I first heard the marathon was over by one of the volunteers at the water stop. He said "The marathon is over. From this point on it's just a fun run." That I kind of had to snort at. I have never heard of a "fun run" being more than 2.5 miles. Running 26.2 in the heat (or 19 at that point) is NOT fun. I almost didn't believe him.
Then another volunteer said the same thing a little down the road. "The race is over, folks. Just treat it like a training run." I know I had heard it twice at this point, but really I was having a hard time believing it. I mean, come on, not only is it one of the World Marathon Majors , but it was also the 30th anniversary. Then I guess I realized how many sirens I was hearing throughout the marathon, and the police presence that was suddenly everywhere (like the guy in the middle of the road telling us to start walking). Then, at about mile 20 I actually did see more policemen. This time they had bullhorns. They were telling us the marathon was over. There was no more water. We needed to stop running. We should report to the next aid station to board buses to go back. It was crazy and no one knew what to do.
It was a little creepy, because people were still celebrating and cheering us on.
The cheerleaders at Charity Mile were still doing a routine to "Mickey", the dancers were still dancing in Pilsen. I mean, I was still enjoying it, but it sort of had a creepy "national disaster" type feel to it. The helicopters overhead yelling "The marathon is over. Please stop running." did not help.
Everyone around was just asking "Do you think we're going to get our medals?" I turned around and said "we'd better." Then we talked about how pissing off thousands of runners who have trained months for this and had to walk the rest of the way, by not giving them their medals would NOT be a good idea.
At some point, the firemen opened the hydrants. I was SOAKED. And I suddenly realized "Wait. This is the coolest and most hydrated I've been during the entire race..." And I was being directed NOT to run. Forget it. I was running. I ran off and on, making sure I felt okay and was hydrated.
Everyone was STILL cheering. I feel like it was with even more intensity.
When I got to mile 22 it was blocked off by a bus and some barricades. They were rerouting people. I saw some girl go through the barricade. I followed her. There was NO WAY I was not finishing! They kept yelling at us to stop. Everyone started chanting "BULLSH*T! BULLSH*T!"
I just kept thinking, 'if they think we're going to stop, they do NOT understand the mentality of people who run marathons'.
Finally at mile 24, a cop told us we could finish if we wanted to, we should walk not run, and we WOULD get our medals. Actually, the police and firemen were great. They were just trying to help everyone. One cop car came by and the cop said into the bullhorn "Dr. Phil says stop running." That also made me laugh.
The crowds were treating us like we were heros.
People were still soaking us, and offering us water, and wet sponges, and ice and even wet papertowels. It was so cool.
When we made it back to the Loop I was like "OK. I've got to run this." Especially since I JUST got misted by the huge misting firetruck. I probably would have walked faster at that point, but I had to do that last .25 miles.
I finished at 5:50:11. Ha! So much for my 4:45! But I was proud of myself anyway. And I wore my medal all day.
