I’m not quite sure when this photo was taken but that’s the face of a runner pretty sure he’s going to meet his goal. (There’s also the possibility he has crossed the finish line and knows he has met his goal.)

There’s a certain feeling you get when you know you’re going to accomplish a goal.

Well, maybe I shouldn’t speak for everyone.

I feel a certain way, at least. I guess it’s pride? Happiness?

It feels like a real win.

I had it earlier this year at the Boston 10K - that was a race where I set the goal that I wanted to do better than an hour, and when I knew I had it I could cruise and it felt good.

I had that feeling for most of the Chicago Marathon on Sunday…and then panicked a little bit that it was slipping away…before it came back right at the end of the race.

It’s a nice feeling.

4:59:20 isn’t just a sub-5 hour marathon for me - it’s also a better than 4-minute improvement over my previous best.

My previous improvement was - kind of hilariously - just 6 seconds. I ran Chicago 6 seconds faster (5:03:42) than my second Boston. (5:03:48)

So to see a 4-minute bump is kind of amazing.

I think probably the intervals get the big credit…but also, I just ran a better race. I paced myself better. I felt like a smarter runner on Sunday.

Let’s take a closer look at how it went down:

Miles 1 through 3: I mentioned in yesterday’s post that downtown Chicago kind of wreaks havoc on the GPS. Everyone knows it - it’s one of the big things people talk about going into the race. So I think that’s partly what accounts for the weird Strava difference in time (I also think weaving in and around the blue tangent line in the marathon affects that time and distance). I was very careful to only look at the time on my watch and not any distances. When I crossed a mile right around 11:00 I sensed it was going to be a good day.

Miles 4 though 6: I really like the downtown portion of the race that opens things up, and I think this section is a really nice bit - there’s a good neighborhood with some good crowd support and it’s a real long straightaway after a lot of twists and turns through downtown. It’s a good opportunity to settle into the pace. I passed the area with the porta-potties where I had to pull off the course for a minute two years ago and was glad I didn’t have that urge this year.

The various split times from the marathon app.

Miles 7 through 10: There’s a few left turns here to get back down towards the park and I might be messing up my miles but I do know this is when you pass Wrigley Field, which is fun for me. Then you go through Boystown where there’s stages and music and it’s such a good time - it really brings you up. And this is where I started to think, I wish I had a towel to wipe my face, I wonder if I asked at an aid station if they have a towel…and then lo and behold at the next water stop they were giving out sponges! It was the best - I never knew I needed to sponge my face in the middle of a run until this marathon. I kept the sponge for a bit, wiped the sweat off my brow and face, and then let it cool my neck a bit. It was so great.

Miles 11 through 14: My watch completely went out somewhere around here and I didn’t remember that happening before…but this is a stretch that takes you right back past the big buildings so I figured I would wait it out and eventually it kicked back in. But I think I ran without the watch for more than a mile. I hit the halfway point at 2:26 and started to feel pretty good about the pace. I was about the same in New York but at that point I was starting to slow down…this time I felt much steadier.

A couple of times up until this point I felt what I’ll call a tweak in my thigh. A tweak has a negative connotation so it’s tough to call it that - but there was something. I worried pain would follow but it never did. I told myself that was the muscles I had built kicking in. Maybe it actually was…or maybe I was feeling all of the carbs I had loaded up doing their thing? I don’t know. But I’m glad I didn’t psych myself out about it.

This is the stretch where you pass the United Center - two years ago I started to flag a little around there. Sunday I felt strong.

Miles 15 through 18: I think I can best sum up this stretch this way:

At Mile 15 I thought to myself, “I’ve never felt this strong at Mile 15 of a marathon.”

At Mile 16 I thought, “I’ve never felt this strong at Mile 16 of a marathon.”

At Mile 17 I thought, “I’ve never felt this strong at Mile 17 of a marathon.”

And at Mile 18 I thought, “I’ve never felt this strong at Mile 18 of a marathon.”

In the back of my mind I thought about what a disaster my 18-mile training run was and this is when I started to think maybe I’d do a 4:45 or 4:50 marathon.

Miles 19 and 20: One thing I like about Chicago that the other marathons don’t really do is it has kilometer markers at almost every kilometer. Either I don’t see them early or don’t pay much attention but after 5K there is one almost every mile, and certainly the entire second half of the marathon. 11 minute miles, I’ve learned, are basically 7-minute kilometers. So I clocked that at each kilometer marker - it was the most consistent I think I’ve ever run. You can get a sense of that from the splits picture above.

The last 5 miles featured a lot of this….

Mile 21: I ran mile 21 a little slower. I had gotten my 20 miles in 3:43:31 and I figured I would catch my breath a bit and then see if I could pick things up over the final 5 miles.

Miles 22 through 25.2: I could not. This was a little bit of a struggle. One of the things I was handed out at the expo was Craisins. Turns out they’re really high in carbohydrates. So I had thrown them in my pocket for the marathon and figured I would use them if I got desperate. I started to down them in these late miles. I don’t know if they helped, but sometimes it’s a mental thing, just thinking you’re doing something to help. I alternated walking and running as I did math about how much time I had left until 5 hours and what I needed to do to get in under that wire. I knew I had to pick up the pace because I tried to give myself leeway and 8-minute kilometers were not going to cut it.

Last Mile: I ran most of the last mile. But not all of it. Every time I picked up the pace I was just really dragging. So I picked up the frequency of runs but walked when I needed and then they have signs that show 800 meters left. I guess that’s like a couple of laps of the track now that I think about it, but I wasn’t thinking that in the moment - it just felt like waaaay too long before I saw a 400 meters to go sign. Time was ticking but I was able to run hard and get to the finish with seconds to spare…but also in a way that made me think if I had treated those last couple of miles like interval runs it might have worked because the run didn’t feel terrible.

…but also a strong sprint to the finish. (This is maybe the most triumphant runner picture of me ever.)

Kathy and I were texting later and she had been tracking me and knew I was shooting for sub-5 and she was getting nervous for me. I told her I was thinking about how it looked on the app because it must have looked dramatic….but I was also nervous for me.

After the finish they were handing out towels that were soaked in ice. That’s what you see in the selfie I posted yesterday around my neck.

That felt delightful.

My body takes a while to get back to normal after a marathon. I mentioned yesterday it wasn’t the most sore I’ve been after a marathon…but it has been the worst sleep. I’ve spent all week trying to get my sleep back to normal - part of that is I don’t sleep all that well in a hotel…but I think part of that may have to do with running 26.2 miles.

So I’ll be spending this weekend resting up…but also maybe getting back out there.

It could be that my body is just going through running withdrawal.

I’m proud of myself - I worked really hard to run a sub-5 marathon.

There might still be room for improvement…but if this turns out to be the best marathon I ever run I’ll be very satisfied with that.