I finished my first marathon yesterday morning . . . or afternoon. It's been a great experience. The first thing that crossed my mind as I finished was "I want to do this again!" And then I thought about food. And a chair.
Anyway, here is my race report:

START: Having never been a part of an event with 40,000+ people, I didn't know what to expect. We walked about 2 miles from where we were staying to the start. There were a handfull of marathoners on the sidewalks at 6:30 AM. At each block we were joined by more and more athletes until we became a sea of people flooding into Millenium Park. I was able to quickly find my pace group (4:30--ha! in my dreams) and Chad went up farther to the front to start with the 3:30's. We were packed shoulder to shoulder, which was good because we kept one another warm--it was windy and 35 degrees. We had to stand another 45minutes before they sang the National Anthem and blew the start horn. Then we waited 10 more minutes before our group even began walking towards the start line. I FINALLY got there 17 minutes after the horn blew.

THE FIRST THIRTEEN MILES: . . . went really quickly. I lost my pace group immediately. There were so many runners that I was getting elbowed, nudged, cut off or having to zig-zag around them--it was chaotic but exciting. The crowds were great and the runner's enthusiastic. There was a gospel choir singing and local cheerleading squads were out giving us motivation.

MILE 14 to MILE 21: This was a long haul. I started to feel some aches and pains. At mile fifteen I had a horrible side-stitch and was forced to walk for awhile. When it didn't get better I figured I better start jogging because 11 miles is a dang long way to walk. Eventually the pain subsided. There was a great band playing the Rolling Stones on mile 17--that got me going for a little longer. I just kept telling myself that I only needed to make it to the next water station (they were at about every 2 miles). I thought about DH who had probably already finished and was getting his massage, Pooper at home snuzzling with grandma and grandpa, and if I keep going I can eat cheesecake sooner rather than later.

MILE 21 to 26: DH. Food. Bed. DH. Food. Bed. --that was my mantra, those things were on the other side of the finish line. My feet hurt. I could feel every crack and bump in the road. And why weren't the water stations serving hot chocolate? It was getting colder and windier. I just wanted to walk so badly, and I did for about a 1/2 mile. Strangely, that hurt worse than just jogging--until I started jogging again, that hurt pretty bad too. And then we turned a corner to go up a big hill. It was a funny thing, that should have killed me but my endorphins must have been in overdrive as I actually picked up the pace. Only 400 meters to go . . .

26 to 26.2: At the top of the hill we turned left to go down a slight decline to the finish. There was stadium seating on both sides of the road and the crowds were going wild--even for us slow-pokes. It was so exciting that I had to sprint the last quarter mile. I finished strong and was so proud of myself. It was a great run.

TIME: 4:58
Average mile: 11 minutes

DH's Time: 3:29
Average mile: 7:59 minutes

Thanks for your support everyone,
LW