(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 41)

Man oh man.

Can you believe that I’m on the cusp of running my fourth marathon?

(Or maybe I’ve already run it, depending on when you read this.)

You may remember I gave you some detailed information about how to watch me in Boston both the first time and the second time I ran those races.

I didn’t do it for Wilmington, but they don’t have an app so there was really no way for people to track me. (And it turned out to be not worth tracking.)

But Chicago has an app!

So here’s how you can keep tabs on me as I run the Chicago Marathon!

I arrived in Chicago on Friday afternoon.

I don’t have a huge personal attachment to this city, but it is the third time I’ve visited. Both previous times I stayed in the area I’m staying this weekend, so there’s a pretty good familiarity with the streets around the Magnificent Mile, as they call it, and the area near Grant Park.

Which is cool, because that’s where the Chicago Marathon starts. The first mile or so, I think, goes past the hotels I’m familiar with and through the theater district and…well, I don’t know a whole lot else about it all.

But I’m excited to check it all out as I run past.

And if you care to keep track you can see me passing whatever I pass through the Chicago Marathon app.

Go to the App Store, or wherever you get your other phone applications or whatever they’re called for other makes of phones, and search ‘Chicago Marathon’. The app has the marathon logo - so, you know, it’ll look like this:

Then under ‘Tracking’ you can type my name and it’ll allow you to keep tabs on me. I don’t know exactly how it works. It looks the same as the Boston Marathon one where it allowed you to follow me. But I won’t be using the app during the race so I haven’t paid a lot of attention.

You can also type “Kevin Hull” and keep track of my friend Kevin running his first marathon, if you’re so inclined.

Oh! And they have a neat little feature called a “Belief Booster” under the ‘Interactive’ section It looks like you can send runners an inspirational message or just a cheer or something. I saw some of those for me at the finish line of the Boston Marathon and it was super cool. I heard a rumor they might appear at Mile 21 in Chicago. That would be a nice boost.

It seems like the app is a little buggy. I hope it works for you better than it is for me. I got my tracking to work but it seemed to have trouble finding runners for a bit.

As for the run itself, I am just hoping the run will go as well as the 20-mile training run. If I get through 20 miles feeling that good I’ll be OK for 26.2.

The weather seems great, I’m hoping after some travel stiffness works itself out my legs will be feeling great on Sunday morning…so I’m hoping to break that 5-hour mark.

I’m scheduled to start around 8:30. It appears that doesn’t always happen on time, so it might be closer to 9. (That’s Chicago time. So 9:30/10 eastern. The time zone is really messing with me. It took me way too long to realize the Jets will be playing at 3:25 on Sunday and the baseball game times are all listed eastern so it’s like everything keeps sneaking up on me.)

I’m sure the app will tell you when I officially cross the start line.

And I’ll certainly be telling you all about it all in next week’s Sunday Paper.

Notes

*Obviously I posted this on Saturday - thanks for keeping an eye out if you didn’t catch it when it posted.

*There were just a couple of small runs this week - a 2-miler and a 3-miler. Nothing really notable…the focus was on ‘Don’t get hurt.’ I didn’t.

*Speaking of which, I definitely had a better recovery before I started training for this run than I did last time. My feet feel great, my legs and hips haven’t been a problem. I definitely also took better care of all of the above this training cycle - better stretching/strengthening and foot care.

*Kevin pointed out this is the 45th Chicago Marathon, and we’re in our 45th year. That seems like a good omen.

*”Running Every Street In Framingham” is on pause until I start running again after the marathon. Not sure exactly when that will be, but two of my daughters and I are signed up for a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving so I’ll have to do a little running before then.

*You can see where the map stands at the Instagram link below - I posted a pic after the 18 week of marathon training. I am sure I would have finished it if I did all of the long runs in Framingham - I ran a lot of miles along the Esplanade. And I definitely could have figured out a more efficient plan. That’s OK though. It’ll be fun to try to finish before the end of the year.

*If you’re curious what I’m rooting for in the playoffs, know that I would be very happy with a final four of Baltimore, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Arizona. It’s not impossible…looking froward to watching a lot of baseball this week.

*You can check out marathon updates on my social media at the links below. Thanks for following along!