The Longest Run

The final race results for the 2008 Chicago Marathon have finally been posted ( 2008 Searchable Race Results ), so I can now look at some stats on my performance last weekend. A short aside - the race results posted by the New York Road Runners Club (for example, the 2007 New York City marathon results ) are a lot easier to navigate than those posted by active.com. In any case.... There were 31,335 finishers last week, of which 17,669 were males and 2,768 were males between the ages of 40 and 44. My official time was 4:53:48. My overall place among the finishers was 17,669 (57.4%) My overall place among the male finishers was 11,514 (65.2%) My overall place among the male finishers between the ages of 40 and 44 was 1,887 (68.2%) In order to place in the top half of my age/gender group, I would have had to finish about 20 minutes faster than I did. It's possible to get some insight into the impact of the weather on performances by looking back at the stats from the 2006 race, which ...

Each finisher receives their medal right after crossing the finish line - it's an incredible feeling!

Here's the report from the New York Times on this year's Chicago Marathon: Another Hot and Steamy Marathon in Chicago .

It's 5:30AM. Chris and I are up and getting ready for the big day. I had a short but good night of sleep (I woke up at 4AM) but feel rested and ready to go. Latest weather report looks ok. It will be in the low 60's at the start and the mid-70's by the time we finish, with partly cloudy skies and moderate humidity. We leave here in 45 minutes....

Had a nice time at the Race Expo picking up our race kit, checking out some running products, and meeting Tom Green of Runners' Lounge . You only have to spend 5 minutes at the Expo to get the sense this marathon is a huge event. Here are some pictures: (with an extra link in case you can't see the slideshow)

Here's a cool new interactive map of the marathon course - perfect for spectators trying to plan out where to catch their favorite runners (Mrs. Longest Run, this means you!). My favorite feature is the links to photos of spots along the course - definitely worth checking out. And for the real die-hards, here's a Google Earth file with this year's course.