The Hidden Gem Half Marathon is positioned on the calendar to be a warm-up for the Chicago Marathon. For one elite runner this year, the race on Sept 7 in Flossmoor will not only help her prepare for Chicago but will be part of her ramp up to a more intense running event.
Chirine Njeim is getting ready for the World Marathon Challenge: Seven marathons in seven days on seven continents starting in mid-November.
But first, she’s looking forward to running the Gem again. She competed in the first Gem in 2019, taking third place in the women’s division. After a pandemic hiatus in 2020, the race resumed in 2021, and Njeim won the women’s division that year.
She said the Gem is a special experience for runners because the whole community gets involved. She appreciates that there are no significant stretches of the route without people out cheering the runners on.
“I cannot say enough about this race,” she said. “It’s such a great race, like the people there and the volunteers and cheering. It’s just a really good vibe all around. I think that’s what made the race just so special.”
gives the second-place finisher, Rachel DaDamio, a high five shortly after
DaDamio crossed the finish line. (Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)
One memory from running the Gem was a boost she got from a youngster.
“I’ll never forget that a little girl walked up to me and she’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, you are amazing.’ And this just made my day,” Njeim said. “So it’s just really fun to be there.”
A few weeks after the Gem and the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 8, Njeim will be headed to her first race of the World Marathon Challenge. She has not run the world challenge before. It was founded in 2015 and has been an annual event, except for the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022.
Preparing for the demanding series of races has been a matter of Njeim consulting with veterans of the event about equipment and planning.
Having proper clothing for running in dramatically different climates and terrains presents one of the unique challenges of the race, she said. The first marathon takes place in the cold of Antarctica. The last race is in balmy Miami, Florida. In between, there will be races in South Africa, Australia, two in Istanbul (one on the Asian side, one on European side) and Argentina.
Njeim is also anticipating challenges in getting enough sleep and nutrition between races, which will mostly be spent on planes enroute to the next race site.
Training has been simple: Get in more miles. She has been putting in more 20-plus-mile days recently, she said. In the days before her interview with the Chronicle, she ran 20 miles twice and 26 miles once.
“Instead of driving places, I just run,” she said. “That’s how I’m going to just keep my legs used to being tired and just running and running and running. It’s a big step for me, but I feel pretty good.”
Participating in the World Marathon Challenge is not cheap. The fee is nearly $50,000, according to the race website.
Njeim said she is sponsored by the company she works for, Transcarent, a company that offers healthcare guidance for clients. Njeim is the administrative assistant to CEO Glen Tullman, who has supported her running endeavors since she ran her first Olympics marathon in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Njeim, who originally is from Lebanon, represented her native land in three winter Olympics — 2002, 2006 and 2010 — in Alpine skiing.
She said running is very different from skiing, which requires power in relatively short bursts. Long-distance running is more meditative.
She started running after moving to Chicago in 2010. The first year she was there, she wasn’t working and needed something to do. She saw people walking, running and biking along the lakefront, so she started walking and running.
Then on a whim, she signed herself and her husband up for the Shamrock Shuffle 8K.
“I felt it was a huge accomplishment. We both felt very proud of it,” she said. “And so then I decided, you know what? I’m going to do Chicago Marathon.”
She ran her first Chicago Marathon in 2012, and that was it: “I absolutely fell in love with running.”
Although she’s an accomplished runner, she said her approach is fairly laid back.
“I just like it to keep it very simple. Just run how you feel. Listen to your body,” she said. “If you can only run a mile, just run a mile and walk the rest. Just go with it and go with the flow. I think if you push yourself to do something where it’s miserable, it’s just gonna continue to be miserable.”