Chicago Marathon 2006

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Comments

  • I know - this rain is getting on my t!ts!!!
  • To any of you doing Burnham Beeches tomorrow good luck and have a good race. My number is 320 and I will be in a Serpentine RC top.

    And Paul I have some of my best training sessions in the rain.

    Darren

  • emma if you still need some gatorade i have a spare tub you can buy,i got 4 yes 4 tubs when i did NY, and still have 3 left,got them of the web somewhere after ringing, it took some doing.
  • Good race today - Burnham Beeches half - I enjoyed the cool conditions and the lovely course through the woods. Hillier than I'd bargained for though, especially around halfway. I finished in 1.52, which I'm reasonably happy with, given the ups and downs. Didn't see you Darren, but I hope you enjoyed it too.
  • Hi Andrea
    Yep the conditions were pretty good nice to have the light rain. It was a lot more undulating than I expected, which didn't help my plan of trying to use the race to work on my target marathon pace so in the end it turned more into a race and I ended up finishing in a time faster than I had planned with 1:20:41.
  • Congrats on your time Darren. Seemed like there were loads of your club mates there - only 3 of us for TVH, with me bringing up the rear. Nice medal too.
  • sniggings - thanks for the offer - my cousin came over for a visit from Chicago (its their spare room I'm using in October) and brought me some so I'm sorted now. Not entirely sure I like it. (but then Lucozade is no better)
    Thanks anyway!
  • Well done Darren - that's a cracking time
  • Darren - keep going at that rate and you'll get a guaranteed place for London in the elite bit! Well done. I did 13.5miles at the weekend in 2hrs 50seconds. Not sure where I'd have shaved off those 50secs though cos I was knackered at the end! Still, its a sub-2hr half which I'm happy with.
    Anyone doing Windsor Half?
  • Simon - did you get my email about a spare single room in my hotel? If you don't need it, I'm going to cancel it this week.
  • Andrea, Paul and E:) cheers. Hopefully the injuries will stay away and the training continues to go to plan and that target time of a sub 2:45 might become a possibility.
  • Simon - I've also sent you an e-mail regarding rooms.

    Does anybody know how that guy got on about deferring a place and if it's an option? I've been quiet as I tore my hamstring playing football 6 weeks ago, and haven't been able to run since. Am currently seeing a specialist as it's on old football injury that rears it's ugly head now and again.

    Therefore won't be able to run (2nd marathon this year I've had to drop out of). If anyone knows about deferring your place, please let me know.

    That aside, I wish everyone all the best and hope you enjoy it!
  • Really sorry to hear that, Coops :-(

    In the London Marathon deferrals are fine, but I just checked the Chicago website and it says:

    "Refunds, name transfers or deferments are not permitted"

    I would be amazed about that - you can only call them up, I guess.


    Training going better at this end. Got some good mileage in this week. 30 miles before the weekend, so my Yasso session tomorrow and long run on Sunday will see me hit about 54 miles for the week, which will be a personal record. Hopefully I can keep this up.

    Most of my training up to now has been quite quick - around marathon pace (7 min/miles). As I am increasing the mileage I will slow this pace down quite a lot to avoid injury and make sure I don't tire myself out. This is expecially the case on the long runs.

    Anyone else doing the Kent Coastal half marathon next weekend (3 Sep)?

    Paul
  • No Kent coast for me - the Glasgow Half Marathon...although last year was beach weather!

    No defering....not nice.

    54miles in a week....yikes! Impressive Paul. I am doing just 32 this week but enjoying it.

    14 miles this sunday....
  • PadamsPadams ✭✭✭
    Hi everyone, hope the training's going well. I've been following my schedule to the letter for the last couple of weeks and everything's going to plan so far...

    Surprised they don't allow deferring - I would ring them, surely if you have a valid reason they would let you.

    Paul - good training, I would agree with what you say about slowing the pace down if you want to increase mileage. I have increased to about 70 mpw for the last few weeks but at least 90% of that is slower than marathon pace, otherwise I would break down. Probably about 40% of it is at least a minute per mile slower than MP.

    Quick question - has anyone got any races planned before the big one? I have entered a 20 mile off-road race (will be used as a training run, not flat out) and a 10 miler, both in September. Thinking of entering the Kingston 16 miler, but this is two weeks before Chicago so might be a bit close? I would try to not race it and use it as the last longish training run, or start slow and do the second half at marathon pace.
  • Hey Padams

    Sounds like training is going well for you.

    Be careful with Kingston 16 miler - DO NOT race it!! I am pretty sure that racing the Reading half two weeks before FLM took a little something out of me. I'm doing Run London 10k two weeks before Chicago and I'm going to race that as it's quite short.

    I think the old theory is that it takes 1 day for every mile raced for recovery - so 16m race would be a bit much

    Did 21 miler yesterday, around the hills of Richmond Park. It was fab - took over 3 hours, whereas for previous marathons I would have done this in sub 2:30. Hopefully this will all pay off
  • Paul good to hear that you are now getting the miles in, 21mile around Richmond is impressive as those hills are challenging.
    I have clocked just over 80miles in the last 7 days with a hard half marathon yesterday. Struggling to hold back and not race but the undulating nature of the 2 courses over the last couple of weekends making it very hard to stick to a steady pace and try and run at a desired marathon pace. Did 20miles in the pouring rain on Wednesday evening now that was challenging. Yesterdays half was going very well until the last 3 miles when I felt if I had very little left in the legs. This week will be an easier week.

    PAdams
    I have the following races lined up.
    Sunday, 3rd September
    Budapest Half marathon
    Sunday, 10th September
    Middx 10K Victoria Park
    Sunday, 8th October
    Enidhoven half marathon
    I was also thinking about the Kingston 16 but fell it is a bit too far as once you are in a race it is very hard to hold back. I decided to do the Enidhoven half as it is very flat and similar to Chicago and I wanted to hopefully get a PB for the half off all of this training.
    Might use these races as hard training sessions but only if they are reasonably flat,
    Sunday, 17 September 2006
    Cransley (Kettering) 10K plus Half Marathon
    Sunday, 1 October 2006
    Cricklade Half Marathon
    Swindon, Wiltshire



  • PadamsPadams ✭✭✭
    Thanks Paul and B5D, that was basically what I was thinking. I am meant to do a 17 miler on that day, so I might enter it and will just have to be very careful about starting slowly. It is two laps which might help as I will pretend it is an 8M jog and then 8M marathon pace.

    Sounds like training is going well for both of you. B5D - sounds like you will be at least as quick as me come Chicago if you keep up the 80 mile weeks, despite the training missed early on! How confident are you on 2:45 at the moment? I'm getting there, did 12 miles at intended marathon pace last week and it felt OK, but I don't want to get my hopes up yet!
  • PA and B5D - what are your half mara PBs?
  • Big 5,

    I did Cransley last year and I can tell you now, it isn't flat! It is the hardest race I have ever done, and it was only a 10km!! (also hottest day of last year).

    My advice is - don't do it if you want flat!
  • Yup, I've just realised that my 10miles race 2 weeks before Chicago (Cabbage Patch 10) is actually only the week before. arse. And I've marshalled it so often that I really want to run it. I know that I need to 9.5min/mile to finish Chicago but I've been training faster than this so I'm going to try to use it to pace myself.
    Did Arundel 10K on Sunday - VERY HILLY, unlike Chicago, so maybe I'll count it as this week's hill session!
  • PadamsPadams ✭✭✭
    Paul - mine is 1:17, done soon after Chicago last year, so I would hope to beat that if I did one now, although that was in almost perfect conditions.

    I haven't done any specific hill training this time around, other than doing some undulating training runs. Hopefully this should be OK given how flat Chicago is, although hill training is good to improve strength even for flat races.
  • Cheers Coops that is what I had heard about Cransley and you have just confirmed to me that it wouldn't be an ideal race for me.
    Paul my PB for a half is 1:20:35 set last Mar in Milton Keynes although I ran 1:20:48 on a hilly half last week in Burnham Beeches, I think I would be around 1:18 on a flat course right now. I have got the Budapest half this weekend so that will be a good indicator as it is meant to be flat and fast.
    Paul Adams, I think if I avoid injury over the coming weeks I will have a good shoot at sub 2:45 as training is going well and I am running better training times then what I was producing in the run up to Boston.
  • Zed - A belated thanks for the recommended eatery in Chicago - it looks good from the Tripadvisor reviews.

    Training is a little sporadic at the moment because although I managed a few miles last week including a 22 miler and a 15 miler at around 7:20 pace I've now got a bad neck and shoulders through a combination of the training and painting/decorating at home and haven't trained so far this week!

    B5D - Your race times look similar to mine on my sub 2:45 attemt at NYC last year. My excuse for blowing up was a case of overtraining and over-racing in the build up which was a massive confidence booster but, in retrospect, took a little too much out of me . My best marathons (now sadly behind me)have always come off the back of weeks of consistent training with only a single 10k sharpener a couple of weeks before.

  • Hi guys,

    Really late to this thread - I've only just discovered it - but I have beend desperate to find other runners heading to Chicago so it's good to see I'm not alone - hope you don't mind my butting in.. Looks like some of you are incredibly impressive runners - amazing! I'm a slow back of mid-packers - aiming for 4:20 this year but that would be personally amazing to be honest - but training is going well after a ChiRunning course .. hopefully no more nasties. Are any of you running the Phedippidations World Wide Half (slowly) on the 7/8th October? I'm looking for some company to run it in Lincs / Notts / Yorks - any ideas? Andy - I like your idea of the 10K sharpener a few weeks before - I'm running one in London on 15/9 - I presume you'd advise not doing it too fast?
  • wow - big chat recently:

    dieselgirl - Welcome - and yeah ! another runner that isn't whippet pace like these boys seem to be! I am so jealous of the speed but I am aiming for 4:15 perhaps given training runs of 9-9:30 min mile pace.

    My race plan: Glasgow Half this weekend, Dava Way 16miler Sep 17 and 10k Oct 1st. When should we do final long run - my RW sub 4:30 schedule says do a 17m two weeks before the race?? Confused -

    Zed
  • Welcome, DG.

    B5D, Paul A - my half PB is 1:23 two weeks before FLM this year. That made me think I could do sub-3, but I blew up and came in at 3:18.

    I know I'm good enough to do sub-3 at some point, but don't have the time to do the serious miles - hence aiming just for BQ this year. Maybe some time in the future...
  • AndreaB

    Please can you email me regarding room as no, I didn't get one from you. Thanks Simon Hall
  • Hi Simon - in my email, I said that my friend has dropped out, so there is a single room going at the Crowne Plaza hotel: http://www.crowneplaza.com
    I've booked for 4 nights, arriving Friday and leaving Tuesday morning, although I'm now going to leave on Monday. The price is US$209 for the first 3 nights (marathon rate) and $229 for the 4th night. Let me know if you're interested - my email is broughton_andrea@hotmail.com

    DG - welcome to the thread. I'm slower paced too - aiming for sub-4 hours. I did 34 miles last week, including a 2-hour run and some speed work. Hope I can keep it up, although I'm starting a new job this Friday, so that might interfere.
  • DG A fast time is definitely wishful thinking on my part - there's a 1 hour 9 minute spread between my fastest and slowest time in the last two years and I think I may be heading for the latter in a few weeks time. If you do a 10k the week before try to keep to marathon pace and don't be tempted to race it - that's for people with Paula Radcliffe type mileages.

    Simon - If you need a double/twin then the Red Roof Inn is still 'on request' through ebookers at £330 sterling for the 4 nights - you may be lucky.

    Just completed my first run since Sunday, a 2 hour stint, and now feel knackered again! Will my legs be willing tomorrow?
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