Marathon Man

First off, let me start this post by stating that my fiance is a rock star. He is a freaking rock star.
He ran the Chicago Marathon last weekend and finished in great time, considering the heat, humidity, water stations running out of water, incompetence on the organizers behalf and the over 200 people collapsing due to heat exhaustion. You can read Sean's point of view of the marathon here. Here is my take on it.

Let me set the scene: it was approximately 88 F with 60-70% humidity. You walked outside and it felt like Miami. We're staying with our friends Joni and Mike in their fabulous apartment in the city. (which, FYI, is in the same neighborhood that my grandpa grew up in - they live across the street from his high school - but I digress...). So, we wake up at 5:30am, hop on the El and head to Grant Park. At that time in the morning the El was filled with runners and their cheering squads. We say our good-byes and good lucks to Sean in Grant Park. At this point in the morning (7:00 am-ish) I'm already starting to notice how sticky I'm feeling and wishing I had an ice cold water to drink.

We took the El up to mile 7 (Wrigleyville or Lake View, depending on who you talk to) where Ericka and Pepe meet us to cheer Sean on. Luckily, Sean told us that he'd be running on the right hand side of the road, so we were able to grab a spot on the same side in the hopes of increasing our chances of seeing him.

We saw the first group of runners come by at 8:30 am. The race started at 8:00 am which mean that these guys were running 4:28 minute miles. Those guys are animals - very sedate, relaxed animals, given how effortlessly they ran by us. They reminded me of gazelles - quite the contrast to the wave of runners 30 minutes behind them who were huffing, puffing, moaning, groaning and limping their way by us.

I didn't realize how exciting watching a marathon can be - it's a bit exhilarating. When I finally spotted Sean I was SO excited to see him run by. In my excitement of jumping and yelling his name to get his attention I completely forgot to take his photo. It was thrilling to see him run by. At that point I couldn't wait to head to the next spot on the route to see him, again.

The next stop was mile 21 in Chinatown, where we met up with my mom, my dad, my sister Sarah and her friend Beth. It seems apropro that we met my family in Chinatown. Every trip to the homeland (Chicago) involves at least one trek to Chinatown for dim sum. And my parents were wonderful enough to have leftovers in hand when they met up with us...

... mmm.... barbeque pork bun. Aside from seeing Sean in the race, this is the most memorable moment of that day.

At this point, Mike ran up ahead of us (or behind us??) to hop in the race and run with Sean and lead him to the side of the street that we were standing on (the left side). I got a little nervous when I didn't see Sean in the 3:50 group (his goal was to finish in 3hrs 50 mins). But, he showed up and it was fantastic! He looked exhausted and worn down, but he was still running.

After that, my parents, Pepe and I headed down to Grant Park, to meet up with Sean and Mike. (Mike kept hopping into and out of the race with Sean. Huge thanks go out to Mike for lending Sean moral support and keeping him going.)

This is Sean after the marathon.

Sean and Mike (who ran the two previous Chicago marathons).

And lest I forget about the wonderful food in Chicago. We ate at a great restaurant Saturday night in Lincoln Park where Pepe and Ericka met up with us. I had great pasta with lobster and spinach and a creamy garlic sauce. And the gellato was very tasty, too.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I want to thank everyone who came out to support Sean during the run and even bigger thanks to Mike and Joni who let us invade their space for the weekend. It was great seeing everyone and made me miss home (because it will always be home no matter how long I've lived in CA) just a little bit more.