Chicago Marathon #8 Something To Build On!



Chicago Marathon October 7th 2012
A race to be proud of and build on 

Wo, oh, what I want to know, where does the time go!

It really does seem like it was just yesterday or shall I say 2005 and I was preparing to run my first marathon. The parallel of my first Chicago marathon and this one were pretty similar in many ways but also different in many ways. I have always been one that has found the journey of sport as interesting and exciting as the journey of life. This past year was no different, as it was filled with new challenges and turns along the way that were no doubt interesting and exciting as I pondered back on them.

As the 2012 Boston Marathon wrapped up and I completed my first trail weekend double (half marathon/50k race) it was time to focus in on Chicago. Like all new training cycles and next races it is kinda like New Years all over again. A time to dream big and write down a list of all the things I want to accomplish and do different in this training cycle/race. And like New Year resolutions sometimes those dreams/goals fade just as fast as the sunsets at the end of the day. This is one of the great things about training/racing sometimes the things I set out to do fall into place and dreams/goals are accomplished and there are times (like this past year) were things just go array. So as the sunset on my thoughts of running 2:45 there was still a dream that came true and that was the birth of my daughter Kristina August! I would trade a shot at a PR in a marathon any day over becoming a dad and witnessing the birth of my healthy child. I have seen and done some amazing things in my 41 years in life but without a doubt Kristina is at the TOP of the list of the most AMAZING!! I cannot come close to express in words how I feel or believe that I could help make such a beautiful human.

It was just amazing how fast 9 months had come and gone, sleep becoming less, work hours becoming longer and fitting in training the best I could. Knowing that this past training cycle was no where near what I needed to come remotely close to accomplishing my goal of 2:45, I very wisely ditched that idea without a second thought. The whole focus turned to let’s become consistent with running again and only that. The plan turned into just run, pace and distance didn’t matter it was all about time on my feet. Whatever my body felt like doing on that given day I did and as marathon day approached I felt pretty good about what I had accomplished over the last month of training. The big breakthrough moment for me was the weekend Greg C asked me to join his team at Dances with Dirt. It was that weekend were I ran a nice solid 18 miler on the tough Poto trail system and then backed it up with running some hard fast miles the next day at DWD. This was the moment and the weekend that I needed, it was such a huge confidence builder and to this day has been the game changing moment that I needed! Race day had come and it was now time to see what I got!

The Race Is On!

As I woke the morning of 10/7 there was a nice crisp chill to the air and my first thought was how refreshing is this for once! Then I thought to myself man of all years to not be prepared to race and to run fast bummer. After only being able to grab 3 hours of sleep, I really felt good and had that feeling that just maybe today would be special. I started getting myself ready for my 8th Chicago marathon and thinking about all my past pre-race moments and how exciting it was to know that I was about to embark on a journey of pushing myself to the limits over 26.2 miles and seeing what I got today. I was also excited because I knew my good buddy Chris would be arriving soon. Have to admit one of the best perks I have for the marathon is our house being a 10 minute walk to the start. It has now become tradition that Chris comes over to our place pre-race.

I’m normally pretty relaxed before races but have to admit excited and full of energy but this year the level of both were low. I would have to say that was mainly due to not have very how expectations of myself on the day. As normal I had the Dead playing and just before Chris and I left the house the tune “Jack Straw” was playing. For those that haven’t caught the reference in Chris’s blog that is the song his title comes from. Before departing out the door I gave my mom, Lisa and my beautiful daughter Kristina a kiss. I still can’t get over how cool that is to say “my daughter Kristina”!!! Chris and I headed out the door in the mist of the sun starting to come up and realizing it wasn’t as cold outside as I thought it was suppose to be.

