Speed Demons

The Chicago Marathon was ran here last Sunday. It's passed a few blocks from my place the past two years, and I think that's pretty cool. Quite a few people from my class ran it, and to be honest I was surprised at how many. One of my friends even jumped in randomly since it ran through our neighborhood. He wasn't even training and ran half the marathon. Props. Either way, it's pretty cool seeing people's names and times published on the marathon website. It's even cooler that they ran it in the middle of a block of four exams. You could definitely tell from people's gait who ran yesterday.

All the buzz about the marathon got me to read up on and somewhat follow the marathon. Apparently it's one of five major marathons, the others being Boston, NYC, Berlin, and London. I figured Boston would be that level of marathon, I had no idea about the other four though. Apparently this year's field was 45,000 strong. That's a lot of people, imo. A lot. The winning time was 2:06. Over 26.2 miles. By my count, that averages out to 12.5 mph and sub 5 minute mile pacing....for two hours. Damn, I don't think I could 1.) sprint that fast 2.) keep that pace for more than a few minutes. And even better, I average about 10 mph on my bike rides. Sure that includes some stoppage and traffic time, but still - my moving average is probably only about 14 mph. Weak.

The past two years the marathon weather's been unseasonably warm - around 80°. Since we were studying in the middle of the Illinois Medical District Sunday and not too far from the marathon route we were one of the first places ambulances came to. And come they did. Until the early afternoon, there was a legitimate average of one ambulance every ten minutes roaring through. Yikes. Last year, one person actually died en route to the hospital. Sad, yes. Sadder is that said ambulance couldn't find the hospital...amid three major ones (Cook County, UIC, Rush). One of my classmates actually had to taken away on account of her hyperthermia and dehydration. Eesh.

And now I'm off to try and grab some sleep. Infection/immunity kept our study group up for awhile on account of the ridiculousness of the exam material. At least the other exams for this block have been semi-reasonable in their detail orientedness. Today's exam: not so much. Either way, I'm in the hospital for ten days after this. Yay! Sure, working hours suck, but at least I'll get my nights and weekends back totally. Double yay!