Chicago Athlete: Why did you start running?
Rumbi Chidz: I’ve worked out a lot the last five years, running short distances and track, but I never thought I’d run a marathon – I’d see people running outside and think they were crazy. Then I watched two of my friends run the Chicago Marathon one year and I was inspired; I wanted to run it that day! So I thought my first marathon would be Chicago but my friend wanted to do the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in Nashville, so I did that in 2015 followed by Chicago that year too.
CA: What are you most excited about for this year’s marathon? Most nervous/anxious for?
RC: I’m most excited for the energy and the people cheering, it pumps you up so much I can’t wait. I am looking forward to seeing how well I am going to do considering the amount of training I’ve put in this year. I never used to do tempo runs and I hate them but they are so helpful.
I’m nervous because when I train I run with people at almost my half marathon pace, so I can keep up but I’m nervous if I can do that on my own. I just really hope my results show that I’ve trained hard.
CA: What goals do you have?
RC: My goal is to break 3:30; my first marathon was 3:59, then I did 3:42 at Chicago in 2015, then did the Toronto Marathon in 2016 at 3:30. But I’ve never in my life done as much training as I’ve done this year with Fast Track so I am pretty sure I am going to kill 3:30.
CA: What advice do you give to other marathoners?
RC: This will be my fifth marathon and I still consider myself a newbie; you have to keep up with your training runs, if you want to be fast you really have to do track workouts to help with speed, while keeping up with long runs so your body can get used to it. Eat right and hydrate, and find people you can run with at your pace. The goal is not to compete against someone else, it’s to challenge yourself.
