Chicago Marathon Update - Tracking Information

The marathon is only 2 days away (Sunday 10/10/10).  I arrived in this afternoon in Chicago and drove up to Kenosha to stay with my mom (where I grew up).  I had dinner with my friend TM, which was great. 

I tapered this week, only running 3 days - Tuesday (3 miles), Wednesday (4 miles), and Thursday (2 miles).  I decided to take today and tomorrow off to rest.   All week, I felt sore during my taper, which is normal as my body was repairing the damage done from 16 weeks of marathon training.  The soreness shows that my body is healing, that my muscles are repairing themselves.  On top of that, I have been "carb loading" all week, so I feel heavy and slow.  Overall, I feel ready ready to go.  My right knee is a little sore, but I don't think it will slow me down.  I caught a cold earlier in the week (and had some wheezing in my lungs) plus I had a mild Crohn's flare-up this week, but I feel good now.   

The forecast for the start of the race (7:30 A.M. Central Time) is for it to be sunny and around 60-63 degrees, with the high going up to the low 80s.  Hopefully it will stay in the 60s and low 70s while I run and humidity will stay low.  Ideally, I was hoping for temps in the 50s.

Chicago Marathon 2010 Tracker

If you would like to track me during the marathon, you can do so at:

http://www.textinterface.com/pls/text/TF_BACM_DT

Just type in Balcom or my bib number (8779) and you can sign up to get text messages that will be texted to you during my race at various points (and this will also include my average pace per mile).  I haven't figured out how one can sign up for email updates or how one can follow me on the computer. If anybody figures that out, let me know.

Something that made me laugh...

On my way to Chicago I read something in the USA Today that made me laugh out loud.  I am a big Chicago Bulls fan and was a huge Michael Jordan fan.  The article is called "Be Like Mike in NBA 2K11".  The article asks "How would Michael Jordan have fared had he played in the NBA in the era of no hand checking and zone defense?"  "It would have been feast or famine" said Jordan.  "The current game is less physical and the rules have changed, obviously.  Based on these rules, if I had to play with my style of play, I'm pretty sure I would have fouled out, or I would have been at the free-throw line pretty often and I could have scored 100 points".

Cool Asics New York Marathon Ads

The other day, I saw a couple of cool posters in the subway.  Asics ads for the upcoming New York City Marathon.  I have included them below.  I think it is very cool that the woman in the picture is wearing headphones while running.  Most refreshing, as I love listening to music when I run.  Let the debating begin....




Look closely to see her headphones on....



Week 16 Chicago Marathon Training plus a Rabies Advisory in Central Park?

Rabies Advisory in Central Park? 

Central Park is my favorite place in the world. What other large city has a hilly, 6 mile race track in the middle their city? Sometimes when I run in Central Park, I see a raccoon, skunk, or other little critter. Once earlier this year I saw a raccoon so big that I at first thought it was a little dog. I froze in my tracks... it froze...my heart starting beating super fast....I suspect the same for the raccoon....then it thought about what to do.....I was still frozen....and then it scampered into the North Woods of the park. Today as we were walking around Central Park, we saw the rabies advisory sign above. I did some searching online and found a bunch of articles saying that 3 rabid raccoons were found in Central Park in 2009 and that 20 animals tested positive for rabies throughout New York City .  What I find peculiar about this is that this is the first I've heard of it.  Maybe I live under a rock?  My kids, 4 and 2, go to a school on Central Park West and go to Central Park to play everyday (definitely lucky kids).  I am in Central Park almost every day and I go with my family to Central Park every weekend. Despite all of this, today was the first day I saw one of these signs or heard of a rabies advisory, nearly 10 months after the rabies alert came out.  I guess it took them a while to get the word out, because surely I would have seen those signs somewhere or heard about it somehow.  I really would have panicked had I known that the big dog-like raccoon I was near might have been rabid.


Now for my Chicago Marathon Week 16 Summary
I just finished week 16 of my Chicago Marathon training.  Only 1 week until the race (10/10/10).  I'm in heavy taper mode this week.  I'm running 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and 3 on Thursday.  Then I will take off Friday (travel day to Chicago) and Saturday.  Hopefully I'll be fresh for race day.  The forecast looks dry, with a temperatures projected to be in the low 70s.  Uh oh.  The low the night before is projected to be in the mid 50s, so hopefully with a 7:30 A.M. race start time, so hopefully it will be cool at the start.  Of course we all know that weather projections a week out are worthless, but all marathon runners look at repeatedly to get the latest updates.

I had a good week of training for week 16.  I ran 5 times, 27 miles (5.2, 6, 5, 3, and 8 miles).  I feel good, although my right knee/IT band started hurting yesterday and I caught a cold on Friday too.  My 3rd marathon taper and my third cold during the marathon taper.  Oh well.  I also got my New York Road Runners volunteer event done this week by volunteering for the 1.7 mile Norway Run (my friend JS came in second overall with a 5:01 per mile pace - he is awesome!) and the 13.1 mile Grete's Gallop half marathon.  Since I have run 9 races and volunteered for 1 race in 2010, I now have automatic entry into the 2011 New York City Marathon.  Totally sweet!!!!!!!!

Over the last week, I listened to my body and ran easy, letting my body dictate my speed.  What's funny is that all of my easy runs have gotten much faster over the last few weeks.  3 of my 5 runs were done at a sub 8 minute pace (5.2 miles at 7:58 pace, 6.04 miles at 7:49 pace, and 8 miles at a 7:42 pace).  My other 2 runs were 5 miles at an 8:25 per mile pace (in Washington DC, where I stopped to take a lot of pictures) with a moving average of 8:02 per mile and a very easy 3 miles at 8:39 pace.  No question that my fitness level is at its peak right now. 

For my 8 mile run today, I went out very easy because I was feeling crappy because of my cold.  A half mile into my run in Central Park I looked down at my watch and it showed a pace in the low 8s.  It felt very easy to me, so I held the pace.  After I was warmed up (usually takes 3-5 miles), I felt even better and started to push a little.  I still felt great, so I pushed miles 3 and 4, took the pedal off for miles 5 and 6, still felt great, so I pushed miles 7 and 8, finishing mile 8 at a 6:37 per mile pace.  A great and confidence building final run before tapering.  My splits in order were (click here for the Garmin File)

mile 1 - 8:11
mile 2 - 8:00
mile 3 - 7:44
mile 4 - 7:22
mile 5 - 8:08
mile 6 - 8:00
mile 7 - 7:32
mile 8 - 6:37

Overall - 7:42 per mile

I'm excited to go home for the weekend.  I arrive in Chicago on Friday, will go to Kenosha on Friday to stay with my mom Friday night (which I'm really looking forward to), then will go to my friend RL's house in Highland Park on Saturday.  We will go to the marathon expo on Saturday, I will stay at his house Saturday night, then we will drive to the race Sunday morning (one of RL's friends is also running the marathon and will come with us).  I will come back to NYC on Sunday night.

Recently, a guy that I met doing my first triathlon sent me some pictures from the event, and here is the one of me that I liked...