A Weekend of Races

This weekend was busy for me, so strap in; this will be a longer post.

On Saturday I ran The Great Pumpkin Run.  This is a fun, light-hearted 5K to help bring in the fall season.  The cool part about this course is that it is on a farm and part of the race is through a corn maze.  Don't worry, they clearly mark the path so you don't get lost.  Another little quirk for this race is that you can choose to sign up for the Tough Pumpkin Challenge.  This challenge allows runners to run the 5K while carrying a pumpkin.  If you finish with the pumpkin intact, you get to keep the pumpkin and you get a second medal.  Every finisher gets a small pumpkin to take home, so if you succeed at the Tough Pumpkin Challenge, you get two pumpkins and two medals.
The pumpkin I chose to run with was 12.25 pounds.  I chose it because I figured I wouldn't have to buy a pumpkin to carve if I got one that was big enough.  It was more difficult than I anticipated, but I still had fun.  After the race I got to pet a horse and a goat, so that was fun, too.

On Sunday I ran the Fox Valley Half Marathon.  This was a nice race.  I'm used to running in the city, so to be able to run through a wooded and hilly area was a nice change of pace.  I ended up finishing this race in 1:51.55 and I was 5th in my age group, so that was pretty exciting.  This race had a lot of friendly faces.  I ended up seeing three people that I knew there, which is always fun, but the fellow runners were really friendly during this race, too.  I had a few conversations with fellow runners about our running experiences and plans.  At the end of the race, there were freeze pops and I was a huge fan of that!

I walked away from this weekend with 3 new medals, 2 pumpkins, 2 new running shirts, a cool headband, and a PR.  I would consider it a success.

These are two pictures from this weekend.  One is of my pumpkins and medals from the 5K and the other is me, post-race on Sunday.

     

I-L-L!

Today I ran in the Big Ten 10K.  It was such a cool run to be part of.  For those that don't know, the Big Ten 10K is a race aimed at students, alumni, and supporters of Big 10 schools (Go Illini!)  When you sign up, you choose a school to support and you get a shirt with that school's colors.  You also get a big, school specific medal, as well as some other cool swag.

I would say my personal theme for this race would be: unprepared.  From the beginning it seems like I just was not prepared for this race.  I signed up for it very last minute because I completely forgot about it.  During the week leading up to this race, work got REALLY busy and I was needing to go in early almost every day.  Because of this, my training kind of went to the wayside and I was not staying hydrated like I should.  The day before the race was my friend's birthday (Happy Birthday, Desi!), so I decided to go out for a bit to help celebrate.  Needless to say, I got minimal sleep the whole week leading up to the race and I was not as hydrated as I should have been.
The cool part about running is that the work you put in will help you out, even if you don't do so great immediately before.

During the race, I was feeling really good.  The weather was beautiful, the runners were full of energy.  The first 5K was great.  I was staying pretty consistently on pace.  Once I hit mile 4, though, I kind of hit a wall.  I wasn't feeling that great and it felt like it suddenly got warmer.  Once I got to mile 5, I really wasn't feeling that great.  Around mile 5.5, there was a water station and that really helped me get a little boost to keep going.  When I passed the mile 6 marker, I knew I couldn't give up, only having 0.2 miles left.  As always, I increased my speed and finished strong.  I do wish that I pushed a little hard so I could have been below 50 minutes, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Overall I had a lot of fun running this race and it has helped energize me to continue being committed to my training.

Here is a picture of me post-run.  Decked out in Illini gear and hiding the fact that I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep.

Sharing is Caring

When I was looking at apartments in the Chicago, one thing that I had thought about was, "What will it be like to run in the city?"  I figured that I might have to deal with more frequent stop lights.  Luckily, I am close enough to the lake that I can run on the lakefront trail and I don't have to worry about stop lights until I get to Navy Pier.
I also figured that I would have to share the sidewalk with fellow runners and other pedestrians.  This has been a big change for me.  My hometown is a suburb, but my high school was pretty much in the middle of a corn field, so there were few runners.  Even if I encountered one, we were usually running opposite ways.  In Chicago, especially on the lakefront, there are so many runners.  I want to high five all the runners going the opposite way as me, but I figured that might be weird.  Since it is summer, there are so many walkers that take up the entire path.  It is a struggle to try to weave through them.  One woman stepped out right in front of me and then gave me a dirty look as I swerved to avoid running directly in to her.  I also have to share the paths with bicyclists.  This generally isn't a problem because they ride around me, and I try to stay to the side of the path.  However, today there was a woman that was riding her bike slower than I was running.  I wish I could say I was running really fast, but I wasn't.  Why even ride a bike if you're going to go that slow?
One thing I never would have thought about sharing the path with: Segways.  Being on the lakefront, there are Segway tours all over.  Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that Segway tours go at the same speed I run.  This is frustrating as a runner.  When I come up behind you, I either want you to speed up away from me or I want to speed up and pass you (I am partial to passing people, but maybe I'm just too competitive).  To run behind these Segways and maintain my distance behind them for a mile was very difficult, but I got through it.
I am slowly learning how to be a runner in an area where there are a ton of people.  I have really been enjoying running on the lake, though, so I think it's worth it.

