Weekly Running Recap - 2/10 - 2/16

It's Monday, which only means one thing - time for a recap of last week's running:

Monday - 5 miles (7:57 avg pace)

Tuesday - 3 miles (8:00 avg pace) + Body Pump

Wednesday - 4.75 miles (8:25 avg pace)

Thursday - REST

Friday - 9.1 miles in the morning (8:01 avg pace) + 3 miles in the evening (no watch)

Saturday - REST

Sunday - REST

 

Total - 24.9 miles + 1 BodyPump class



 

My mileage for the week wasn't super high, but I am still really happy with the week, especially since I got in that longer 9 mile run on Friday.  And I loved that I was able to get in an outdoor fun run, instead of all treadmill miles like the past few weeks.

 

I didn't mean to take the weekend off, but it was nice to just relax.  On Saturday, I went to brunch with Catherine.  Unfortunately, it was not a bRUNch (run + brunch), but we will pick those up again once it gets warmer.

 

And I got my Garmin fixed so that when the weather does get nicer, I can use it again!  It was temporarily not functioning.  Apparently all I needed to do was a software update.

 

Actually, today isn't just any other Monday.  Today, is 2/17.  It's my cousin Erin's birthday!!  Here's some photos of us from our favorite holiday, Christmas:

 



 

To celebrate, Erin will be going to the Justin Timberlake concert (JT is to Erin as Katy Perry is to me), so I am going to meet up with her to get our nails done.

 

I have to give major props to Erin for basically being the reason I started this blog.  She has been an avid blog reader for awhile and got me started on it last spring, and by the time the summer and Chicago Marathon training rolled around, I wanted to start my own and she encouraged it!

 

I haven't really wrote about set weekly goals in awhile, but I think I'm going to start that up again today.  Here's what I want to do (running/fitness-wise) this week:

 

• Run 35-40 miles
• Do a speed workout!
• Go to Body Pump twice
• Focus on healthy eating

So nothing super crazy or new, but I do want to get a speed workout in!  On the treadmill I've been getting to good speeds (7:30 or faster) when I do my normal runs (which I guess are actually more like progression-ish run).  However, I haven't done set "speed work-outs" and that's what I want to start working in now.  I'm going to try to come up with some workouts to do that will be good for a shorter race since my next goal race is the Shamrock Shuffle 8K.  I'll definitely be posting those workouts as I come up with them!  And I'll still be on the treadmill, so I think try some hill/incline workouts that Catherine sent me.

Complete this phrase: _________ is to me as Katy Perry is to Colleen.

What are you goals for the week (fitness or not)?

(Tiger) Turkey Trots - 5k and Half Marathon Recaps!

I do a turkey trot every year, but this year I did TWO turkey trots - Edison Park (5k) and Schaumburg (half marathon).  And no, they were not on the same day.  I know most turkey trots are actually on Thanksgiving Day, as the Edison Park 5k was, but the Schaumburg race was held on Saturday morning.

Edison Park 5k

Catherine and I have an annual tradition to run the Edison Park Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving morning.  There have been years it is snowing and years it is pretty moderate temperature.  Luckily it was not snowing, but it sure was cold! I wish I could say the cold didn't deter us from our usual outfits - Bandit Turkey Tigers.

But sadly, we were only Turkey Tigers this year.  Well I guess technically we were bandits given that we didn't pay for the race.  We made the decision the night before the race to forgo the BANDIT singlets (our high school's old XC/Track singlets) so we could wear an extra layer.

The cold weather didn't seem to both Therese though. I met up with Catherine and Matt about half hour before the race and we did a 3 mile warm-up...for the 3.1 mile race. Just trying to get that mileage up! Then we found Therese and it was race time! We actually don't really race this run though; we use it as a nice conversational run. I think Therese had us at an average 8:08 pace. It definitely felt a lot easier this year than last year when I wasn't in nearly as good of shape.

After we finished, we walked backwards along the course to find their dad and then finished the last quarter mile or so with him.

Schaumburg Half Marathon

This is yet another race that made me think I am not mentally strong enough to be a runner.  All athletes need to be mentally strong, but running is a whole different ballgame.  There's so much more constant action and things to focus on in other sports.  When running a race, I pretty much am just thinking about how much it hurts the entire time.  I was much happier when I finished though and tried extra hard in the cold to make it seem so in this picture:

But anyways, besides the mental factor, this race wasn't too bad.  It took place at Busse Woods, which is where I ran this summer occasionally.  I parked in the remote lot and got shuttled to the start.  The course was pretty much the entire loop of 7.3 (previously 7.7, but now there is a new bridge over one of the roads so the loop is shorter and more hillier now since you have to go up and over the bridge) plus a few out and back segments through long parking lots to keep adding mileage.

