There are 3 weeks left until the Chicago Marathon!! (Actually less than that since it's Monday, but 3 training weeks left since I haven't done my run today yet.) So that means it's time to taper!
Quick recap of last week:
Quick recap of last week:
Tuesday - 3.5 miles
Wednesday - REST
Thursday - REST
Friday - 5.5 miles
Saturday - 20 miles
Sunday - REST
Total Mileage - ~49
I realized I never wrote about that 5.5 mile run on Friday. It was nothing too special. I ran in the morning, so most of the run was in the dark. I need daylight savings time to come ASAP. I think we are still about a month away from that though. So until then, I'll stick to running in the evening.
Yesterday I went to watch Catherine and Matt run the Fox Valley Marathon! And Catherine did AMAZING and ran a HUGE PR - 3:26:58. I don't want to tell you to many details though because she is already working on a guest post for this week! So I'll tell the spectator side of the story.
Mac and I (he had a friend running as well and was kind enough to drive us out to St. Charles) missed the very start of the race, but we showed up to the 2 mile mark EXACTLY as Catherine and Matt ran by. We almost missed them, but it was Matt who called out to us so that we could spot them. Then we waited there a little bit for Ashleigh, who we just met the day before at the Coach Brendan Running group. We told her we'd be there and would cheer for her and make her a sign. I think she was shocked when she actually saw us with a sign for her.
The next stop was around 5 miles and we were supposed to also see them a few minutes later, after they looped around a peninsula on the river, but we miscalculated that and somehow missed them.
Then we drove down near the river where we could see the runners at mile 10 and 17. Luckily Matt had made up some directions for us to follow so we knew where the good spectator spots were. Mac and I met up with Catherine's parents and Matt's dad and sister Gina. Gina was cheering for EVERYONE by name and I finally asked how she knew so many people running?!? Their names were on their race bibs! So then we all had fun cheering for everyone by name. We got to see pretty much every single person running the marathon at this spectator spot since it is an out and back course so we saw the end of the crowd still cruising through at the 10 mile mark as the lead runners made their way back and approached mile 17.
We had one more stop around miles 21-22 and also used the grossest bathroom ever in a park. It was another location where we could see them pass by twice which was cool.
Then we raced to the finish line and I got there just in time to watch them cross the line! Catherine finished strong, but running a PR marathon takes a lot out of you. Luckily Matt was there to hold her up.
After the race, we enjoyed freeze pops, bagels, etc. Yes, WE enjoyed them. I was starving so Matt grabbed me a bagel and Catherine brought out a few freeze pops from the finishers area to commemorate our high school cross country summer camp days when we ate freeze pops after each run. Then we relaxed and reveled in all the excitement of the morning! And took pictures.
Catherine will be writing a race recap post this week and also has a few other fun running things to share, so definitely look forward to that!!
And now I need to go do my own run and since it's already getting dark...TREADMILL. WOOF. But I figure this way I can use my phone for music since my iPod died and I have yet to revive it. Let's all pray that it can be saved.
GREAT pic of Catherine and Matt at the finish! #scrapbookthat!
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