Marathon Day.

Sunday was the Chicago Marathon.

As I like to say, my favorite thing about having arthritis is that it gives me an excuse not to do something I've always hated anyway. I just do not understand running being fun. I think people lie when they talk about a runner's high. And running 26.2 miles? With so many other viable transportation options these days, its inexplicable. I don't drive 26 miles per week, why would you want to run in it one day?

That said, my friend, Liz, was crazy (and dedicated, focused, etc.) enough to run it on Sunday. Missy came up with a plan of being a roving cheering squad. I got up at 7:00 am on a Sunday to go out into the sub-40 degrees to go over to Missy's house. From there, I borrowed her cruiser while she rode her tri-bike. It was my first time riding a bike for more than 30 seconds in probably 20 years. Thankfully, the old saying is true -- you just don't forget. Although, riding as an adult in a large city is significantly scarier than riding my bike in the driveway as a kid. And, I say this having lost my two front teeth at the age of 6 by going over the handlebars. As Missy said, the righteous anger and survival instincts of being on a bike when cars ignore you is quick to come.

We biked over to my neighborhood -- Old Town -- and settled in at O'Brien's, a restaurant on Wells St that was mile 10.2 of the course. Laura tried to meet us but got barricaded out by road closures between her place east of us as the marathon course crossed twice in between. We had a perfect vantage point though. Delicious omelets, a couple mimosas and coffee, and just in time to see the crazy-fast Kenyans run by. We also got to see the wheelchair competitors. All just incredible displays. At about 9:45, we first saw Liz running and looking good.

From there, we biked over to the West Loop, to cheer her on again at mile 13. We had to get creative to cheer her on at mile 17 -- we took Lower Wacker to avoid the marathon course. I always say that if you drive Lower Wacker, you really live in Chicago. Its a scary -- but fun -- drive. (If you've seen Batman, you've seen Lower Wacker -- the armored car race with the Joker? That's Lower Wacker.) Well, its A LOT scarier on a bike. We did it for as short as possible but it worked -- we're alive to tell the tale and we got across the course.

After that, we weren't sure where to head other than south. Neither of us had a map with us, assuming we could just pull it up on our blackberries but the website seemed to be having difficulties. We headed toward the south loop and stopped for some coffee at a grocery store. We ran into some people with a map and planned our next stop -- Mile 25 on the south side (22nd and Michigan).
We saw some incredible displays during the day. In addition to the pro-runners and wheelchair athletes, the guy who stood out the most for me was a man missing a leg but did the entire 26 miles on crutches. He was moving too. We saw him all four times and by mile 25, he was so excited to be almost there he raised his crutches in accomplishment and just hopped for awhile. We were cheering everyone on. In fact, we sort of lost our voices in the process but we felt like we had to make for the people who were just standing there, not clapping or cheering even when their person came by, just taking up space. (Side note: anyone running a marathon would be well-served to print their names on their shirts in large and legible font -- it makes cheering so much easier and the runners really seemed to appreciate it as they actually said thanks.)

After mile 25, we headed back to Missy's to drop off the bikes and get some tea to warm up. Tea and a Top Model marathon devolved into sushi, lots of prosecco and Knocked Up. Really, a fun day but exhausting. And, we didn't even run the marathon!