I haven't gotten all the songs you suggested onto a playlist yet, but I'm excited to start running to them soon!  (I'll still take running playlist suggestions!)



I also have to share my run with boats, which is really cool.  I'm also looking for boat friends because I want to be able to go out on the lake in a boat.  Maybe I'll introduce myself to someone on the docks and become their friend.

Day 1

As you can clearly see by a quick scroll through this blog, I am REALLY good at blogging.

I definitely fell off the blogging bus for the last race, but I have had a couple people ask me if I am going to keep updating it for the marathon and I thought I'd give it another try.

Quick update on the half marathon: Madeline and I did it.  We finished.  It was really rainy.  We had fun.  Madeline will probably never do it again.

But now, my friends, it is time to begin training for the Chicago Marathon this fall.  I am really excited to start training.  For anyone wondering, I am following the Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 Marathon schedule.  I have used his training schedules ever since my first marathon and I think they are really well put together (plus then I have less planning I need to do before each run).
This is my first training regimen that includes cross training, so this will be new and different.  For those that don't know, I am now living in Chicago and loving it.  My building has a pool, so I'd like to think that I might swim on my cross training days, but to be honest, I am a really bad swimmer and there are always people in the pool.  So, I think I will bike on my cross training days.

Today was Day 1 of training and it happened to be a cross training day.  I signed up for Divvy, which is a bike sharing service (if you don't know what I'm talking about, think of Zipcar, but for bikes).

I decided it would be nice grab a Divvy and bike along the lakefront.  It was so beautiful, but my legs definitely felt it.  I didn't realize how differently biking works your muscles.  I think I ended up biking about 8 miles and I got this great picture of the skyline from afar (see below).

I am looking forward to more running and biking on the lake and I promise to try to keep the blog more updated this time.

Also, let me know what your favorite workout tunes are!  I need to make a workout playlist.  Currently, I just throw my music on shuffle and, as much as I love "Hallelujah" by Rufus Wainwright, it really isn't conducive to working out.

Runaway Hot Mess Express

I ran a marathon once.  It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  Spending so much time training for it and then finally crossing that finish line in the football stadium is something I'll never forget.
That was three years ago.
In the three years following, I only participated in two races and those have only been since I graduated in May.
In my first, post-graduation race, my friend Madeline decided to come cheer me on while I ran through a cornfield carrying a pumpkin.  Madeline has decided that she wants to run more, so we have agreed to run the half marathon together.  When I ran the marathon in 2013, I decided to create a blog to keep people updated on my progress.  Madeline has encouraged me to dust off the old blogging skills for this race, too.

Madeline is one of the most unique people you could ever meet.  She grew up in a rural town, her parents' home is, quite literally, in the middle of a cornfield, and she has a love of ichthyology (the study of fish).  Okay, so she probably read that and screamed; Madeline hates fish.
We met freshman year of college at orientation.  We were tasked with completing a scavenger hunt.  One task was to take a picture of our group spelling ILLINI with our bodies.  Being the over confident 18 year old that I was, trying to prove myself as a leader amongst my peers, I tried to make Madeline be the letter "I."  She was NOT about that life, so she abandoned the group.  Through the following years, Madeline and I got closer, first through Engineering Council, and then later through various shenanigans we always had a way of getting ourselves into.

So here we are, both new graduates still trying to figure out how to be adults.  I'm now working full time as an engineer and Madeline is a self-proclaimed hot mess.  I have successfully convinced Madeline to reach her full potential and become a runaway hot mess express by participating in this half-marathon.  I can't promise she will love every part of training, but I can promise that I will not force her to be an "I" during any part of training.

This picture is from Sophomore year when Madeline and I were about the drop our Christmas mix-tape.