The 2005 Chicago Marathon was relatively non-descript, besides Gail and Jerry being in town for the race. I trained a little smarter and learned a good lesson in pacing in Green Bay.
In one of my best ideas for a shirt (but worst ideas for a look), I opted to shave the goatee down to a moustache and put “MOUSTACHE LOVE” on my shirt. It was a huge hit with the crowd that day. Here's the freshly shaved 'stache. Cops and '70s pornstars were all very proud.
I was trying to run a 3:35 that day. I ended up coming in at 3:38, so I was pretty close. However, the trend of me slowing down in the second half continued. I ran the first half in 1:46:18 and the second half in 1:51:58.
I think I really started to get a good grasp on marathon running during that race. One of my favorite parts was seeing Justin and Alicia Murphy standing on the raised middle part of the street divided in Chinatown. Justin yelled out something about moustaches or moustache love and pretended he was drawing a moustache on his own face with his index fingers.
I placed 5143rd out of 33027 finishers. Here are some pictures:
Here's that day's support crew on the Trader Todd shuttle that miraculously showed up in Chinatown to take them up to the finish line.
Tiffany and me after the marathon.
***
Just six or seven weeks later, I ran the “New” Las Vegas Marathon. Tiffany, Nick and Jaime made the trip out there with me. My mom lives in Henderson, NV so we all stayed with her and her husband Jerry. It was a small vacation of sorts. Might as well run a marathon if you’re there, right?
We did some gambling, some shopping and some other stuff. Nick, Jerry and I also bowled the day before the marathon and I remember kicking Nick’s ass. I think I bowled a 190 something. This is funny because Nick bowls weekly in a league.
Anyway, seeing as how I just ran a max-effort marathon a few weeks before, I did a simple training program that just maintained my fitness level after Chicago. I also wasn’t trying to run it faster, I wanted more of a controlled effort. I was attempting to run a 3:43 or an 8:30 per mile pace.
The race started at the south end of the Strip in front of MandalayBay. It also started at 6:00 AM. And most shockingly, the temperature on that December morning in Vegas was a chilly 35 degrees. Yes, it was that damn cold. I had some gloves and a weird stocking cap of sorts. It almost looked like a wool pilot’s helmet, complete with velcro strap. I brought that to cover my ears. My shirt was short sleeved and I wore shorts. I was pretty cold, but as long as you keep your hands and ears warm, it’s not horrible.
My shirt said “R.I.P. MR MIYAGI.”Las Vegas native and Karate Kid star Pat Morita had just passed away. As you could guess, it was another tough year figuring out what to put on the shirt.It was a hit on the course for all 20 Las Vegans who had crawled out of bed to watch the marathon.
I ran a solid race and actually ran a perfectly even split race. 1:51:19 for the first half and second half, finishing at 3:42:38. I ran the race exactly how I had wanted to and gained a lot of confidence in my ability and my pacing. I took some of this confidence into 2006. I placed 1045 out of 8816 finishers.
The top two are a couple of my favorite marathon pictures:
I don't remember what mile this was, but it was definitely earlier in the the first 15 miles or so, as I am still wearing the wool hat and have two pairs of sunglasses on my head. I was wearing the yellows at the start because it was so dark. As we went deeper into the morning, I went with the regular ones.
Here's the final kick down the homestretch.
Jerry, me and Nick post race. They look pretty warm.
2005 brought my most ambitious year to date for marathoning. I ran Green Bay in May, Chicago in October and Las Vegas in December. After I had finished the ’04 Chicago, I looked for a spring marathon that was drivable. Despite my disliking of the Packers, I chose Green Bay. It had received good reviews and somewhere around mile 25.5, you got to do a lap in side of Lambeau Field.
I started training for Green Bay on January 2nd and actually got really lucky with the weather. I only missed one run because of snow. I had to push a run to another day here or there, but it was a pretty decent training session and I had no injuries to speak of.
Accompanying me for the trip up north was Tiffany, my brother Nick and his wife Jaime. We plodded around the lovely town of Green Bay and ate at TGI Fridays or someplace of that ilk. When we got back to the hotel, my brother Michael snuck up behind me in lobby and surprised the hell out of me. I had no idea he was coming and couldn’t believe he was there. So we all hung out for a little while before calling it a night.
When I woke up the next morning, it was pouring. Fantastic, I thought. Well, by the time the race was about to start, the rain had subsided. The GB Marathon was very small and there was also a half marathon that shared the first 7 or so miles of the same course. My bib number was #189 and I went with an orange shirt and put “CHICAGO” on the front and “DITKA – 189” on the back of it.
