MEMOGRAPHER | Travel Photo Journal

Dedicated to my 1995-2015 race.

I’m very pleased to introduce you Memographer’s new project- Memography of Running, a project that combines my three favorite hobbies: Photography, Travel and Running.
You’ve seen plenty of Photography and Travel here, now it’s time to catch up on the Running part. If you are not a runner, this story may sound pretty boring to you; so feel free to scroll down to the pictures [wink]

My first marathon destination was Chicago, Illinois and its famous Bank of America Chicago Marathon. The Road to Chicago looks easy from mobile photos taken on a flight [smile]. However, it was a very challenging training path for me. I decided to return to endurance running on February 28, 2014 after almost 20 years long break in running. On that day, I became the Atlanta Track Club member to be able to register for the AJC Peachtree Road Race 10K without its entry lottery.

After the Peachtree, I decided to train for a marathon race. Unfortunately, I hit the road too fast too soon and got injured. So the first steps of this project made in a cast-boot [smile]. I recovered and trained hard. Surprisingly, I didn’t skip a single training session of my 18-week Hal Higdon Marathon Training Program; I ran 4-days a week and cross-trained one day; completed 72 runs from 2 miles to 20 miles long; I ran during rains and storms, under burning sun and in darkness of nights, in 100F degrees heat and 100% humidity… I had two goals for my first marathon: to finish it injury free and to finish it in less than 4 hours. I finished the first half of the race in less than 2 hours, but couldn’t keep up the sub-4 marathon pace… Nevertheless, my First Marathon was a huge success. I’ve finished it injury free and I had, hands down, the most incredible enlightening and wonderful running experience… I got hooked on marathon running!

I’m proud to say I #OwnChicago! but, most importantly, I “own” something else, and it is in my heart forever.

***Just FYI,
– #OwnChicago is an official hashtag of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
– Spirit of the Marathon is a 2007 documentary film directed by Jon Dunham. The film chronicles the journey six marathon runners experience while training and competing in the 2005 Chicago Marathon.
– The Chicago Marathon is one of the six races of World Marathon Majors series. Five others: Boston Marathon, New York Marathon, Berlin Marathon, London Marathon and Tokyo Marathon.
– The Chicago Marathon is limited to 45,000 runners and only runners who finish within 6½ hours are officially timed.
– The runners wishing to participate in the Chicago Marathon can register after either meeting a time qualifying standard or being selected through a general Entry Lottery.
– The Chicago Marathon record finish time is 2 hrs 03 min 45 sec (Dennis Kimetto, 2013). The average finish time of the Chicago Marathon is 4 hrs 33 min 03 sec (2014).