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Notice how mine are so white and clean since I did not train for the past 2 1/2 months.
I stopped running right after I bought these pair of shoes.
Chicago Marathon
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they also met up with me at about the 17 mile marker. none of us had mobile phones, so it was no small miracle that we were able to catch each other along the route. i knew the general marker that we were going to try and meet up, but the entire route was packed with spectators so it was really tough to pick them out even though they were waving signs and ringing cow bells.
i think you can hardly tell i got up at 5 am and have been running for 17 miles :-)
at this point, i'm still feeling pretty good. i maintained about a 4:20 actual running pace through the first 16 miles and was running slower than i could have run because of a nagging, knotty feeling i had in my right hamstring. it wasn't anything painful but it had been noticeable through my entire three weeks of tapering and was the kind of thing that might turn out to be nothing or might send me hobbling at the 20 mile mark. so i took it relatively easy.
you'll also note that it's still cold enough after 3 hours of running that i still have my thrift store running pants on. i think it might have been 43F which can usually be shorts weather but the breeze was mighty brisk.
Elite women at mile 4. Deena Kastor (black hat) came in 6th with a time of 2:28:50. She was the fastest American in the race. Melissa White was the second American woman to cross the finish, followed by Tera Moody (in the black, just in front of Kastor).
Also pictured here: Japan's Mizuho Nasukawa, Ethiopia's Berhane Adere, and Germany's Irina Mikitenko.
Russia's Liliya Shobukhova (the pink flash behind Adere) won for the women with a time of 2:25:56. She was too fast for me to catch on camera.