One of my fondest moments of Chicago this year will be the walk and waiting in the corral with Chris. I can still remember like yesterday (Oct. 2008) when I first met Chris in D.C. before his first marathon. Now our friendship has grown into something very special and I’m very honored to have him and his family apart of our lives. I can’t express how much of my person life plays a huge factor in my running life and how much the two play a factor in the success of each other. I have to admit at times Chris has help be my biggest motivator and has pushed me to be better then I thought I could be. This day would be no different and if it wasn’t for Chris who knows what my finishing time would have been. Maybe the end result would have been what I was planning on settling for 3:20. As we stood in the corral Chris gave me that look and said “ Hey Schuey it sure is a great day to race. What do you think go out and run sub 3?” I remember looking at him with a smile on my face and saying “You know what Chris, I’m going to go out and run what my body feels like running and I’m going to see how long I can hang on for.” Another words that was my code for I’m going to give it 110% and let it rip until I get to the breaking point. At the time I said this to Chris I would have never guessed the day would play out the way it did. Next thing I know bang the horn had sounded it was time to get it on!!

Not much to report about the early miles of the race other then it was feeling pretty darn easy and I was pretty surprised by that. This year would be different from past years were my mom, Lisa and Kristina would see me for the first time at the CBOT right at the turn off Jackson onto LaSalle. That was pretty cool but the downside it was I wouldn’t be seeing them again until just before mile 23. I can remember telling myself I hope that I look and feel as good as I do now when they see me again. The only real tough patch I had during the first half was around mile 9 and I thought was man I feel really tired and I want to go back to bed. This was mainly due to the fact that the last couple weeks at work have been long and busy and I haven’t been getting to sleep until 3am. I figured that this was going to be the point were things would start to fall apart. Then right before I made the right turn on Adams to head to the halfway point what did I hear blaring over the speakers? Is it? could it? While it is “Touch Grey” by the Dead. I just started laughing to myself and going yes, just what I needed right now:

To be honest the next 7 miles really came pretty easy and I was just moving along just fine. But I’m not going to play like this is the way this should be going down and that it would continue this way. I knew that this was just to good to be true and that the moment would come were the lack of training and endurance would show it’s head. I wasn’t wrong and right around the 21 mile marker I could feel the affects of not such a great training cycle, it was at this time for the first time during the day I looked at my watch and started doing the calculations of what I could run over the marathon distance. Yep that is the truth it wasn’t until this point that I looked at my watch, I told myself from the start there was no need to look at it. Today was all about having a good training run and give it 110% for as long as I could. I wanted the day to be “something to build on”. I remember going to myself and being like wow I have exceeded my expectations for the day and that I was happy that Chris helped pushed me towards the direction of giving everything that I had.

I have to admit every since being a little boy I loved competition and I loved being a “gamer”. There is no better feeling during sport giving it your all and knowing that you are excelling to be the best you can be and knowing that you are being the best you can be. See when it comes down to it I feel that I can’t always measure myself on past performances but I can measure myself when it comes to running to what I have down over the last 6 months. On this day I was proud of myself at what I was doing and knowing that I have something to build on today! As I made the left turn by Sox Park heading towards the 23 mile marker there was my family, just what I needed. Although I was feeling the affects of 23 miles and I was tired and was doing everything I could to keep it together and make my family think I had it all together. At the same time I won’t lie I was so darn proud of myself! I was proud at what I was doing, I was proud of how far I was digging, I was proud of how much pride I had in myself. All along I knew I was nowhere close to my over best but I was being the best I could be today. I was living in the moment I was loving life, I was thankful for life, I was thankful for my family and daughter. I was just busting at the seams and holding all the feelings that I had inside.

Although I could feel the pride and knew I was doing something special, I knew that I was slowing and that a sub 3 marathon was really not going to be possible. I had comfort in the fact that it was ok, I was still giving it 110%. I remember telling myself as I headed up the home stretch Michigan Ave just keep it together and finish as strong as possible. All in all I keep it together and as I headed up Roosevelt road like many times before I pondered the accomplishment that I was just about ready to accomplish. I WAS DARN PROUD OF MYSELF!!! I crossed the finish line in 3:01:51 not an overall PR but it was a masters PR by 12 minutes. The day was a huge success and unlike many times before I was at awe of myself for the first time as a runner and really couldn’t wrap my arms around what I just did. For me today was a special day with a an awesome result. I was proud to be me, I was proud to be a son, I was proud be husband and most of all I was proud to be a father. Chicago Marathon 10/7/12 #8 was in the books and it will forever sit in my mind as one of the best runs I have every had on race day!

