Chicago Marathon 2024

It was early June, and I received an email from Abbott World Marathon majors titled 'Andy, your chance to run Chicago is here!' After opening the email, the first paragraph started 'Our records show you still need the Bank of America Chicago Marathon as part of your six-star journey'.

This email was giving me the chance to enter a secondary ballot for people with 3 World Marathon Major finisher stars and gain a place at the event. I never entered the original ballot the previous October as my focus was completely on what I already had booked, which was the Valencia, Tokyo, and Ibiza marathons. So, what do you do when you receive an email like this? If you're me you enter, these chances need to be taken.

Early July I got the acceptance so after a quick bit of maths working out can I afford it, and how many weeks till the event were there so what was training going to look like I said yeah, why the heck not, lets do it. I already knew that a local(ish) unattached runner Gary Kearney was doing it, so I asked him what his plans were and formulated my own plan from there.

Trip booked I now had 14 weeks till the run itself. Where I was at physically at this point was, I had just been on the way back from taking time out with family priorities. I had a couple of races in July that I booked as kind of testers to see where I was and then we were going on holiday for pretty much 4 weeks in August to Florida and the Netherlands so proper training couldn't begin until after this.

In the run up to the event training went well, I had something like 5 and a half weeks to get myself in the best condition I could affording myself a one week taper at the end. I managed a half marathon race in there with a time of 1:27:18, this gave me good confidence.

It was soon October 11th and time to fly off again for another overseas marathon. Gary was on the same flight as me, so I met him in the airport, we chatted through what we thought the next few days were going to look like and set off from Manchester via Heathrow. Landing in Chicago at the local time of about 3pm the plan was to hopefully make the expo before it shut at 6pm. The immigration line had other ideas. So, it was a case of straight to wherever we were staying.

As I'd booked late the hotels in the city were very expensive and not at a price I was prepared to pay so I managed to get an Air bnb that was just south of the city, only a 10-15 minute train ride away. It was however a shared property, so 5 bedrooms, all with keycode locks but communal living area, kitchen, and bathroom. Not my normal type of set up but at £221 and not £1500 it was a no brainer.

That night it was a pizza from down the road at the dominos and I also bought some supplies from the local supermarket for my stay. I'd been speaking to a guy I saw post he was doing this marathon too through Instagram, Adam Stirling from Royton Road Runners, he was on a different flight and due to get to Chicago later that evening. When he landed, we agreed meeting the next morning for the expo.

No jetlag issues, the sleep was very good, so I got up and decided I'd walk to the expo from my place, it looked to be about a 45-minute walk, it was a nice morning to do it. I never do a shakeout run or any running the day before a marathon, it just isn't part of my routine, so the walk was a good idea.

On the walk I saw the blue line for the marathon route in the middle of the road and this got me hyped.

I met Adam, this was my first time meeting this guy too but as with most people in our running community back home, we're a friendly bunch. Time to hit the expo and see what there is going on. I spent quite a bit of time there this time as I was with Adam, he was buying all sorts, whereas I wasn't really interested in anything they had on offer. I did the usual thing of taking pictures with your number at opportunities and I went to the 6-star finishers wall to find Nicola Nuttall's name as I always do. Nicola completed the 6 marathon majors raising money for the Brain Tumour Charity all in support of her daughter Laura Nuttall who was diagnosed and given a short prognosis. Laura defied the odds and made national news with her bucket list. The word 'Inspirational' really is not big enough to describe the Nuttall's.

After the expo, Adam and I walked into the centre of Chicago along the shores of Lake Michigan. I think it was around 24 degrees C and the conversation naturally went something like 'It had better be cooler in the morning!'

Together we did a bit of sightseeing in the park and got our bearings for the morning and the start, then hit a food stop for something to eat and early afternoon decided to go our separate ways. I got the train back to where I was staying and just relaxed back at my room for the afternoon. I put my interview from episode 87 of the Local Runners Podcast on. This was to pass the time and to just listen to what everything means to me and why I do what I do and what has shaped my own personal journey. I then put the race kit out and made sure I had everything.

