As he prepared to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday, Dan Kapinus readied his Runkeeper app and his Garmin Fenix 5 watch. A former marine, he wore his beige camouflage headband.
Kapinus, a lover of tech who’s now a manager of financial systems technology at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, had prepared for the race by studying years of his own running data, which dates back electronically to 2009 and to paper logs from 2003. Blue Sky checked in with him as he trained to see how he was using tech to prepare for the race.
His quest to run a sub-four-hour marathon, which would have been the fastest of the eight marathons he’s run, seemed doable, and his tech data showed his training pace could get him down to a 3-hour, 40-minute marathon.
But no matter how many spreadsheets he used and how much data tracking he did, it couldn’t compensate for a marathon with race temperatures that mostly hovered between the mid-60s and mid-70s.
“All the tech in the world can’t control the weather,” he said, “and it can’t control your body.”
The run started out promising, as temperatures were in the high-50s. The ideal temperature for marathon running is often thought to be about 55 degrees.
Kapinus felt good about the first half of the marathon, staying on an 8:45-minute-per-mile pace. He crossed the halfway point at 1:56:28, according to the marathon’s runner tracking data.
More Top Picks Best Home Backup Batteries For Houses
But then the mercury kept rising, and Kapinus’s legs began cramping.
“The heat really started to mess with me,” he said. “I don’t know if I was mentally prepared for it.”
He found himself taking multiple walking breaks. His hips hurt. His stomach cramped, too.
“The last three miles were brutal for me,” Kapinus said.
He crossed the finish line at 4:29:19 — his fourth-fastest marathon.
“All my marathons kept getting faster,” he said. “So I was feeling a little bummed about that.”
In the future, he says he’ll lean even more heavily on tech, utilizing features on his Fenix 5 that sharpen stride measurements.
And of course, he’ll keep running. His next race, a 15K, is three weeks away. Next year, he’ll be back with his tech gear to run the Chicago Marathon — and challenging himself, once again, to break four hours.
Erin Chan Ding is a freelance writer.
Twitter @erinchanding
var playlist = ‘chi_bluesky’,
layout = ‘autoblurb’,
iu = ‘%2F4011%2Ftrb.chicagotribune%2Fbiz%2Fbluesky’;