Steve Hack….. on Track…

I was scheduled to run in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 11th, 2015.

During the time I should have been training, I was, instead, trying to heal a sore knee that had swelled up on me. I could not run in the marathon. It took too long to heal.

This story I am about to tell actually began back on  August 24th, 2015…

My husband, Steve Hack, and I were out at a local restaurant having a few drinks and just chatting about life.

I mentioned to Steve that I still had to cancel my hotel reservations in Chicago, my rental car reservations, and to defer my acceptance into the marathon until next year. Due to my injury.

Steve instantly said “Too bad I can’t run that marathon, instead…”…. He was completely serious.

Is he crazy…? …Steve is a runner. But, Steve is NOT normally a distance runner. A marathon is 26.2 miles long…. Steve, at that point, was running 6 miles as his longest typical distance.

I decided to go on my  iphone and see how many days someone can train for a marathon and be able to finish without actually dying…

I looked and some crazy person on the internet wrote an article about how there is a possibility a person can finish a marathon with 30 days of training… I checked the calendar…..and the marathon was 47 days away at that point…

I showed the article to Steve. He told me he wanted to get through a 6 mile race he had been planning to run that was a little over a week away… Then, he will entertain the possibility of training for a full marathon after the race… Which would leave him 31 days to train for the marathon…..

Well, the ultimate decision was made after that 6 mile race… Steve Hack was planning to run the BANK OF AMERICA CHICAGO MARATHON with 45,000 other runners…

He had 31 days to train.

Steve was going to take my place in the marathon…

He said he really, really wanted to run this for me….

Since I am experienced in marathon training, I drew up a handwritten training plan for Steve to follow.

He only had enough time to fit in three “long training runs” to be completed each Sunday.  He also had to do several shorter distance training runs during the week days before he left for work.., Then he had to do two weeks of “tapering time” (cutting wayyyy back on training miles). Tapering time is extremely important in order to rest up for the “big day”.

So, the official  training  began on September 10th… Race day was October 11th…

Steve’s long training runs consisted of: a 9 miler, then a 13 miler, and finally an 18 miler. That was it…

A REAL marathon training plan consists of 16 weeks of training. This was definitely an abbreviated version.

I mapped out his courses, hid waters in bushes so he had places to stop and have drinks, showed him how to use the GPS running watch so he can track his pace and distance…, and I even met up with him at spots on his long training runs holding hand made signs with words of encouragement.

I had nice cold “recovery drinks”  ready for him as soon as he got back home from his long runs.

It was all coming together…

And so… On Friday… October 9, … Steve, our son Bradley, and myself got in the rental car and made our long 14 hour drive out to Chicago from New York… Arriving at 10:30 pm that evening.

Friday night we stayed at Steve’s sister’s house just outside of the city..

Saturday we checked into our hotel which actually sat on MILE 1 of the actual marathon course.

We took a shuttle bus to the other side of the city to the EXPO and picked up the all important “running bib”.

That night, Steve slept like a baby..

That night, I hardly slept a wink. Being through this process 4 times, I worried about Steve and that he didn’t know what was about to hit him.

A person can be as “fit as a fiddle” (which Steve IS..), but a marathon can rip you to pieces.. The pain that your body endures in the higher miles is severe.. He hadn’t felt that yet.

So Marathon morning arrived. Steve woke up and got dressed and mentally prepped.

I took a pen and wrote all the mile markers he should look for Brad and I to be cheering for him. I also wrote some inspiring things on his arm so he can read them when he’s feeling tired.

I kissed him and looked him in the eyes and said “you got this”..

Off he went walking a mile to Grant Park where the starting line was.

I set it up so that I could get texting updates when he started, hit the 10K (6 mile) point, the half marathon (13 mile) point, the 30K (18 mile) point, and then the finish (26.2 miles)….

At 8:07 am I got the text that he crossed the STARTING LINE.

I was so nervous for him.

Brad and I saw him at several of our planned locations and he looked happy and strong and moving fast.

