Stopping by the Chicago Marathon

Those who know us would not immediately associate us with marathons. We’re just not marathon people if you get my drift. But hey, we are retired and when we learned that our friend Walt was going to run 26.2 miles in Chicago. We said, why nor drive to Chicago and watch. When you retire, you can do things like this too. The marathon was on October 5th, and since we going to a wedding practically next door in New Jersey on September 30th the timing was perfect.

The camping road from NJ to the Delevich homestead in Lake Geneva was fun. Two things we learned. Pennsylvania is one hell of a long state. (beats Connecticut by a mile, many miles actually) and Boston is actually not the worst city in the world for traffic on a Friday night, it’s Chicago.

Anyway we made it chez Delevich in time for cocktails. Elsie always seems to know exactly when to announce cocktail hour. It’s a gift she has. We offered not to drink in solidarity with the marathon man, but fortunately we were over -ruled. Walt has mastered the art of Manhattan mixing since we saw him last. I don’t know how he found time with all the training for his big run.
Saturday was the day before the race and we helped  Walt train by going to breakfast at a great place in Lake Geneva to bulk up on carbs.I can only imagine how someone would feel the day before a marathon. I mean someone who is actually running. Svend and I felt fine.


Walt is an interesting guy, very funny, very smart, very crazy for running a marathon after 60 (just barely the whippersnapper) Of course he was nervous, but also philosophical  -“ If I don’t finish, so be it” sort of attitude. We love to joke around and make fun of Walt, but really we were very impressed by his decision to participate in a marathon! Again! You see this was not the first time we watched him run. He ran the New York City Marathon some time ago and we went to a few different spots to cheer him along. The fact that he wanted to do yet another was amazing to us. So here we were a good many years later in a different time of life and in another major city.
Chicago IS that toddling town which we found out the day of the Marathon. Walt was running with his good friend Mariano and Mariano’s daughter, Paula. He smartly stayed downtown the night before at Paula’s apartment so as not to be distracted before the big event.

We, the cheering squad, were up early the next day to take the commuter rail to downtown (via the cute town of Woodstock, IL in which Groundhog Day was filmed.)

Through the miracle of cell phone and GPS we were easily able to connect with Mariano’s wife Pinky who was waiting on the corner with a huge balloon with her daughter Paula’s big smiling head on it. She was easy to pick out of the crowd.

There were other marathoners in their group of friends. Some of them actually all the way from the Philippines. So we were actually a part of a larger group of onlookers. Of ocouse there was an app that many had that could track each of the runners o we knew when to expect our heroes. Life is interesting when you are tracking marathoners in a major US city with friends and new acquaintances. Beats lying on the couch.

Still smiling

The three compadres appeared on cue and seemed happy and still healthy. After a few quick pictures they were off to continue on their 26.2 mile journey. Elsie, Svend and I cut across the city to hang out at the wonderful high rise home of Pinkie and Mariana right near the finish line. Tough life, but we suffered through. Some of the members of the “Filipino mafia” as they called themselves started to appear with their beautiful marathon medals and smiling faces. 


Our hero Walt finally appeared intact and a second world class marathon successfully completed. We knew he had finished a while earlier thanks to the GPS, but surprise, surprise he found himself at the beer tent for awhile. A well deserved reward for an amazing feat.

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