A Starting Point...At The Finish Line

It's over. I completed the Chicago Marathon in 3:36:48. Happy that I finished strong having never run that distance before. A little disappointed also. I felt a sub 3:30 was certainly possible but I made a critical mistake prior to the start of the race: I stood to far towards the back of the pack. I knew this might be a problem but I assumed there would be open running lanes that would allow me to move up quickly. Nope. People were running shoulder-to-shoulder and I exhausted a ton of energy criss crossing from one side of the road to the other trying to pass. Whenever an open curb presented itself (like in the Lincoln Park area), I raced up on the curb and passed dozens of people before jumping back into the stream at the next obstruction. I did not anticipate the running pack would be this dense. I bet I passed well over 20,000 people along my race. I was never able to recover my time enough to challenge 3:30. Next time, I'll know better. Still, I'm very pleased to have finished with a sense that I could do even better. That is a nice feeling and one to carry into the next marathon. So, at my finish line, I found a starting point on what to improve on for the next one.