I received text updates that he was going a 9:04 minute per mile pace… Which is a little faster than I thought he was planning to run.

I was happy to keep getting the updates that he was plugging along and when I had seen him at mile 12 he looked strong and happy still..

Our next venture was to take the subway to the other side of Chicago to catch him at mile 23. We ventured over and made it to mile 23 … Soon after we arrived at the 23 mile mark, the text update came in that Steve had crossed the 30K point ( the 18 mile mark). It was then that I started to FREAK OUT !!!

His pace had slowed wayyyy down to a 12:29 minute per mile. Steve never runs that slow. It’s not a slow pace for many people, but it is for Steve..

I started to  worry terribly. My mouth went dry, I could not think straight…

I was definitely having a full blown panic attack !!

I went about an entire hour thinking Steve probably collapsed on the course.

I said to Bradley, “Let’s start following the course backwards behind all the spectators and head towards mile 22  … See if we can find him.”

I stopped at the medical tents to make sure he was not in there. He was not.

I had written emergency contact info on the back of Steve’s race bib the night before. So, I kept checking my phone for a call coming in from an unfamiliar phone number… NOTHING …

Brad was doing the math in his head and he said “MOM, I have faith in Dad, I think he just needed to slow down”…”I think we will be seeing him soon..”

We scanned the crowd of 45,000 runners coming at us…..We scanned and scanned.

I kept saying to myself “blue bib, grey shirt,.. blue bib, grey shirt..”… No Steve yet..

Standing at the mile 22 mark, I finally heard Brad say “There he is… There’s BIG D  !!!!!”.(Brads nick name for Steve)…

I was the happiest person on the face of the earth when I saw him..

Steve was running,. He never stopped running. He was staring into space and not able to talk or lift his legs too high.. But, the man was running !!!

What happened, was that he had “hit the wall” at mile 18 or 19. The longest he had ever run was 18 miles in his training runs and so his body recognized that and he had to slow it down. The sun had come out and the temps picked up to 75 degrees.. He was battling through all of this like a trooper.

Brad and I started running alongside him from the side walk and dodging spectators. Brad grabbed waters from the tables and had it available in case Steve gestured for a sip. We kept yelling encouraging words to Steve to let him know we were with him.

Brad kept saying “Come on, Big D, keep moving…..” as he’s running along side him. Brad even stopped and hid behind trees to let Steve run ahead to make him think Brad couldn’t keep up with him.. Helped his ego a bit…

We also would run onto the course , itself, to get close to him to talk if the crowd and music on the streets were too loud for him to hear what we were saying to him.

We ran with him from mile 22 to mile 25.

I kept saying “Brad, … Stay with him…Stay with him…”

You see .. on Steve’s long training runs. I always dropped Brad off on the course so that Brad could finish out the last 5 miles with Steve and help him through.. So, it only made sense that Brad would do the same on race day.

At mile 25, I ran out onto the course, literally, and got up in Steve’s face. I looked him right in the eyes and said “We are leaving you off here. You have ONE mile to go !!… You go and you get that medal !!!! For me !!! Right now !!!…

Steve couldn’t talk , but he could move his arms. He drew a heart in the air with his pointer finger to tell me he loved me…. And the look on his face changed for the better.. A look of determination. He ran off into the loud, cheering crowd toward the finish line….

About 12 minutes later, the automatic text came across my phone that he had crossed the finish line.

If you talk to Steve, .. he’ll explain the pain he endured, but the pride that he felt after he “hit the wall”, but dragged it with him to the finish line.

He is a very strong man. I am so proud of him.

A little extra note… Steve said he crossed the finish and started to dry heave a little, and fell to one knee… Then he picked himself back up and used whatever energy he had in him to walk and meet Brad and I at a special meeting place……. STARBUCKS on the corner of Jackson and Wabash ……Of course !!!,,, He can always find his wife at the nearest Starbucks.. Then we helped him walk back to our hotel room. We ventured out in the city that night (Steve hobbled slowly)…,  and then hit the road back to New York early the next morning…