At the suggestion of Pittsburgh Runner (Kristy) via Twitter a few days before the race, I decided to run the race "naked" aka without a watch. I was wearing clothes, trust me.  I did shed a few layers in the middle though.  Mom came to watch at one point around mile 5.5 and I gave her my headband and gloves. I was glad I had them to start with, but then they became unnecessary.

It's nice when Mom comes to races so she can take my picture so I don't have just a selfie.

I didn't really have expectations for this race and planned to use it as more of a training run to guarantee I got in a long run for the week.  So that worked out.  I decided to start with the 1:40 pace group and figured I'd stick with them as long as possible, which ended up being until I saw Mom and stopped for a few seconds to give her my headband and gloves and offer my words of how miserable I already am. I felt like I was sprinting to keep up with that 1:40 pace group.

So I broke off from them and was really just not having this race anymore.  Mentally done.  I really really really wanted to stop running.  My original goal was 1:45, so I was still on track but I wanted to make sure the 8 minute group wouldn't catch me.  But I also really wanted to stop and walk.  The problem is, when you're running a loop in the forest preserve and your mom left and your car is parked in a remote lot that you need to get to via the shuttle at the finish line...well, you get the point.  There wasn't really any way to stop, so I had to just get to the finish line as fast as possible.

That red blow up thing was the finish line..with my finger in front of the lens also.  It was cold but so so sunny!  So I couldn't even see my phone screen when I took this photo.  Anyways, I made it my goal to not let the 8 minute pace group catch up to me.  But lo and behold, they did.  Around mile 11.5.  Then around 12.5, they passed me.  I was really struggling that last mile.  But I only stopped to walk through the last 2 water stations (around miles 10 and 12...so that's how they caught me).

I finished in 1:45:55.  So it was right around what I wanted/expected.  But it sure was harder than that time should feel like for me.  My two halves during the Chicago Marathon were each faster than that.  But I fell a little off the running wagon, didn't have a best friend running with me, and it was darn cold.  So I'm OK with it and glad I didn't give in and start walking.

Something awesome about this race is the sweatshirt that I got for registering!  At first it seemed pretty light, but it is really comfy so that's all that matters.

Do you run with pace groups during a race?

Any turkey trot traditions?

(Long) Weekend Photo Bomb - 11/27 - 11/30

It's been a nice long holiday weekend off of work and I've been busy with all sorts or activities.  I did 2 races (a 5k and a half marathon) and will have a full recap of those in the next few days, but in the meantime, here's the long weekend in pictures:

Dinner and gambling at the casino.  Dad hasn't quite figured out that the iPhone can be turned sideways to get everyone in the picture.  Mom and Patrick were the big winners of the night.

Catherine and I ran the Edison Park Turkey Trot 5k (like we do every year) in matching turkey headbands and tiger-print shorts.

My dear little cousin, Elizabeth.  We share a love for bread.  I told her that's called carbo-loading and she helped me carbo-load for Saturday's race  :)  On Friday, we celebrated her new baby brother's Baptism.

Post-half marathon selfie.  Very cold!

All aboard!  The entire Smith family (and "SigOs" - significant others) took a Christmas trolley ride through the city.

A few of the girls, ready to go.

View of the Chicago skyline from Smith trolley stop #1.

 Dad and I at the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights - Smith trolley stop #2.

Things escalated quickly... even had to make a few extra stops for beer/champagne runs (and bathroom runs).

Started the weekend with gambling, why not end it with a little family gambling?   A pizza party after the trolley and a 30+ person game of LCR - Shannon was the big winner.

And another running selfie.  An easy 4 miles Sunday morning in my all purple outfit.  Just kidding, I put another shirt on over that, but thought it looked funny when I was wearing all purple so I had to take a picture.

So there's the long weekend in pictures!  How was your long weekend?  What did you do??

bRUNch + Weekly Training Recap

Catherine and I put a long run + brunch on our calendars a long time ago.  We each had fall marathons and then wanted to plan this to keep us running and for an excuse to go to brunch, because breakfast food is easily the best kind of food.

I decided to call it a bRUNch.  Get it?  I really crack myself up, like a lot.  I hope you find me as funny as I find myself, but if not, that's ok.

The first part of the bRUNch was the RUN.  We started at my apartment and ran to the lakefront trail and then north until we got to Montrose Harbor - to a park where we actually had a cross country meet in high school.  We turned around and headed the same way back, a little faster since we were with the wind now.  Our run ended up at 9.3 miles - not sure what time we were at because I didn't bring a watch.

Catherine and I had a whole list of things to talk about/catch up on during our run, so I'm glad we finally had a chance to do that.  Another thing that was awesome was the weather.  It seemed like it was that awkward in-between temperature when you don't really know if you should wear long sleeves or not or wear shorts or capris.  We each wore long sleeves, but ended up shedding that layer - short sleeves in November!

And the second half of the bRUNch was of course, the brunch.  Our plan was to go to either Toast or Ann Sather's, but we ended up at Nookies due to a long wait at Toast and the fact that Nookies was right down the street.  However, bRUNch will be a once a month occurrence from now on, so all of the best Chicago brunch places will be visited at some point soon I'm sure.

We each ordered the same thing - scrambled eggs with hash browns, bacon, cheese, and peppers.  Catherine's was without bacon though, something I'll never understand.  I can understand if people don't get bacon on something because they are being more health-conscious and bacon is very fatty, but to not like the taste of bacon is just wild to me.

My workouts last week:

Monday -6.65 mile run

Tuesday - 6 mile progression run

Wednesday - weights

Thursday - rest

Friday - weights

Saturday - 9.3 mile run

Sunday -  rest

Total Mileage =22 miles

I did weights twice last week, so that was good.  BUT I need to be running more than 3 days a week.  So my goal for this week is to do weights on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (I'll be visiting Anne in Denver on Friday/ this weekend!)  And then to hit at least 30 miles for the week, which shouldn't be too difficult, it's just making myself do all my runs!

Do you like bacon?

What was your training like last week?

Chicago Marathon Celebration & Recovery

I think this will be my last of my Chicago Marathon series of posts.  (You can read about the expo and pasta party, RACE RECAP, my playlist, and my fans.)

The post-marathon celebration started pretty much as soon as I crossed the finish line.  As I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my playlist post, putting on Teenage Dream was my first order of business after finishing.  Then I just wanted to dance because I was happy, but I thought these other fatigued strangers would think I'm weird and I guess the movement I considered dancing after 26.2 miles was a bit funky because a few of the finish line workers asked if I was OK.

I made it though most of the chute area, collecting my free beverages (water, Gatorade protein shake, beer) and found Mac.  We briefed each other on our races and tried to spot Angela, but we must have missed her because we when finally got hold of her, she was already at gear check.  I pretty much "ran" there to meet her.  It was obviously more of a shuffle, but I was cruising compared to everyone else because I wanted to be reunited with her after separating around mile 15.

After reuniting with all our fans and hanging out in the park for awhile, it was time to head home for a necessary shower.  I was surprisingly mobile and not having as hard of a time getting to the car parked really far away as I did last time I ran Chicago.

I went straight to my bed after showering, but I couldn't fall asleep.  "Exercise gives you endorphins; Endorphins make you happy." (Legally Blonde)  A few phone calls later and I was at Nookie's with the Conlons for a 4pm champagne brunch.

Yup, that's the cheap stuff.  After the brunch dinner, I was tired but we had more celebrating to do.  Mac, Drew, Michael, and Angela came over and we sat around, ate, drank a little, talked about the marathon, etc.  Then we went to meet up with the Conlons again at Benchmark.  We did do a shot there to celebrate, but other than that I think we were all pretty much wiped out and just sat at the table and ate tots with ranch...probably one of the most amazing combos ever.

After making it out of bed successfully without falling over on Monday, I started the day off with Angela at Starbucks, or should I say "Asha."

Then we headed to Fleet Feet.  I actually don't remember why we went to Fleet Feet - I think we just had some time to kill - and found they had a bunch of the official Chicago Marathon gear, so we each bought a post-marathon gift for ourselves.

Angela had to head back to St. Louis, but Michael and Drew were still in town, so we met up and went to Moe's for a Mexican lunch and did a lot of walking.  Fleet Feet had free medal engraving so we dropped our medals off there and then sat very lethargically in Starbucks for awhile.  After they left that afternoon, I lounged for awhile and ordered myself a small Lou's pizza (and no, I didn't eat all of it; I had leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day!)

And for the recovery.....

I was SORE until Wednesday.  I considered going to a spinning class on Thursday, but decided I was going to take full advantage of the "I just ran a marathon and need time off" excuse to not work out while I could.

I did short runs of 3 miles each on Saturday and Sunday mornings...and had a fun full day of tailgating and football at Notre Dame with Catherine & friends.

Even though I love UD and the Flyers, it was fun to tailgate for a real college football team.