Because of the lack of participants, the race director and crew let you line up anywhere you wanted. So, I went for it. I lined up on the starting line right next to two Kenyans. It was ridiculous. When I passed my supporters at the .2 mile mark or so, I yelled to them “This is as close to the lead I am ever going to get!”
Needless to say, starting with the rabbits was a horrible idea. Being up there and with the faster half marathon runners made me come out of the gate way too fast. I repeat, way too fast. I hit mile 1 at 7:20. I tried to slow it down, but I hit the 5K mark at 7:27. Not good. Little did I know that coming out so fast would end up biting me in the ass. And when I say bite, I mean devour and leave me without an ass. By the 10 K mark, the clouds were starting to lift and the 60’s were starting to feel warmer. My pace at the 10K mark was 7:46. So I was slowing down, but not fast enough. For some reason my pace had quickened to 7:41 at mile 10. The worst part is that this wasn’t my first marathon, but I was running it like I was being chased by Tina Turner on a horse. I hit the halfway point at a 7:51 which is good for a 1:42:04. I felt good at that point, but that pace really wasn’t my fitness level for a full marathon back then. I was shooting for a 3:43 or so and was on pace for 3:24.
By now, the sun was out, but there was some great shade running along the east side of the Fox River. Unfortunately, the shade was about to disappear and my fast start was about to catch up to me. My pace dipped to 7:55 by mile 16. Then 7:58 by 17. Mile 18 saw a dip of six more seconds down to an 8:04 overall pace. Mile 19 brought the pace down to 8:08. At this point, I was taking in water (both figuratively and literally), and the temperature was rising and that morning’s rain was now wicked humidity. I stopped in a port-a-john before I crossed some huge bridge. I thought about not coming out. I ran miles 19-22 at an awesome 10:05 pace. I am not sure I would call that running. You could consider it me hitting the proverbial wall – repeatedly. I ran miles 22-25 at a 9:59 pace. I finished up the last 1.2 in a 9:34, finishing with a 3:46:28, an 8:38 pace overall.
I beat my ’04 Chicago Marathon time by six minutes, but couldn’t have run it any dumber. I learned a lot in this marathon. It all comes back to not running a marathon with your head up your ass for the first 10 miles. I placed 231st out of 910 finishers. Keeping with the theme describing this race in two (or so) words it would be dumb and dumber.
The marathon is now only a couple of days away. I just saw the Dr. Garelick for my follow-up. He says everything is as good as it's going to get and wished me luck. He also told me not to run another marathon right away and to take it easy over the next several weeks. I am headed to my physical therapy session in a little bit, then will run my last few miles before Sunday. My head had been shaved for the last time and everything is pretty much in place besides the playlist. I'll post a picture of my shirt tonight or tomorrow.
I have started to realize that my forum for the the 2008 Chicago Marathon and Running for Cru is about to come to a close. I better use my last few days to their fullest. I will really miss this part of it. I hope all of you have found some enjoyment in my ramblings and stories. I know I have. The most important thing is that we've been able spread the word about SMA and raise money for FSMA. Hopefully it will help them find a cure. Feel free to check out their site www.curesma.org as they post updates and developments on their latest research and breakthroughs.
So, over he next couple of days, I will post my remaining race recaps and that will probably be it. Sometime on Sunday or Monday, I'll give you my best blow-by-blow recap of Sunday's marathon.
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their support of FSMA, Cru, the Fanaros and my running. It really has been an amazing thing that we've been able to do here. I couldn't be happier to be a part of it.
If there's anyone out there who is planning on catching the marathon and has not been in contact with Tiffany or Ken, please let me know via email, phonecall, or message at the bottom of any one of thses posts.
Innocence and ignorance. That’s how I can best describe the 2004 Chicago Marathon. As you may remember in the weeks leading up to the marathon, I was having some foot issues. Two weeks before the marathon, I decided to make my first trip to Fleet Feet and have them help me find a pair of shoes that fit my running form. I walked out of there with a Nike Air Structure Triax 6 or something like that. I took the last two weeks pretty easy, just running enough to break in the shoes. The rest helped, and by race day, my foot was fine.
