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First Marathon Story: "Anybody Could Do This": The Chicago Marathon, Take One w/ Sara Shimala

  • Writer: Taylor Sayles
    Taylor Sayles
  • 24 hours ago
  • 4 min read

Two smiling women on a video call, one with glasses and a mic, with SARA SHIMALA text over a home office background.

Sara was always active, and says she always ran to some degree - a mile here and there. It wasn't until 2023 that she found running as a hobby. She had always wanted to do a 5K, so she signed up and started training.


A health complication took her out for the rest of 2023. She wasn't allowed to lift or run for months. In the summer of 2024, when she was finally cleared, she found a Lifetime 5K outside of Chicago that she signed up for. The experience was amazing. She saw people crossing the finish line, she experienced the cheers of the crowd, and she watched half marathon runners finish a distance four times longer than what she was running. Inspired, Sara started seeing content online about the Chicago Marathon, and she thought, why not me?


It Fell Into Her Lap

Sara was a little blown away by the process of getting into a World Major Marathon. She reached out to a charity to inquire, and somehow found herself automatically signed up to fundraise for, and run, a marathon.


She looked to a virtual app for training, not sure exactly what she was doing. She had never attempted the distance or had to learn how to fuel. Her first seven-mile run, by herself, felt good. It was her longest run at that time.


Marathon training was a huge time commitment. She had too much wine at a wedding the night before her 12-mile run, and the run became miserable. It was this moment that she felt marathon training taking over her life in a way she hadn't expected. She realized she needed to lock in.


The Commitment to the Marathon

Once she crossed the half marathon in June, as part of the Chicago Distance Series, she was in increasingly uncharted territory. More and more mileage on the calendar, every single week. She wasn't waking up early enough for her runs, making it 8 or 9 miles into her run before having to move to the treadmill. She couldn't keep up with her hydration enough to not feel like she was burning out.


Sara had no frame of reference for marathon training. What was too much, what was too hard? What was normal?


The Tough Moments

Sara looks back on marathon training and doesn't remember a single day when it felt doable. A leak in her home derailed everything. She had to move in with her in-laws for nine weeks, with little sleep, stress, and worrying about insurance, dealing with contractors. She probably took off most of the month of August from running. Sara remembers, after hitting her fundraising goal early, she was wondering if she should even try to run the marathon. How was she going to make it to 26.2 miles in October, after not running in August?


Her then-fiance encouraged her to keep going. Sara tried to get back on track with her running, and she signed up for a local half marathon on a whim (which was miserable). But it got her back on track with training.


The following weekend she ran 15 miles. Her 20-miler was supposed to be a few weeks out from the race, and she couldn't do it. She was out on the trail, did 10 miles, and then 8 more miles on the treadmill. She wanted to stop at 6, but her fiance told her she had to make it to 18 or she would never be able to finish the marathon. She made it through, but life truly happened, and it was a rough training run.


Also because of life, she didn't end up resting the weekend of the marathon. She hit the Expo on Friday, and then had to move back into her house from her in-laws' house on Friday night. If she had to do it all over again, she would not have done things that way.


But at the end of the day, she had an incredible support system that got her through the worst days. And Sara was still excited for marathon day. She told herself that if, for some reason, she couldn't make it to the finish line, she did her best. Sara showed up, it was a rough day, but she made it all the way through.


The first half marathon of the race went well, and she was surprised by how well it was going. But, she probably spoke too soon. After the halfway point, things started to go downhill. It started to get hot. She stepped off a curb and hurt her knee, hobbling along. At this point, she just kept telling herself to keep moving. Miles 17 - 26.2 were brutal. She had two thoughts: "I'm never going to finish" and "I'm never doing this again."


In the last three-quarters of a mile, she saw her fiance, and crying, was convinced she'd never make it. He told her to go for it. That she was so close. And that she'd run that hill before. As she ran down the finish line chute, she saw her mom at the finish line. She wasn't expecting that. The moment was bittersweet. She made it across the finish line, becoming a marathoner.


Lessons Learned

  • Life happens.

  • Recognize the time commitment that training for a marathon will take.

  • Soak up every piece of it. You'll only run your first marathon once.

  • Take every run as it comes.

  • Don't be afraid to tell everybody that you're doing this.


Want to hear Sara tell the story herself? Listen to the full episode now: "Anybody Could Do This": The Chicago Marathon, Take One w/ Sara Shimala— available wherever you get your podcasts.


Listen to my most recent mini episode: How I'm Approaching Returning To Running



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Follow along with the show:

👣 Personal IG/TikTok: @tay.says / @taysays

🎙️ Podcast IG/TikTok: @myfirstmarathonpod

📺 YouTube: @MyFirstMarathonPodcast


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