Week 19 -- Write a chapter in your life story to share with your family



Bill in the hot 2007 Chicago Marathon.

       Running has been a big part of our lives for almost 25 years. I still enjoy running and Mom likes to walk.   I was about 35 when I was feeling sluggish and flabby in about 1983. I started walking and jogging a mile, then 2 miles. My first race was the Charleston Sesquicentennial 5-mile run on July 4, 1985. I guess I got the bug. I ran a few 5K and 10K races. In August of 1987 I turned 39 and started dreading turning 40 the next year. I thought, "I'll train for a marathon and that will give me somrthing to focus on other than turning 40 in 1988." I focused on the Chicago Marathon in October of 1988.
   I ran about 800 miles in the next year but had no idea what I was doing or how to train. My longest training run was 18 miles. My goal was to finish in 4 hours and I finished in 4:09:38. Mom and Heather were with me. They met me several times on the course and were there at the finish. I cried when I saw them and crossed the finish line. I was pretty proud of finishing but had lost my motivation. I told people I actually ran two marathons that day -- my first and my last.
     One nice benefit from the experence is that Heather wanted to run with me. In July 1989, she and I ran the 5K (3.1 miles) Bagelfest race in Mattoon. We finished in 26:41 -- not bad. We moved up to a 10K in late August by entering Abe's Amble at the Illinois State Fair. The race starts at the Illinois State Fair, goes out to Lincoln's Tomb and back to the fairgrounds. We started off OK but about halfway through the race, Heather had had enough. She was getting tired and wanted to drop out. The trouble was, we were halfway done and the only way to get back to the car was to get back to the fairgrounds, which meant finishing the race. We walked and jogged back to the fairgrounds and were one of the last finishers. But we did it!  We went to the awards ceremony where they also have drawings for prizes,


Mom has finished seven half-marathons.

  and when they announced first place female division 18 & Under,

 the winner was Heather Lair!! I have run now almost 25  years and never got a first place in a 10K or longer. Heather got it in two 10Ks that day -- her first and her last!
     I was wrong about that 1988 marathon being my last. When I turned 49 I thought about running another marathon. Our friend, Dick McKay, wanted to run too. We trained together and ran in 1998. We got separated after about 12 miles and never saw each other again until the finish line. When I crossed the line in 4:24, I looked to my right and there was Dick. We finished 12 seconds apart but -- slower than my 1988 time.  We knew right then we had to run another. We entered again in 1999. It was 32 degrees, great for distance running. Dick and I finished in 3:56, beating the previous year's time by almost a half-hour. I was so excited that when I showered I grabbed the hotel bottle of mouthwash instead of shampoo to wash my hair. When we took the shuttle bus for the post-race party at Navy Pier, I lost my glasses. We contacted
the shuttle company and went back to the hotel. I crawled under
the seats from front to back but couldn't find my glasses.

    We went on to the party and celebrated. Then, when we got  back to the hotel later -- there were my glasses on the nightstand where I left them!!!

     We ran at St. Louis the next year for a different experience. It was different all right -- it rained and the course was hilly. My legs chafed from getting wet and by race end they were bleeding. My time was 4:28. I thought I could do better so entered again in 2001. It was hot and I did worse -- a 4:29 time!! In 2002, we went back to Chicago and did better -- a 4:13.

     By this time, Mom and Debbie McKay had the running bug from going with Dick and me but they didn't want to try a full (26.2 miles) marathon. We decided on a half-marathon and chose Nashville for a fun weekend. Cheryl and Debbie walked and jogged in about 3 hours while Dick and I jogged in about 2 hours. Nashville is so much fun. We stayed downtown where all the bars and nightspots are. There is a free concert (we saw Lady Antebellum one year) after the race and two micro-breweries. We had a ball all seven years we have been there.

     I wanted to do one more marathon, though, for symmetry. I ran one at age 40, my second at age 50 and wanted to do, maybe, my last at age 60. I hadn't run a marathon since 2002 but entered Chicago for 2007 at age 59, just to get back into it and really be ready for age 60.

     There were no clouds in the sky with a temperature of about 70 when the race started at 7:30 a.m. It was in the 80s before long and was 87 before noon. One runner died. About 11,000 runners who started the race did not finish. Another 9,000 who registered did not run at all because of the heat. But I ran. At mile 16 they told us we had to get to mile 17 by a certain time or we had to get off the course. I hustled to meet the time standard and kept going. But at mile 20, race officials directed us off the course. I didn't argue. A group of us started walking toward the finish line. At mile 24 we were back on the course so we headed to the finish line. I ended up doing about 23 miles that day and crossed the finish line in 5:21. The next day we bought a Chicago Tribune to read about the race and there was a photo with my picture at about mile 15. That picture made the Associated Press wire and I saw it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and several other places. Well, the story isn't over. That experience cannot be my final marathon. I feel I have to do one more. So this is fair warning -- one day I will write about one more marathon experience!