It's Wednesday. I'm back in the office sipping on a fresh cup of coffee pondering the happenings of this past weekend. On Sunday I ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon along with around 31,000 other crazies. It was fun to say the least.
First, you should know that this is not a story about how grueling the run was or how I qualified for Boston or how I ran in the same race as Lance Armstrong. Yes, the race was long - just as long as any other marathon. Yes, it was hot, but no hotter than a morning run in the middle of summer where I'm from. And no, I didn't qualify for Boston. I'm not that fast and there were way too many people in my way to even try.
So what is this about? It's about sharing the adventure. The way I ended up in Chicago went like this...
I got the itch to do another marathon. The agony of the last one had worn off. Also, I have a bunch of really close friends strewn across the country. We're dudes, so we don't talk on the phone much, though we do email to the group all the time. We all have busy lives and families and whatnot, so we don't get together very often. So I proposed to the group that we all run a marathon together. They were surprisingly receptive. We threw around ideas and landed on Chicago. We dubbed it the Dude's Chicagothon. Everybody chose their training plan and got to work. Oh, and most had never run more than 3 miles in their lives.
The shenanigans ensued. We ate great food. My wife was the only female in the group, so there was much eye-rolling. We toured the city in a double-decker bus. There were many "your mom" jokes and talk of our 30-something lives - marriage, kids, jobs, economic policy - certainly different conversations than we had in high school or college.
We started with 7 committed runners. The final count ended up as 4 with one extra that came on the trip even though he had no intention of running the race. All 4 that started finished some in more pain than others. Everyone was the thinnest and fittest they've been in 10 years. All were talking about the next race as soon as they crossed the finish line.
All in all the Dude's Chicagothon was a great success! If you get the chance, I highly recommend you organize your own Chicagothon. Get the friends together. Get a training program. Eat some good pasta. Share the experience with the ones you love.
Pictures to be posted very soon. Check back.