Here's Holly's Race Report and video from the 2015 Fox Valley Marathon:
I wasn’t planning on running this marathon but since I was
scheduled for a 20 miler that day anyway, and my friend Julie said she was
considering run this one, I of course signed up! It has a great reputation for being a very scenic and
well run race. We managed to con our friend Stan in to coming up from Bloomington to run it as
well. We planned to have a
nice easy day as it was my first marathon back after my surgery and I wasn’t
really sure how I would feel.
We were in Disney two weeks before this race and I didn’t do
any running over that long weekend plus I came home with a cold that turned
into a sinus infection so my confidence level was pretty low, but again it was
just a training run and we knew we were going to all have fun together.
Stan and Pam stayed with us for the weekend and we had an
early wake up to be sure to leave the house by 5am to get to the race on
time. That was not such fun. Julie met us at a Starbucks right next to the start. Dave and Pam left us to get in position
to watch the start and start their race chasing.
We lined up and I was SO excited to finally be
running a marathon again. When we
got going I was going a bit too fast so we agreed to let Julie do the pace making. She did a great job. They advertise this as a
fast and flat course. The
first 6 miles or so were definitely not flat. Once we got down by the river trail it did flatten out
and it was a beautiful course on a beautiful day. It got a bit warm at the end but the course was very shady
so that helped.
Our
race chasers did a great job of chasing us and saw us a million times. I even gave them the task of
finding me some flip flops because I didn’t want to have to wear my running
shoes home.
I felt great the
whole day and was so happy that I was running a marathon again. When we all crossed the
finish line together it was big smiles all around! The medal was super cute, but the post race food
was severely lacking. I managed to
find a freeze pop and a bag of chips. All in all I would do the race again if it fit in to
my training schedule, although it was a pricey registration for a small local
race.
Dave's Comments:
The only challenge for Race Chasing this one was the journey from the start to Mile 3. The spectator guide (extremely detailed for a local race) said you could not see your runners at the start and the Mile 3 spectating area. HA! It was only 1.5 miles away. They did close some roads a few blocks away from the course, but we creatively wound our way through the streets and got there with time-to-spare. There were a few places where the course merged, or went out-and-back so spectating was easy.
The text at Mile 21 requesting sandals kinda threw Pam and I for a loop. Luckily there was a Walgreens a block or two out of our way and we were able to accomplish our task and make the scheduled spectating spot.
We were both pretty hungry at the end of the race and decided we needed to eat before getting home. We stopped at Duke's Ale House for burgers and Oktoberfest beers on tap.
Here's the video from the race:
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