I had company for the ’04 Marathon. My college friends Matt Hillen and Rob Bowers were also attempting their first marathons. We didn’t really have a plan and didn’t particularly know how fast we would run or even if we would run together. We made our way to the mess of the starting corral and joined the 30,000 runners or so in the Open corral. The Open corral is home to many first timers and in general, the slower runners. After the gun went off, we started the slow shuffle to the starting line. We finally made it and took off together. The first few miles are a blur. There were people everywhere, both on the course and on the sidewalks cheering on the 35,000 runners. People on the sidelines were cheering, clapping, ringing cowbells, yelling, screaming…you name it. As I mentioned before, they also will yell what ever is on your shirt. Rob had nothing on his shirt. Matt had “GOON SQUAD” on his. He tried to curve the GOON on the top of his shirt. He did it pretty well, but some people mistakenly read it as “GO ON SQUAD.” I decided to put “OREGON” on my shirt, in honor of Prefontaine. I put “ZABFONTAINE” on the back – a hybrid of my nickname “ZAB” and Prefontaine. In retrospect, I should have put it on the front, because people were yelling for Oregon and the Ducks throughout the marathon.
Somewhere around mile 5, my week-old Ipod crapped out on me. I was unfamiliar with re-setting it so when I first saw my stellar support crew in Boystown at Mile 7 or 8, I told gave it to them and told them to try to get it fixed and give it back to me in Chinatown – mile 22 or so. Rob, Matt and I stayed together up until the halfway point. Up until then, we were pretty much running three across except when Matt decided to jump around like a jackass. He was waving his arms up and down, trying to get the crowd to make noise, giving high fives, and jumping so he could see the crowd ahead. Rob and I were marveling at his antics because they were both funny and stupid. We thought that the extra energy he used dicking around would lead to him running out of energy later on. We hit the half way mark in 1:50:06. Somewhere around mile 14 or so, Matt pulled away from Rob and me. We stayed together until mile 16 or so, when I had to stop to go to the bathroom. I told him to keep up the pace and that I’d catch up to him. I relieved myself and proceeded to try to catch up to Rob. I finally caught back up to him in a half mile or so and he didn’t look so hot. By mile 17, Rob had told me to go ahead. I ended up going the rest of the way solo. I don’t remember the exact details from 17 to Chinatown. It was all pretty much a blur. I was just looking forward to seeing Tiffany, my family (Michael, Nick) and her parents. By the time I had made it to Chinatown, I saw the crew again. As it turns out, one of the best parts of the marathon are seeing your supporters. In some ways, the marathon almost becomes runs in between seeing the people that are out there to see you. You look forward to seeing them at these designated spots, despite the fact that you’re only spending seconds of a few hours with them. It definitely gives you a boost.
So, when I finally saw them at the corner in Chinatown, the thing that had been in my mind for about 14 miles or so was that they hopefully fixed my Ipod for me. So when I saw them, that’s the first thing I asked them. Unfortunately, they didn’t and basically told me to run the rest of the marathon. Not in a mean way. I think they were more surprised than anything that I just ran 21.5 miles and the first thing that comes out of my mouth was “Did you get my Ipod working?” I was looking forward to having it for the last 5 or so miles. Oh well. It wasn’t meant to be. Matt had passed by several minutes earlier and supposedly wasn’t looking too good. I kept on moving, slowing down every mile until the last 1.2 in the process.
I made the final turn onto Columbus from Roosevelt and could see the finish line. I ran as fast as I could down the homestretch and came across in 3:52:35.
I was gassed. I was elated. I was emotionally and physically drained. I had never done anything like it. And one of the first thoughts that popped into my head was that I think I’d like to do that again, and I think could do it better. I made my way through the the finishing corral to the runners reunite area. I was the first to get there out of the three of us. Soon after my support crew showed up, Matt showed up as well. He had the post-race mylar blanket tied around his neck like Superman and had a beer in each hand. Then he told me he was waiting for me at the beer cart, that's why he got back to the reunite area late. That's Matt for you.
I guess you could say I caught the marathon bug that day in Chicago and my marathon running addiction was born. Matt, despite his antics and looking like hell at mile 22, finished in 3:43 and Rob finished in 3:57. I placed 8,326 out of 33,125 finishers.
A few pics:
(L to R) Matt, Rob and me - before the marathon started
Nick and Michael, anxiously awaiting my passing through Boystown. Yes, Nick is wearing a suit. Not because it was my first marathon. He went to a wedding in the city the night before and stayed in the same clothes from the night before. Nice!
Here I am passing through Chinatown, right around Mile 22. I looked pretty good. My face does look a little swollen though, a theme that will be present in quite a few of the upcoming pictures.
Tiffany and me in the reunite area following the race.
I had my last run of any effort today. I went 6 miles, running two of them at a 7:40 pace. It wasn't the greatest run, but it doesn't really matter at this point. I'll have a 3-5 miler on Friday at a very easy pace.
