and accomplishment on the runners faces as they cross the finish line, I felt like I should be there.

I know very well that I am not remembering the 20 mile training run, the  HEAT (oh the heat), the blisters, the pain, the soreness, all the Saturdays we woke up at 6am to try to get in our long runs before the heat came, how long it took us to get out of the city after the marathon, etc.  It wasn't hard for those memories to come back, either :)

All that reminiscing inspired me.  So, yesterday I put on my marathon shirt, intent on going on a long run.  Not just 3 miles, or 4, but maybe 5!  I know, things were getting a little out of control.  But, to my dismay, at 3.5 miles I realized I wasn't going to make it much further.  I've got a long way to go to get back in shape.  But, who knows, maybe we'll run another one at some point.  No promises about next year.  But, maybe sometime :)