Jump to content

Home

Point Man is running the Chicago Marathon today


Jae Onasi

Recommended Posts

Congrats!

Thirded. Ah, the things people do for fun.... How long is that marathon anyway? What was his final time?

42km (+-26 miles)...

 

I have to admit that even if I was paid for I wouldn't do it: a marathon is suffering for the sake of suffering to me :p I prefer to sweat for other reasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those anabolics must have worked tremendously well; running 26 miles in six minutes is quite a feat.
I snuck them into his Wheaties every day. They worked fantastically! :lol:

 

I bet the winner was an African who did it in half the time. At least, that's what happens every single year in the Mumbai Marathon.

A Kenyan gentleman won in 2:05, fastest time on American soil and course record for the Chicago Marathon. I can't imagine running 26.2 miles in just over 2 hours--that's running 13 miles an hour. Just amazing.

 

We took Point Man out to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and had Thai chicken pasta and yummy cheesecake for dessert.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To all those who think they could not run a marathon, I say this: if a slow, fat, out-of-shape, broken down 43-year-old can do it with an injured knee, you can, too.

 

It was all about willpower.

 

I did fine for the first 8 miles or so, then my knee started hurting. I got to mile 13 and had to stop to get it taped. That didn't really help. It hurt something fierce. I went about another half a mile before I stopped. I got up on the sidewalk and started walking back to mile 11.5, where my family was waiting, thinking about how disappointed they would be for me. I knew they would not think bad of me, but I knew I would let them down.

 

Then I thought, "If I can walk back, I can walk forward. They have dropout vans, if I need one." So I turned back around and got back on the street. After a while, I either got used to the pain or it loosened up some, so I tried running. The knee couldn't take that. I tried running a few more times, with the same result. Finally, I tried to run for a couple of minutes, and I just pushed through the pain. I set a pace I could keep up for the whole race and shortened my stride to help out the knee.

 

Every step hurt, but it was going to hurt whether I finished or not. And if I didn't finish the race, I would have the pain of disappointment. That would hurt even worse. So I just kept going. It just came down to keeping on moving.

 

The people in the neighborhoods we ran through were a great encouragement. I wrote my name on my jersey, and people would call out, "You can do it, Jim! Great job!" They wanted to see me succeed as much as I wanted to. I couldn't let them down.

 

When I got to mile 18, I thought about the people of Mutomo, Kenya. My team is raising money to help them get clean drinking water. I saw a picture of an 11-year-old girl carrying 4 jugs (each 5 gallons) 8 miles to the nearest water source. I thought, "If she can carry 20 gallons of water for 8 miles, I can surely run 8 miles."

 

By mile 22, I was convinced I would finish the race. Only 4 more miles? That's only 2 laps around the park by my home. When we got to about a quarter mile left, the course turned onto a bridge over some railroad tracks. That was actually the steepest hill on the course. It felt like a cruel joke by the race officials because hills hurt my knee the worst. But I had gotten that far, I knew I could push through it.

 

I rounded the final turn and saw the finish line about 200 yards ahead. What a beautiful sight that was! I raised both my hands in triumph as I crossed the line and said, "I did it! I finished a marathon."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...