Chicago
Winnipeg, where I'm from, is known as The Chicago of the North. Really, I doubt that anybody from Chicago or anywhere else is aware of this, but Winnipeggers are. It's a "windy city" - Portage and Main boasts being the "windiest intersection in the world", although I've never been able to see how that's something to really brag about. It's in the Midwest (even if that phrase doesn't really apply to Canada). And it's known for it's architecture, a lot of which is in the Chicago Style, particularly in the Exchange District.
The first time I was ever on a plane, I was 19 and on my way to Chicago with a bunch of fellow second-year architecture students. It was a great trip. We visited Wright's Oak Park studio, toured Unity Temple, and admired many of his houses. We were amazed at so many of the buildings downtown that we had studied in our History and Design classes. And everything was just so damn tall! Coming from medium-sized Winnipeg, Chicago was my first taste of a big city, and coupled with a year living in big, international London, inspired me to move to NYC. As an aside, the trip also changed my life in other ways. First, it was years before I would be able to drink vodka again and second, it cured me of the very Canadian "eh" that I was inserting between every other sentence that I uttered.
Chicago was going to be My Marathon. It's flat; it's fast. After two New Yorks, 3:57 and 3:32, and with continued improvement on my times in other races, I knew I could qualify for Boston at Chicago. I'd do Vermont in the spring, but not pursue such an ambitious time goal. I'd instead use it to maintain a high level of mileage, and further work on my speed in the summer and early fall. I did the reasearch - with the differences in times between NYC and Chicago, I knew that with only a little improvement, a Boston Qualifier was in the bag.
And then I got cocky. If you were reading this blog back in April, you know the story. I was banging out PRs left and right in every race distance between the end of January and end of April, capping that off with a 1:31:33 half at Queens on April 30th. I started to set my sights on Vermont for the BQ, and began not paying proper attention to my body. I wasn't doing proper speedwork (which would've helped with my running form) and more importantly, wasn't warming up or stretching properly, as I used to do. I increased my mileage to 70 mpw. About a week before Queens, there was a little pain in my side, and it just got worse. But Vermont was so close, and I was so stubborn.
Had I stopped running immediately when I got the hip pain, or even right after Queens, I'm pretty sure I could've recovered from what was then a minor injury, skipped Vermont, and resumed my training for Chicago later in the spring. Instead, I pushed through the injury and limped painfully eight miles to the end of the marathon in Burlington only to be pushed into the medical tent strapped into a wheelchair. And how humiliating is that for someone expecting a BQ time? This lack of common sense only exacerbated the injury so that it knocked me out of running completely for five weeks and into physiotherapy for another fifteen weeks.
The Chicago Marathon came and went today, and I slogged out a tough 13.25 miles in Central Park, New York City. Don't get me wrong - I'm actually pretty happy to be at this level of mileage without any problems so far, but it is very humbling to say the least. Later at home, I deleted all the marathon e-mails I had saved in my inbox and threw out the entry ticket and booklet, all of which I'd been holding onto like a shoebox full of old love letters. Maybe I'll apply for Chicago again next year, but maybe not. I'm optimistic that I might eventually get back to my level of speed and ability that I was at six months ago, but if there's one thing I have learned over this past year, it's the Law of Caution and Moderation. There's always time to take it slowly.
That said, I have no intention of taking 18 months off. See you at the races.
The first time I was ever on a plane, I was 19 and on my way to Chicago with a bunch of fellow second-year architecture students. It was a great trip. We visited Wright's Oak Park studio, toured Unity Temple, and admired many of his houses. We were amazed at so many of the buildings downtown that we had studied in our History and Design classes. And everything was just so damn tall! Coming from medium-sized Winnipeg, Chicago was my first taste of a big city, and coupled with a year living in big, international London, inspired me to move to NYC. As an aside, the trip also changed my life in other ways. First, it was years before I would be able to drink vodka again and second, it cured me of the very Canadian "eh" that I was inserting between every other sentence that I uttered.
Chicago was going to be My Marathon. It's flat; it's fast. After two New Yorks, 3:57 and 3:32, and with continued improvement on my times in other races, I knew I could qualify for Boston at Chicago. I'd do Vermont in the spring, but not pursue such an ambitious time goal. I'd instead use it to maintain a high level of mileage, and further work on my speed in the summer and early fall. I did the reasearch - with the differences in times between NYC and Chicago, I knew that with only a little improvement, a Boston Qualifier was in the bag.
And then I got cocky. If you were reading this blog back in April, you know the story. I was banging out PRs left and right in every race distance between the end of January and end of April, capping that off with a 1:31:33 half at Queens on April 30th. I started to set my sights on Vermont for the BQ, and began not paying proper attention to my body. I wasn't doing proper speedwork (which would've helped with my running form) and more importantly, wasn't warming up or stretching properly, as I used to do. I increased my mileage to 70 mpw. About a week before Queens, there was a little pain in my side, and it just got worse. But Vermont was so close, and I was so stubborn.
Had I stopped running immediately when I got the hip pain, or even right after Queens, I'm pretty sure I could've recovered from what was then a minor injury, skipped Vermont, and resumed my training for Chicago later in the spring. Instead, I pushed through the injury and limped painfully eight miles to the end of the marathon in Burlington only to be pushed into the medical tent strapped into a wheelchair. And how humiliating is that for someone expecting a BQ time? This lack of common sense only exacerbated the injury so that it knocked me out of running completely for five weeks and into physiotherapy for another fifteen weeks.
The Chicago Marathon came and went today, and I slogged out a tough 13.25 miles in Central Park, New York City. Don't get me wrong - I'm actually pretty happy to be at this level of mileage without any problems so far, but it is very humbling to say the least. Later at home, I deleted all the marathon e-mails I had saved in my inbox and threw out the entry ticket and booklet, all of which I'd been holding onto like a shoebox full of old love letters. Maybe I'll apply for Chicago again next year, but maybe not. I'm optimistic that I might eventually get back to my level of speed and ability that I was at six months ago, but if there's one thing I have learned over this past year, it's the Law of Caution and Moderation. There's always time to take it slowly.
That said, I have no intention of taking 18 months off. See you at the races.
posted by Skylight at 8:51 PM
2 Comments:
I have no doubt that you're on your way back to being a smarter and better runner than you were before. In the meantime, don't forget (not that you would anyway) that adversity is a character-building experience if you choose to make it one.
So many parallels here. Obviously, Chicago is near and dear to my heart. And it was going to be My Marathon this year as well (well, not to qualify; I'll never see that day). And I got sidelined with the same injury. (I must say that you're right: Chicagoans by and large DON'T know that Winnipeg is Canada's Chicago.)SS is right: live and learn. But don't write off Chicago -- even if you don't use it as a qualifying race, do it. It's such a fun race; the crowd support rivals New York's, and it's a flat course, so you're chances of PR-ing are pretty good.
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