More Notes About the Course

I was talking to a guy I work with the other day. He's run Chicago twice and was there watching another time. He said a great place to watch is at about the 25 1/4 mark. He said after that it gets really congested with fans and you can't pick anyone out of the crowd. From there is an easy walk to the big fountain that they use as the meeting place for runners and spectators. Also, he said the biggest "hill" is at 25.8 and it's just going up and down a bridge - shouldn't be too bad as by that point you're running on pure adrenaline. I guess the crowd isn't as continuous as the Boston crowd, it gets pretty sparse from about 15 - 23, which is too bad because that's really when you need fans cheering. He said there are some people but not huge groups like my dad and I had in Boston. He didn't think starting and stopping was too big of a problem, but he was in one of the corrals not in the big pack. He did say port-o-potties get crowded and there's not really any other option since it's right in the city - no trees!

In training news, I did a 2 1/2 hour run last night. I ran well for the first 2 hours and then got pretty tired. I stopped after about and hour and bought a gatorade and I stopped to stretch a few times. I stupidly planned out a route that had a huge hill with about 20 minutes to go, I only made it 2/3 of the way up and had to detour. My hip muscles were sore last night but today I'm not too bad. Legs are a bit tired but not sore. It's a big boost as this is the longest run I've done in a year! I figure 2 more big training runs before Chicago - a 3 hour run and a 3 1/2 hour run.