first marathon in the books! f you are from chicago, you must do this someday. running from grant park (bulls rallys!) to wrigley field (perpetual losers) to the united center (air jordan) and then as far south as comisky (you can put it onthe boooooarrrrrd, yes!) is an incredible experience, having 1.5 million people lining the roads is equally impressive. sometimes i wished i could just 'get into the zone' which was hard with so many people around, but it was worth it.

the important part of the race report is about dean karnazes. i'm running along at mile 19, right when its starting to hurt a little, and i look up, and there is dean. now, i think the sport of ultramarathon is amazong, and its something i've wanted to do. i see where people who dislike him are coming from. he could not have been any nicer. he ran with me for almost a mile and was entertaining to chat with. i tihnk he may have even slowed to my pace, not something he had to do. then i find out he is running the race twice in a day to promote some car. so the verdict is, GREAT guy, way to into himself though...

the goal for the race was to escape unscathed, i really want to run in the fall colors out here. 2 days later my legs feel great! this was definetley easier than a 70.3, a little more pain, but i wasn't nearly as miserable!