Chicago Marathon 2024
Chicago Marathon
October 13, 2024
Chicago Marathon Expo. Saturday Oct. 12, 2024
Two weeks before the Chicago Marathon, I was in Berlin running the Berlin Marathon. This would be the first time that I ran a marathon and then two weeks later would run another. But then…two weeks after that, my plan was to run the Dublin Marathon in Ireland.
As I went through the usual excitement of all of these marathon rituals I was also feeling an additional nervousness because I had just run a marathon two weeks prior, and was not sure how my body was going to respond to another marathon. Did I have enough time to recover?
Even if I was okay, this still only marked just the beginning of the halfway point of my three marathon plan.
I had run Chicago in 2022, 2016 and 2014. I greatly enjoyed all three, and here I was back for my fourth Chicago Marathon.
Previous Chicago Marathons
The first time I had ever considered running the Chicago Marathon was on a late night training run in New York City. This would have been in the early Fall of 2005. I was running through Battery Park at night. No one was around except one other runner. He and I sort of took turns passing each other for over a few miles, then finally he veered off, but before he did he shouted to me, “Marathon Training?”
I said, “Yeah”
“Chicago?”
“No, New York,” I answered.
“That’s great, one day you will do Chicago,” and then he ran off.
It was so nonchalant and matter of fact, casual and certain. But it took 9 years before his prophecy came true, and now I was at the expo a day away from doing my fourth.
Running is a bit like that. There are these small quick conversations you have with other runners, compare notes, or say something about a previous race, and that information becomes something you hang onto, and think about, and then it affects how you run. Always in a positive way.
I thought about my mistakes two weeks earlier in Berlin. The jet-lag, not enough coffee before the race, being cold, etc. I was grateful that I had this chance, only two weeks later to do better.
Chicago Marathon Expo-2024
Race Day- Sunday, October 13, 2024
Pictures from Marathonfoto
After the finish line.
Two weeks later I was in Dublin, Ireland running the Irish Life Dublin Marathon.