With the afternoon hours now passing, it was early evening and I decided to go for a pizza at the dominos again and bring it back to the room. I'd planned the morning out. The race was starting at 7:30am so my plan was to be up at 4am and heading to the train at 5am. I was up at 3:30 so did my full morning routine of getting ready, prepared my Maurten 160 drink mix and made my 2 Raisin & Cinnamon bagels, one peanut butter and one Nutella (if you know you know).

I headed to the train station, and I was already feeling the nerves and I found this a bit strange as I'd not felt nerves on a race day for a while. I managed to get the train to the near the start and as I got off the train I just felt really overcome and I started feeling like I shouldn’t be here and shouldn't be making that walk to the start area. I feel like I was having a bit of kind of panic attack which was really strange for me as this wasn't anything I'd ever experienced before. I was texting some people back home and agreed to give someone a call to try and calm me down. I'm not afraid to say this, on the phone I just burst into tears whilst the person on the other end just talked to me. After around 10 minutes, I came off the call and continued to compose myself whilst grateful for the 10 minutes I'd just been given.

I gave my bag into the baggage area, it was still currently pitch black but as you're at the edge of the city at the front of the lake, the lights from the tall buildings were visible and it really was a very nice view of illuminated building silhouettes.

I found my way to my start area and just kind of hung around. I was sitting under a tree and just stretching the bottom of my legs out and just struck up a conversation with and American guy called Ryan from Texas, initially talking shoes, then we got on to the race and any other marathons we had both done before. This was great, and really helped pass the time. It was now daylight.

I entered the start area, lots of people running around in a big circle warming up, but this really isn’t for me, I think the important thing for me here to remain calm and just stretch out, so this is what I did. As we got closer to the start time it had got a lot busier in the 'A' pen and no one was running around. Groups of friends and club mates formed and then it was time for the national anthem which really was a moment. I don't know who the lady singer was but my gosh did I feel like I wanted to be American right at that moment! A few moments later they paid tribute to Kelvin Kiptum who is the current men's marathon world record holder, a record he broke on this course the year before but who tragically passed away in an accident earlier this year.

It was now time, 7:30am approached, it was time to be ready for the start. The Americans in the crowd around me were majorly hyped and they were whooping and fist bumping each other. I wished a stranger good luck as I always do, and it was time to get moving. One thing I found strange was there didn’t seem to be a loud start, no klaxon, no confetti, just kind of the clock ticked over and people started moving.

So now the race. I set off with a target of trying to break 3 hours again. It seemed highly unlikely as I'd only had the 5 and a half weeks of training after a month of nothing, but I'd told a few people back home that I would give it my best shot. So that’s what I was going to do.

As you set off there are just people everywhere, the same as any big city marathon and then the crowds are so populus either side of the street and on any bridges that run over the top of the road. With the buildings being so high It just creates such a cauldron of noise, if anything pushes the hype up any further, it's definitely a lot of noise from the spectators.

Within the first mile you go through quite a big tunnel which is where a scene from the Batman film, The Dark Knight was filmed and when you pop out the other side you cross the Chicago River. The bridges are like a corrugated metal so on one side there was a carpet laid across which is quite handy as I think with shoe design these days it could be quite easy to have a mishap on there.

Over the bridge and take a left and the crowds are still out in force making sure you know they want you to go well. Another left and back over the river on the same type of bridge and just continue down still with major crowds and no let-up of the noise as you pass the Chicago theatre. The road then takes you on an almost U bend which is the type of thing that would become very familiar round the rest of the course.

