My Journey as a Johnson Girl...formerly a Fedota Doll: Jared Runs the Chicago Marathon!!!!

October 9, 2011

I cannot believe my baby brother did it! He not only RAN the Chicago marathon…but he finished faster than he had planned! Wowzers!!! He’s truly an inspiration! He finished the race in just under 4 hours! Here’s what went down:

*Jared and I went to the expo the night before and spent the night at a family friend’s loft just a few blocks from the start for the marathon (great planning on our part as parking was quite difficult on the day of the race.

WE FOUND HIS NAME!!! :)

Jared making a sign to use to thank his donors! He ran on the Susan G. Koman team!!!

*We carbo loaded for dinner…what’s up pizza and pasta!?!?!

*We got out a map of the race course and planned a few places where my dad and I would wait to potentially see him (from people we’d talked to who had previously run the race this was a good idea but definitely not a guarantee that we would actually see him…it may just be Jared running for 4 hours straight and my dad and I running (via public transportation) like crazy people all over the city trying to find ONE PERSON in a see of THOUSANDS!!!!). We agreed on 4 locations. Jared also agreed to run towards the left outside side of the “pack”.

*Dad drove down to the loft later that evening and we discussed the plan of attack with him…we needed him since (let’s be real here...) we all know I am not the best with a)directions b)knowing my actual location c)figuring out public transportation and d)map reading! Hehehe!!! Dad seemed pleased with our plan!

*With everything figured out it was time to head to bed…if we could

*I didn’t get to sleep right away because I was far too excited for the next day! I mean…seriously…how many people can actually say that they’ve run a marathon? Well…about 1% of the world’s population! That’s not a whole lot of people!!! CRAZY!!!

DAY OF:

*We got up (a little late), got ready, and headed to the start

*Dad and I got Jared’s stuff all checked at the Susan G. Koman gear check (he was running on their “team”)…we also scored free breakfast and snacks at the tent! YEAH!!!!

*We were about to head to our first stop and realized that where we were standing would be a really good place to potentially see him during the first 2 miles…so we hung out where we were and watched the disabled runners, the wheelchair racers and the Kenyans first and then waited! We knew which “wave” he was planning to run in so we kept our eyes peeled! As luck would have it my freaky brother/sister bond with him paid off and we saw him just as he was coming up to us! I screamed like a crazy person and he saw me…not only saw me…but threw me his sunglasses! I guess he was done with them!!!

And they are off...

Lots of spectators! Such support!!

Satisfied that we’d seen him once (which is more than a lot of my friends can say for the people they’d gone to watch) we headed to original spot #1. It ended up being the Volkswagen/some grocery store mile and dad and I once again hit it big…FREE breakfast!!! And we’re not talking a little yogurt parfait or granola bar here…we’re talking FULL ON BREAKFAST!!! Made to order waffles with all sorts of fresh berries/syrup/real whipped cream, more fresh fruit that you can pack in your pockets, lots of juices and waters (both in bottles to take with you), all sorts of bagels with cream cheese…it was awesome! Plus it was the cleanest porta-potty I’d seen yet!!! (Yup…I did bring my porta-potty seat covers, travel TP AND hand sanitizer…a girl can never be too prepared!) We also got a free draw-string backpack! Lots of fun! But back to Jared…we waited at this mile marker and looked for some of the runners we’d seen before that stood out! As luck would have it…we got to see Jared AGAIN!!! He saw us too! I think my LARGE sign and loads of SCREAMING helped!!! This time…I got his gloves! Thank goodness for the new, free backpack…because those gloves were DISGUSTING!!!! But the people around us thought it was super cute that we were there to support him and that we were accumulating his possessions along the way!

HUGE Fooseball (sp?) table!!!

On to spot #3…well…really #4…China Town! Never been there…and it was quite an adventure! We took the Ell (obvi!) and waited and waited and waited! Thank goodness for the text alerts…they gave us a GREAT idea of when he’d be coming our way! It was really neat to get the alerts because they gave a lot of detail…like mile pace; estimated finishing time; etc. This time Dad saw him first and man was he in a zone!!! This was like mile 18 though…good for him…Keep it up bearie! He didn’t see us at first so I yelled and jumped up and down with my sign as much as I could and we finally got his attention…this time we had him on video!!!!

We missed him at our final check point (mile 23…the pink breast cancer mile)…and while we were looking for him we got the text that he had finished…so we headed back to Millennium Park and found our little marathoner eating a bagel and drinking some water with a few of his MU friends!!! Jared got the free massage in the tent but then has his friends stretch him out for a little while longer…I don’t know too many other runners who bring their own PT to the marathon!!! Lucky man!!