Tiffany and I worked on the shirt last night. It's going to be awesome. I may have to post a picture of it here before the race. I now have two practice shirts with the "Running for Cru" logo, one of which I ran in this morning. The race shirt will end up in a frame on the wall with the rest of the previous shirts
My mom recently requested "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner. Mom, as much as I appreciate your kind words and love you, it will not make the playlist. Here are the reasons why: 1) the song, while most likely very meaningful to some, doesn't really do it for me. I'll just tell myself that my Mom thinks I am simply the best a couple times on Sunday. 2) I can never hear that song without thinking of Hollywood Casino, who used that song in their commercials. And 3) Take a look at this video:
Why the horse? Is this about Barbaro? (I know, Barbaro wasn't alive when this was recorded.) Come on Tina. Ridiculous. Now, all of you will never be able to think of "Simply the Best" without thinking of Barbaro running through Hollywood Casino with Tina Turner on his back. I can picture it now. Tina kicking over tables...grabbing drinks and smokes out of people's hands...throwing dice from Barbaro's back...Barbaro's lifting his front legs after winning a game of craps...finally getting pissed off because they don't have carrots...and then putting it all on black the roulette wheel and losing...he raises his front legs in anger (and in slow motion) and just crushes it. Chips and wood just flying everywhere. The camera pans around and people are still, jaws-wide open. Then Tina and Barbaro either run out or you see Barbaro being escorted out by security in shackles especially made for horses while Tina finishes up the last verse. How's that for some imagery?
Well, this is it. One week from today is why I have run 578.3 miles since June 24th. This last week will only be about 15-20 miles, so I'll come in just under 600 miles in training before the marathon. The last run will be on Friday. Saturday hopefully will be very restful and relaxing. I usually don't sleep very well the night before the marathon, so I am going to try to get a good night's sleep on Friday.
The rest of this week will just be finalizing a few things - the playlist and the shirt specifically. Every year, I put some words or a saying on my shirt. Many people put their names on their shirt. It results in some of the one million or so spectators cheering for you by yelling whatever is your shirt. It can be pretty entertaining. If you get tired of people saying whatever is on your shirt, you can move to the middle of the street and a lot less people will be able to see you.
So, I ran a nice 12-miler today. If you a regular reader, you'll know that every so often there are days where the running is just mediocre. I think today was supposed to be one of those days. It was also supposed to be my last longer run with any sustained effort. So, I am glad I got a bad one out of my system. There's part of me that's nervous because it was my last run of any substance. It's pretty normal for veteran marathoners to doubt their training and fitness level at this point. Part of it is because we are tapering and the reduced mileage can create a little stir-craziness. The other part is human nature. One of the frustrating parts of marathon running is that you train for four months for one day. It's only natural to question if you've done enough for that one day.
So, I was trying to run three easy miles to start today. I did and came in at about an 8:08 pace. The next three were supposed to be 7:40s. After hitting the 6 mile mark, I was at a 7:53. The problem is that I felt like I was running harder than that. So, I turned around and decided to try to hit the next three at 7:40. That didn't happen either. I came in at a 7:45 for the next three miles. Again, I felt like I was running harder. So, I took it easy for mile 10 and then picked it up for miles 11 and 12. I ran the last two at a 7:30 pace.
It wasn't a bad run by any stretch, I just couldn't hit my times I was shooting for. I felt like my effort today should have netted me better times, so it's a little concerning. At the same time, I kind of feel like it was supposed to a day where I just didn't have it and I still posted some respectable times. On the plus side, I was getting faster as the day went on.
As for my calf injury, it's still there. It's getting better, but I am starting to doubt it will be fully recovered by Sunday. It's not a huge deal. I can still run with it and there are times I don't notice it at all. Other times I can feel it with every stride. I am hoping for the best, but am still mentally preparing myself if it flares up on Sunday, especially in the final few miles when many of the muscles in the legs are very fatigued. I am getting therapy three days this week and will see the doctor on Friday. I'm not sure what he can say at that point, but what do I know?
Wish for some cool temperatures for the weekend. There are differing forecasts right now. One is calling for mostly cloudy with a high of 64 and a low of 46 the night before. That would be really good. The other is calling for a cloudy day with a high of 57 and a previous evening low of 41. This would also be good. These two forecasts have started to get closer together in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, one was at 68 and the other was at 52.
My name is Paul Kapellas. I am the proud father of Isla Mae Kapellas.
I have two blogs- the Life and Times of the Kapellas Family and Running for Cru. The first is self-explanatory. The second details my marathon running and raising awareness of SMA.
