Road to Chicago Pt. 2

Legend has it that the first Marathon was ran by a soldier named Pheidippides. Pheidippides ran from a battlefield near the town of Marathon, Greece to the City of Athens,

Greece around 490 B.C. which was approximately 26.2 miles. He was acting as a messenger to announce the defeat of the Persians. When he reached Athens to deliver the message, Pheidippides said "Joy, We win!" and died. The man ran the distance of what now has dubbed the name marathon, and he bit the dust. What on earth makes someone else want to try and recreate this successfully. I am not quite sure, but the bug bit me and I wanted to make it happen.

The morning I saw my friend from the Men's Hike, Will, we began to run together frequently, steadily increasing our mileage. Will had the hopes of completing a marathon too, so his brother n law, Nick who is an avid runner and our guru began planning. Nick pinned a race for the end of the year in December 2018, the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama.

I had ran my first race with some distance, but I still did not know much about running. Do not get me wrong running is simple, but when you start pushing yourself over ten miles, taking care of your body becomes a priority and I did not know this. In fact, I was completely naive to the possibility getting injured by running. Will found us a plan to follow and we followed it to the "T" not missing a run. We had an accountability system in place and it was effective. As the African proverb states, "Faster alone, Further Together".

We ran through the summer into the fall, competing in 5k's or 10k's along the way, reaching new milestones each week with the increasing mileage. During the year I read numerous books on running, trying to gather as much information as I could. Books like Born to Run and Ultra Marathon Man provided me with inspiration and some knowledge, but I also began watching YouTubers like Seth James Demoore and Kofuzi. Kofuzi lives in Chicago and films cinematic footage of Lake Michigan, the river-walk, and The Bean. I became very fascinated with the city, even when the Cubs won the World Series '16, I started to develop a passion for the city, so after the 2018 Chicago Marathon took place, I found when the registration was going to take place for the 2019 marathon and set an alarm for the exact moment it opened. I was at the elementary school I taught P.E. at and had a class at the time but I made it happen. I registered for the Chicago Marathon before I even ran my first. At the time my wife and I taught at the same school, and I went down the hall and told her, I said "look, I registered for the Chicago Marathon and on December 9th, I will find out if I'm in or not, but it will automatically withdraw $250 from our bank account if I get accepted." We have three children and this is Christmas time so I had to squirrel away some funds. I did not tell anyone else except for my wife that I registered. I think sometimes it is important to keep the biggest goals close to home.

Will and I continued to train. I remember our 20 miler which is the litmus test for all marathoners. Being this was our first marathon, this was the first time I ran 20 miles and it was also the first time I felt nauseous running. At Eighteen miles, I felt invincible but twenty got me, but it did teach me what "the wall" felt like. The Rocket City Marathon was on December 8th, 2018, Will and I rode up the night before and went to the space station and banquet dinner. The speaker was the actual guy from the movie "Black Hawk Down" and he said on his first marathon his goal was to beat Oprah. Oprah ran one in 4.5 hours, so of course we had to do it too. I could not let Oprah show me up. Race day conditions the next day were not in our favor. Cold front moved through and rain. The rain decided to stick around until the end. Temps hovered around 40 degrees with a steady drizzle. Will and I were decked out in

ponchos for the majority of the race. The race finished in an arena. My time was 4:56:25, far from Oprah's time but we were ecstatic about our accomplishment. The whole year was built on accountability and commitment. Finishing in the bottom of an arena must have been quality entertainment for spectators and volunteers, because walking up the stairs was extremely painful and difficult. About mile 10 in the race, I began to notice a sharp pain in my right knee. It was so sharp that after the race I could barely walk back to the hotel.

The next day after our return from Huntsville, I had an email from the Bank of America Chicago Marathon along with a $250.00 charge from my bank account. I was accepted so I felt it was time to go for a jog and loosen up my body from the beat down it took in Huntsville. I tried to run but I physically could not. Every time I broke in to a stride I was halted by a brutal pain in my knee. Here I was with one of my dreams in reach, but I couldn't do the thing I had to do to make it a reality.