Thousands of runners had already passed her, but at Mile 23 Amy Hernandez set a firm goal for herself -- she would not allow the City of Chicago street-sweeping truck to pass her.
She moved as quickly as she could while the smoke-belching blue monster crept closer. And then, finally, the machine lumbered past.
But when she looked at the man behind the steering wheel, she found the inspiration she had been lacking. The driver smiled and held up three fingers -- three miles to go before the finish line.
"I had been crying throughout the race," said Hernandez, 34, of Rolling Meadows. "That was the first time I smiled in many miles."
She pushed on to the end, crossing the line at 8 hours, 3 minutes and 51 seconds, the 2004 Chicago Marathon's last official finisher. She never expected the race -- her first -- to take that long.
Her problems began the night before. Staying with three running friends at the Palmer House, Hernandez was too juiced with adrenaline to sleep. At the starting line, jostling with 33,919 other runners, the homemaker was terrified. She admits she has never enjoyed running, preferring a form of martial arts called wing chun. She was hoping that her training with chi breathing -- the tongue is pressed to the roof of the mouth to trap the soul's energy -- would help her.
It didn't. Her energy spilled out early, her legs tightened and pain crept up her body. "It was a bad day to have a bad day," she said. She grew cold and dehydrated. The last miles felt like torture.
"I wish I could say it was determination that kept me going, but it was really Yu Yi," she said of her friend, who had also trained with the National AIDS Marathon Training Program, which raises funds to fight the illness. "If I quit I knew she would quit, and I wasn't going to let that happen."
They persevered. Yi crossed the line four seconds before Hernandez, who collapsed at the finish, where her husband and three kids were waiting.
"There are a lot of things in life we can't control -- the marathon you can control," said race director Carey Pinkowski. "Amy Hernandez might have gotten more out of this race than [overall winner] Evans Rutto did."
Despite coming in last place (it must be noted that nearly 800 who started did not finish the race) she says she's thinking about doing it next year. "Hey," she said. "my time can only improve."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune