Chicago Marathon

I had high hopes for the marathon--this, despite the fact that I pretty much took the month of August off and never really made up for it in September, as well the hideous weather forecast for race day.

So I went out with the 3:30 pace group (8 min/mi) and hung with them until around mile 10... then I got slower... and slower. It was in the upper-80s by 10am and the sun was unrelenting. The teen miles were the worst, but I seemed to get a new resolve around mile 20, albeit an even slower one. In the end, I finished in 3:53. Not a time that will get me to Boston, but given the conditions and the comparative times and experiences of other runners, I feel pretty good about it. I am recovering fairly well, though I think I'll be down a couple of toenails by next week, one of which is going out in dramatic fashion. (Sorry if this is more than you wanted to know, but it seems important to me right now!)

I must say that I was mostly oblivious to all of the horrible things that happened during the race, though I did see a number of people getting, or attempting to get, medical help. I think I was far enough ahead that I was not affected by the water/Gatorade shortages--indeed, I was one of the people "misusing" the water as a way to cool off. What's more, I had no idea the race was canceled until long after I finished. Reports about the events of the day seem to vary widely--between race officials and runners themselves--but more details are available in the Chicago Tribune and in a Time article.

In other news, it was great to see Scott and Sara for the marathon, and my mom was also here for it, and then stayed over to celebrate my birthday yesterday. This celebration included some napping on my part, but we also went downtown and out for a great dinner.

Anne Marie's Wedding

I'm here, in Chicago, for a 2nd attempt at grad school. (Since it seems that whenever I say "more on that later," I never, ever return to the topic, I'm going to skip that locution this time...) Classes started last week and I skipped town last weekend (deja-vu, Amir and Sigalle) to go to Anne Marie and Brian's wedding in Wheeling, WVa. Seemingly geographically challenged, I flew from Chicago to DC and then drove to Wheeling. However, this afforded me some quality car time with Mindy and Sara and a chance to see the family for a bit on Sunday.

I don't know how to put in to words how wonderful it was to see Anne Marie so happy and in love, other than that it was pretty wonderful. Meg and Michael drove up from Charlotte and Teresa came in as well, so we relived some of our better (and worse) high school moments. The weekend was far too short, but I'm excited to see Sara and Scott on Friday for a little marathon fun!