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I need an ice bath. It has been a long, long day! The temperature started out nicely for the Chicago Marathon, but they quickly rose to unbearable levels, reminiscent of my late miles at Providence. By the time I was done, I was exhausted. Chicago definitely took a lot of energy out of me.

What’s that? You thought I ran a marathon last week? Didn’t I just run Smuttynose? And now I ran Chicago?

Um, well, uh, yes! I did run Smuttynose last Sunday, and, um, no I didn’t run Chicago. But the truth is, between watching the event online and tracking a plethora of friends on Twitter, it made for a long, emotionally intense day.

The elite men’s finish was one of the most incredible ends to a marathon I have ever witnessed, even more exciting the the women’s finish in the 2009 Boston Marathon. Sammy Wanjiru simply amazed. I found out shortly thereafter that my friend TK had been yelling at her computer 300 miles away, just like me.  It was comforting to know I wasn’t the only crazy one being thrilled by this finish on a small, low-res screen.  Then, over the course of the next 5 hours I tracked friends (not only at Chicago but at Portland as well), many of whom were attempting BQ’s of their own, many others simply having the goal of making it to the finish line.

As the news of splits of various friends (@DP_Turtle, @runnrgrl, @calebmasland, @seeksboston26mi, @jenn_if_fer, @anivs19, @sclevine, @runwithareason, @MarathonBrian and many others) came through, the excitement of what they were going through was almost palpable. I wanted to get out there and run with them, each and every one of them.  Instead, many of us sent them encouragement via Tweets; I wanted New York to come sooner than the 4 weeks away it stands now.

I believe that most of my friends that were attempting to BQ succeeded. Everyone finished despite the soaring temperatures. Some friends had to dig extra deep during gut check time, but each and every one of them did so.

Gut check time for me came 7 hours in when I realized that my right thumb was shaking, literally shaking, over my iPhone. It wasn’t long after that the last of my buddies was in and I was able to give my thumbs the well-deserved ice bath they needed.

Who knew that watching a marathon from afar could be so intense!

Congrats to all of you who ran marathons this weekend!

All you need to do is send me a paragraph or two telling me why you run and/ or why you think others should run. E-mail it to me at “runluaurun at gmail dot com” (written out so the bots don’t start sending me spam).

If you can, please include a picture of your favorite running shoes and tell me what kind of shoes they are. Also, please let me know how you would like to be referenced (real name, nickname, pseudonym, etc) just in case this project actually ever sees the light of day.

The more responses I get, the sooner I can put it all together, so please don’t be shy about forwarding this to your running friends and spreading the word.

Thanks!

Luau