Split Time Of Day Time Diff min/mile
05K 07:51:40AM 21:20 21:20 6:52
10K 08:12:49AM 42:29 21:09 6:49
15K 08:34:00AM 1:03:40 21:11 6:50
20K 08:55:13AM 1:24:54 21:14 6:50
HALF 08:59:50AM 1:29:30 04:36 6:46
25K 09:16:26AM 1:46:07 16:37 6:51
30K 09:37:50AM 2:07:30 21:23 6:53
35K 09:59:35AM 2:29:15 21:45 7:01
40K 10:22:13AM 2:51:53 22:38 7:18
Finish 10:32:10AM 3:01:51 09:58 7:18

Love the report and the way The Bull handles the race!

But the result tells Jerry's starting training now for sub 3 in Houston a pipe dream. Maybe Jerry should quit, once for all, maybe he should just run as how his body tells him to, which is never run.

Wow, nice race report and nice life report!

Cherish what you have, and congratulations!

Beautiful, Martin! Congrats on a great run and everything else!

I enjoyed your race report almost as much as running with you. And that's a pretty high standard.

You are SUCH a gamer, my friend! You are playing it down here but dude, nobody should be able to run a 3:01 with all the training time missed due to the birth of Kristina and the crazy work stuff. They won't be writing any marathon training guides off of what you did mileage-wise in the 16 weeks leading up to that race. I was KIDDING when I said "go run 6:52s for as long as you can" in the Corral! I thought anything in the 3:10-3:20 range would be pretty sweet as a run for you that day. But when i saw your face pre-race, I knew you were going to be running hard with whatever you had. Like I said...that's the definition of a GAMER! So impressive.

Its such a great tradition I enjoy now to come out to Chicago each year and basically join the Schuey family for a weekend. I mean join it like be an actual family member! As always, I had such a blast hanging with Lisa, your Mom, Kristina and you. Kristina was such a trooper all weekend and I'm amazed how great and easy she is as a baby. The louder and more hectic it is, the more peaceful she looked! I'm in for the Chicago/Boston double you started and now I've joined as well. Those are my race bookmarks for the year and its all about sharing it with you and getting us together around those events and any other time we can as well. The whole family here is looking forward to you coming East for JFK. Pretty funny to think about Kristina someday sooner than we think being as old as Cassidy is now and us still running these nutty races.

Again, so impressed with how you delivered on race day. It tells me that you could be well set up to do some spectacular things race wise in 2013....

Congrats Schuey!

That was a great effort out there, Schuey! No matter your finishing time, you never fail to impress. Congrats!

As always awesome job out there especially given everything going on. Whatever goals you throw out there you always have the will to accomplish them. Great job.

I think Mt. Carmel boys were supposed to choke on game day!



Kidding, of course, as you have repeatedly rose to the occasion when it matters most. You should be proud of your performance and I truly hope this serves as a springboard to your Boston training.

Now, I need to be careful...I'm hearing some Schuey footsteps in the background...

Well done Schuey, you ran an amazing race especially considering the circumstances. You also wrote up a fantastic report. I must admit that it is quite funny to see that Chris confesses that he was kidding you about running 6:52s. You surely rose to the occasion though. Best of luck in Boston!

Wow, either "Touch of Grey was on repeat or I was closer to you than I thought. I too got a HUGE smile on my face when I heard the tune being blasted and it carried me for a few miles also. Knowing how running has replaced so many bad habits from the "Jerry" days for both of us it makes me think about the line from another tune, "big wheel turn by the grace of God"... and we truly are "bound to cover just a little more ground!" You rock my friend, great report and performance despite limited training. You definitely have your priorities straight. See you soon!

what an inspiring race report

Well, Martin, that was an incredible run and report for this year's Chicago marathon. WIth your work schedule and the baby, it's hard to believe you pulled even this off. Nice job all in all, and it's really nice to see the relationships you have. It was really great to hold Kristina, Chris is right on with his observations, she seemed to thrive even in the loud restaurant which could have easily made her cry. Good luck with recovery and training for the 50K, I feel you will pull something out of the hat again. Also, thanks for your unwavering enthusiasm and support every time we talk. Great job.