Heading back North most of the runners were on the right of the carriageway but I'd found myself on the left which was separated by some middle of the road islands One benefit of this was I had a lot of space as only a few others were on the same side as me. As I carried on back up this road, I hit 5k just under 20 minutes, and then 4 miles, at which point I started to get pins and needles in my left foot. Something I tend to get when I've not been that active. I wasn't really expecting this as I'd been really active lately. I got to just before 5 miles and stopped at the side of the road as I wanted to try and deal with it sooner rather than later so I just took the weight off the foot, moved it about a bit and did what I could. I got myself going again. I was conscious to see where I was at 10k to see if I was on target for the sub 3 hours. I got to 10k at 41:12, so was 1:18 ahead of target.

Thankfully no more pins and needles so it was a case of just going about my business as best I could. Race fuel strategy for me is gels at 10k, 20k, 30k and then 35k so I'd taken on my Marten 100 and was moving along steadily. This part of the course takes you through a park at the northern most tip of the course before you then U bend your way back round to head South. There is still no let up in the crowd, this marathon is so well supported.

Heading down this section towards halfway I kept hearing lots of shouts of 'Go on Sascha', so I kept looking round thinking who is this Sascha? I got to halfway at 1:27:40 and this meant I was 2:20 under the target. I heard the shouts again and I managed to pinpoint who the shouts were for, so I manoeuvred over and asked this guy if he was the Sascha everyone was shouting, he said he was, so I asked how does everyone know who he is? He told me he's runs these streets. I didn't know what to make of that, was he a well-known local runner, was he in politics, was he a gangster? But we had a little chat, and I was on my way.

I'd been picking up water as it was quite warm, and we were heading towards the sun. We made a turn to the right to head West and it was at this point the crowd did start to thin out. I'd slowed and I did have a moment to walk here before getting back going again. One thing I did notice as we went this direction was that we passed by the United Centre, home of the Chicago Bulls, this got me a little excited and a bit energised.

After heading West, it was time for another U bend to head back East. One thing that I do like about the US is that they do love a grid formation when planning towns and cities so there are lots of long straight roads, boring to some but bliss to me. Heading South again through the Little Italy area I hit the 30K mark and this was in 2:06:15. I was 1:15 under target.

I kept going at the 3-hour pace through to 35k. At this point I knew I was at crunch time, I had a big 7k left to go and the time split was 2:27:40, so I had 32:20 to do it in. This is where I did start to slow and walked a couple of times. I had the gel in my hand that I would normally take at 35K, I'd not taken it, I just didn’t want it, the thought of it turned my stomach so I put it back in my pocket after about 10 minutes.

Its now 37K and for the first time you can see runners on the other side of the road, and I'd slowed considerably from my 4:15 per KM to somewhere in the 4:40s. In my mind I said it's gone, and it wasn't a big deal, I'd hit that target twice in the last year so anything I got out of today was going to be epic based on training, so I just went with no pressure to the last of the U bends and then headed north for the final long straight.

As I was going along a quick bit of mental maths at the 25-mile marker, and I thought to myself it could still be on to get the sub 3 target. So, I had a quick word with myself in the internal dialogue and said, 'This now comes down to how bad do you want it?!' so I did what I could and got myself back on that sub 3 pace and just pushed with whatever I had left.

As you get to the end of this final long straight there is a right hand turn and it's a slight up hill, not welcomed but definitely manageable, before turning left on to the finish straight. I saw the clock and the time, and I had looked at the watch as I rushed towards the finish. My finish time on the day was 3:00:18. I was 18 seconds over the target of the sub-3. I couldn’t believe it! I wasn't unhappy, I was very pleased, I didn't think I'd get that close. I'd spoken to a few people before saying I want to go for it, but I think I'll fall short and end up somewhere in the 3 hours and 3 minutes region so to come that close was for me amazing and definitely an over achievement.

I walked through the finish section, and I ended up at the baggage area just a bit in shock trying to understand how I'd done what I'd just done.

The rest of the day was spent with Gary and Adam and in some of the bars of Chicago celebrating. I came to Chicago in the hope of getting another sub 3 off limited training, I got very close, but I was in no way disappointed. Chicago is awesome, the crowds and the atmosphere before, during and after are just excellent.

Feeling inspired…. you know what to do!