The 2020 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, October 11, and race weekend activities have been canceled by event organizers and the City of Chicago in response to the ongoing public health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. pic.twitter.com/ASTBlFbIEX— Chicago Marathon (@ChiMarathon) July 13, 2020
I got this notification on my phone in the middle of a meeting this afternoon. I know I was expecting it but I'm still just so BUMMED to see it in writing! The 2020 Chicago Marathon has been cancelled and will not be running as scheduled this October. 😭 If you remember from my last post, Brett and I were making bets on how far into my training I would be when we officially got the news. He said 8 weeks, I said 5. Turns out we were both wrong, as today would have begun my fourth week of training (if you could call it that lol)! As disappointed as I might be, I am already thinking of the positives:
1. I no longer have to wonder about when the announcement will finally come. Being on the hook about this race has really messed with my mental game and I've found it really hard to focus or stay motivated to go out on runs.
2. As a direct result of #1, I honestly haven't been consistent with my training for Chicago. Now that I know for a fact that it is cancelled, I can focus back on other aspects of my physical health like flexibility and strength training which have definitely suffered during the quarantine. I'll add back in mileage after I've had the chance to work on these other pieces of my fitness!
3. I still (as of now) have Smuttynose to look forward to this October! I know that other races in NH have been running in the last few weeks, so I'm hopeful that I'm still able to head up to Hampton in early October to run the Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon. I'm hopeful that because it is a smaller local race it will hopefully be able to remain on as planned, but I guess we'll just have to wait to find out. If you're interested in joining me in October at the Rockfest Half, head over to hamptonrockfest.com and use code "SAVE10" for 10% off your registration!
4. Depending on how the situation in Florida develops (it's not doing great right now, y'all), I still might be able to visit my parents on the weekend Chicago was originally scheduled, and maybe even run another race while I'm down there! I'm not entirely sure what the smartest decision is for that right now, but we'll keep an eye on it and potentially take another trip in 2020.
5. Chicago's contingency plan is GREAT! They're offering either a refund or a deferral to 2021, 2022, or 2023. I'm so glad that they're being so flexible with their runners. I might defer to 2023 because I'm not entirely confident that we'll be out of the woods yet this time next year, or even the year after that, but I'm going to give myself to think about it before making a final call.
6. I still have one marathon on the 2020 race calendar - Rock n' Roll Savannah in November - so we'll see if I'll be running another 26.2 come the fall. There might still be hope, y'all! 🙃
So, at the end of the day, everything's going to be fine. I'm glad I have time to refocus on my fitness, and perhaps get my head back in the game when it comes to training. I want to find discipline and motivation again. I want to keep showing up for myself. Now that Chicago has been cancelled (or really postponed, since I'll definitely be running this race in my future!), I feel like the pressure is off a bit and I have room to grow and recenter as an athlete.
How are you feeling about the Chicago cancellation?
Do you have any races still on your 2020 calendar?
No comments:
Post a Comment