Chris takes on Chicago Marathon

Maidenhead Athletic Club: Sutton ticks off another long distance run with fellow MAC members Ros and Sam

When people talk about the World Marathon Majors, the names of London, New York and Boston are the ones that usually spring to mind.

However, I have now had the privilege of running London, Berlin and Chicago, and would have to say that Chicago totally blew my mind, both in terms of the city and the marathon event, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking of tackling one of the majors, writes Chris Sutton.

The Chicago Marathon has the advantage of being significantly easier to get into than London, New York, Boston and Tokyo, but it has so much more to shout about than that.

The city is spectacular, with magnificent skyscrapers rising majestically into the sky above, and the city centre, which straddles the Chicago River and sits alongside Lake Michigan, also somehow feels safer and cleaner than many of its big city rivals.

The marathon itself was a logistical masterpiece, with everything running like clockwork, with the minimum of fuss.

Added to that, it boasts a fast, flat course where the crowds are huge, welcoming and noisy, and so you have a marathon which is possibly the best in the world.

I had the privilege of sharing the trip with fellow MAC members, Sam and Ros, and they helped make the weekend a truly memorable one.

We took part in the relaxed and friendly 5k race through the city on the Saturday morning, visited a wellstocked Expo, did lots of sightseeing and enjoyed many tasty carb-loaded meals, before tackling the big race on the Sunday, together with 40,000 other excited competitors.

Sam and I both knew how challenging, physically and mentally, marathons can be and so we decided to run the race together, to support each other on the rollercoaster journey that marathons always tend to be.

And, sure enough, the race threw up a whole hatful of trials and tribulations for us to deal with and enjoy.

The first part of the race couldn’t have gone any better, with the ebullient crowds propelling us down the course at a healthy pace and giving us plenty of opportunities to ‘surf’ the atmosphere.

But, things then took a worrying turn for the worse when the longstanding foot pain that I have been battling with for many months reared its ugly head again at mile seven and planted seeds of doubt in my head as to whether I would be able to complete the course without long spells of walking.

However, Sam’s positive attitude and entertaining showboating, together with the unstinting support from the crowd, helped me block out the excruciating pain in my foot and we continued to press on at a good pace, punctuated by regular, short walking breaks to keep the pain in check.

By 18 miles, we were still on for a time of around four hours, which would have been beyond our wildest dreams.

But, the last part of the race saw Sam’s energy levels dip, as the infamous ‘marathon wall’ did its darndest to stop us in our tracks.

However, we pressed on, albeit at a slower pace and with more walking breaks, knowing we were now within touching distance of the finish line.

News of some brilliant performances at the TVAC cross country race, and various much-appreciated messages of support from back home, kept us going and we battled through to both break the tape in just over 4h20m, for a result that we were delighted with.

We were then joined in the finish pen by Ros who had had her own fabulous run to secure yet another marathon major for MAC.

Ros, Sam and I were all immensely proud of our efforts and were then able to make the short stroll (stagger) with our medals into the heart of Chicago to celebrate our achievements with friends, in this most welcoming and enchanting of cities.