2012 Chicago Marathon Weekend

Wow!!  What an experience!  I still can't believe I am now a Marathoner!


Thank you to my team.  They started to refer to themselves as Team Sue--love that!  I am a lucky girl to have such great friends and family!



Thank you to all my generous supporters!!!  Together we raised almost $7,000.  And, I had the privilege to be the 5th largest fundraiser out of a team of 458 runners/fundraisers in the RMHC team.  The RMHC team raised over $600,000 and beat their goal. 


The Marathon weekend started with a trip to the expo to pick up my gear, check out the booths and get EXCITED for the race.  One of our first stops was the RMHC booth (of course).  Charles and team were manning the booth and provided signs for the race and last minute words of encouragement to all the runners.

With Charles and Jan at Expo

At the RMHC dinner, Jan spoke to the crowd of over 300 and asked everyone to find a running buddy/new team member for next year.  This way the team would double in size and we would raise over $1 million. Leave it to Jan to inspire the team and set a lofty goal!!!

With Jan and Bree pigging out on brushetta, pasta, salmon and delicious desserts.  Luckily I would be burning off lots of calories the next day.

Slept well (thanks to the modern miracle of Ambien) and set alarm for 4:30 am.  Cynthia, my Half Marathon inspiration and running partner, was meeting me in the lobby at 5:15am.  We had to walk almost a mile to the Charity Village pre-race breakfast.  (I actually did a total of about 29 miles that day)


Low 30's at start time.  I'll take that over 70s and 80s anyday!  Click below to watch a pre-race video.

The crowd was out in full force despite the cool temps and everyone was cheering, drinking Bloody Mary's and playing motivating music.   First 15 miles or so...feeling pretty good...

At Mile 15--ditched my jacket--a decision I will regret later!

Miles 16-20 were getting difficult but the last 6.2 is really a killer!  I was cold, exhausted and wanted to get back to the warmth, food, drinks and fun at the After Party.



I didn't take one photo during the race...but at Mile 25 I was really feeling some pain!  Every step hurt my heels.  I had to stop and take a photo of the damn 25 mile marker.  I was feeling...Are you kidding!  I signed up to run 26.2 miles...who is the idiot who signed me up for this. :)

I am proud to say, I only walked thru the water stops.  I ran until the end...a very slow run the last 6.2 miles... but I was still running. 


Crossed the finish line at 5:28:03.  Yes, I know the exact time and will always remember it.  Not as fast as I wanted but I am still proud I finished and beat almost 7,000 runners.  Not that I am competitive :)

With my dear friend Cynthia crossing finish line.  I am a MARATHONER!!

Seconds after finishing.  I was freezing and exhausted but HAPPY!

The joke I've been making recently...I liked the training, I loved the fundraising, the team spirit and camaraderie was awesome, the pre-race RMHC dinner was a blast, the post race party was unbelievable.... It's the 26.2 mile running part I can do without! :)

Team Sue (Shar, Mark, Doug, Jan and Bree-Danielle not pictured)

My FAVORITE photo.  With Bree at finish.  Still wearing my Bank Of America warming wrap :)

On Sunday night when I could barely walk I swore I would NEVER run a Marathon again.  But when I woke up Monday morning and was feeling a little better I decided...WTF...I will run again next year.  A couple of reasons for my decision... I felt better...it was a great experience...I need to improve my time...and most importantly...I want to run with my dear friend Jan.  She was injured this year and could not run.  Although it was difficult for her to attend all the events, she was there cheering on the team. 



I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey as much as I enjoyed writing about it.  My mission was to fundraise for RMHC and provide some inspiration and a few smiles.  If I made you laugh a few times and inspired you even just a little...I will feel my mission was accomplished.



As my final thought, which has kind of become the motto of this blog...

If I can do it, you can do it, Whatever your IT may be!  What are you waiting for???  GO FOR IT!



I don't like goodbyes (which is probably the reason it took me a week to finish this last post), so I will borrow from Tigger and say TTFN (ta ta for now)

Your friend,

Newbie

Why I am still signing my blog with Newbie????  Because I will always be a Newbie at something. As long as I push myself to keep growing, I plan to be forever a Newbie.   That is my wish for you too!