26.2

miles that is. the chicago marathon was this past weekend. it is the largest marathon in the world with 45,000 runners participating. it is part of the world marathon majors along with boston, new york, london and berlin.

ok, so i knew it was a big deal, but not that big of a deal. my friend from college came to run and 4 other friends came to cheer her on (and shop and tour and eat in chicago... a plus for all). on friday, we made a stop at giordano's for some famous pizza and experienced some chicago nightlife in my neighborhood. saturday they went on a boat tour, shopping, a visit to the art history museum. i had already done that (and low on funds), so i went to the lincoln park zoo to visit my friends... the tigers, monkeys, and deer. for some reason i feel i should stop by and say hello to them every time i go to the zoo (since it's free and close, i go a lot). then i visited the lincoln park formal gardens to take pictures of fall flowers and browsed through the conservatory's palm, fern, and orchid rooms. it was the perfect weather: sunny, breezy, mid-60s - so i decided to keep walking. i passed couture crepe on clark street and since i felt like an afternoon snack and the need for some couture, i stopped in. tomato soup and a designer crepe of strawberries, chocolate sauce, and pistachios: heavenly.

for dinner, i think the other 45,000 runners and their cheerleaders had the same idea: pasta. we did find reservations for a late dinner at club lucky in bucktown, a 1940's style diner with killer food, warm bread, and a great wine selection. it was hopping, but i doubt it was just because of the marathoners carbo-loading; i have a feeling this diner which has been around since the 40's is a hot-spot in bucktown every weekend.

sunday! the morning of the big race. my alarm clock woke me up at 5:45am so i could meet my friends down in grant park at the starting line. what a mass of people! all corralled into chain link fencing; shedding the layers of extra clothing they brought because, hey-it's chicago in october-it'll be cold, right? nope, it got up into the 80's. the race starts with the wheelchaired marathoners, then the elites, then corral A, B, C, the open corrals. all led by pace teams. we waive good-bye and good-luck to our friend and make our way to the 'L' to hop on the north-bound red line to the chicago stop. it is crowded; everyone had the same idea. we did make it to the 3 mile mark on lasalle street. we look and look, scanning the throng of runners for our friend. while we're waiting for her to run by, we cheer for others: go linda! go greg! go team cathy&kelly! go dan!... how do we know? the runners who have done this once or twice before have names on their shirts and arms. and they are grateful, saying thanks for giving a thumbs-up as the run by. we almost miss our friend but she calls our names first and i'm able to snap a picture of her when she's 15 feet past us.


well that was quick. we have at least an hour til our next friend "sighting", so we grab a relaxing breakfast. it's funny to think that as we ate biscuits and drank coffee and talked about potentially getting into running, our friend does a 10k (at least) going up through the northside into old town, lincoln park, and wrigleyville before doubling back towards the river north area and the 11 mile mark. this time i'm ready with my camera on and keeping my eyes open for a salmon colored shirt and light blue shorts. we pass the time cheering again for everyone and i start to see some of the same people i did at the last marker. they are all running a little slower and are a little sweatier than they were before, but still chugging along. then i spot my friend from farther away and am able to capture some action shots. in 5 seconds, she's gone again making her way to the southwest chicago neighborhoods...

on our map of the race, it appears the next easiest place to get to would be the 21 mile mark in chinatown right off the red line. so we head toward the 'L' and um, i think everyone else had that idea. we waited for 2 trains but then finally crammed our way into the next train. like sardines. i was so close to people, it might have been awkward if i dwelled upon the fact. in a few stops we are at chinatown and i can see the throngs of people, a chinese dragon, and drummers from the train platform.

we make our way to wentworth street among hundreds of other cheerleaders. we stake out a spot as close to the course as we can straining to look at the curve where all the runners come into view. we got a text message when our friend crossed a certain point and it gave us her pace time, so we had an estimate of when she would reach us between the 21 and 22 mile mark. a long time passes and we think we may have missed her, but finally we see her across the street eyes fixed ahead of her. so we all yell her name in unison and she turns her head to us with a look of suprise, runs across the street to where we are, and gives us all sweaty hugs and a huge smile. we learned later that she thought she would see us at the 17 mile mark and wasn't expecting us at chinatown. i also found out that there is a "wall" marahoners hit and it's usually around the 20-21 mile mark. so it was great to see her there and give her a boost of support to continue to the finish line.

from chinatown we hop back on the 'L' to the roosevelt stop and the finish line. along the way we stop at the jewel for roses and sam's for liquor. we figured that at the end of a race like that you're incredibly sweaty and tired and probably feel the least like a woman than ever before, so flowers would be the perfect girly thing to receive as a congratulations. and liquor, well, you'll need a drink to ease the pain of tired feet after that day. so we make our way to the finish line, manage to see and cheer for our friend when she's less than a mile to the finish and see her in the finishers' corral looking tired but extremely happy.

we give flowers and liquor and give and receive huge hugs. what do you want to do now? a beer. an ice cold beer. i guess the race coordinators thought everyone would feel that way because there beer tents set up with goose island 312 on tap for runners and cheerleaders in the park.

well i was tired. i mean, i didn't run 26.2 miles, but i did run all over the city fighting crowds and a few hours of sleep. but it was so worth it. if i write it down, i might have to hold myself to it: i think i want to run the chicago marathon in 2009!