My Chicago Marathon Super Fans

I remind my family quite frequently that I had nobody watching me in my very first marathon in Columbus of 2010.  My parents (and all the other aunts and uncles) had a 50th wedding anniversary party to go to that weekend and Columbus is about a 6 hour drive from Chicago.

But they all made up for it at this year's Chicago Marathon!  I didn't expect so many family members to come, but my family sure does love running.  (We even have our own marathon, 2 years strong.)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they all planned to wear red on purpose.  I knew to look for my family around mile 4.5 first and was told Aunt Mary Ellen would have a red Elmo balloon.  Sure enough, I spotted them all.  I hope they weren't too bored while waiting, but it seems like that got some good family photos in the meantime.  (And obviously they didn't have to wait too long since I was RIGHT behind the Kenyans, duh.)

 They all had really great signs too!

Besides my family, I also had a lot of friends come out and cheer too!  Catherine and Matt were at miles 3.5 and 16.5.

Wondering what a TIGER BODYSLAM is?  Catherine's main track event in high school was the 2 mile race.  If you've ever been to a track meet, distance events aren't nearly as fun to watch as sprints and given the longer distance, the field of competition is pretty spread out.  A lot of times, the slower runners end up getting lapped by the faster runners.  To take care of this problem, at one meet the 2 mile race was called "Tiger takes the Tail" where the runner in last place after each lap of the 2 mile race would be stopped and not allowed to finish the race.

So basically, we decided that for this to happen, the tiger mascot person would body slam the person in last place and not let them finish. I'm glad I didn't get tiger bodyslammed during the marathon.

Steph and Danny were around mile 17-18 I think?  I don't remember that clearly, but Steph was jumping up and down with her sign.

Christina and Jim were around mile 6 with a big pirate balloon and n awesome sign that said "Your feet hurt because you're kickin' butt!"

I tried to remember other good signs, but my brain was kind of fried while running.  One said "Run quietly, I'm hungover" and then all the standard ones like "Worst Parade Ever."

But back to my fans...

I think the most mobile group of fans was Uncle Ron, Uncle Rob, and Jessica.  They were at 16, 18, and 20...as well as the earlier miles 4 and 10.  They used a car, which proved a better strategy than the other group who walked and barely missed me at 17.

Another perk of having fans at the race is that they can take pictures and I don't have to pay for the professional ones if I wanted a picture.  However, this does not improve the quality of how I look while I run.

I really loved my headband...I don't know if I can give enough plugs for how awesome those Sweaty Bands work to hold my hair back and are also glittery and thus, awesome.

I also spotted a few other people I knew along the course which was good to see.  And of course, the other 1.7 million strangers were great to see as well.  So thank you to everyone who was able to come out and cheer!

And also thank you to my fans who were not physically there, but texted me throughout the days leading up to the race and afterwards.  Some of my friends even made signs, took pictures of themselves holding the signs, and then mailed me the pictures.  :)

Race Recap: CHICAGO MARATHON 2013

Well, the Chicago Marathon is over!  I have so much to say about it and don't know where to start, so this will probably end up a little scattered, but I'll do my best.  And I'll also probably have a post every day this week on various events of race weekend (the expo, the pasta party, the recovery, etc.) but I'll try to keep this one to the actual race recap.

Summary/spoiler alert: I finished in 3:23:15!  A PR by close to 6 minutes and Boston Qualifier!

My parents dropped off Angela, Olivia, and I as close as they could to the starting area and we made our way through the security checkpoints.  The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect for marathon running, but the morning was rather chilly.  We were wearing clothes that we could discard at the start line and never see again - to be donated to a homeless shelter in Chicago.  Angela and I discarded our clothes right before entering the corral and a man with a vest that said "Clothing Donations" was on his walkie talkie saying "we are going to need way more bins."  There were mountains of sweatpants and sweatshirts all around.

We also waited in a really long porta-potty line...but glad we did so before the race.  Once we got settled in a spot in the corral, it was time to go within about 5-10 minutes.

The first 8 miles of the race flew by.  It was definitely the easiest/most fun hour-ish of running I've ever done.  Our goal was to start at 8 minute pace for 4 miles and then pick it up to 7:30-7:40.  I don't remember splits exactly, but I think the first mile was 7:49 so we said we could ease up a bit.  The problem was that we were stuck behind the 3:30 pace group which was huge and taking up a lot of space all running together.  So over the next 3 miles, we were still doing about 7:45-7:50 working our way up and around that 3:30 group, but still not trying to go too fast.

We saw so many people throughout the course - the first being Catherine and Matt around mile 3.  I almost missed them but luckily they saw us and called out...and I heard them over my awesome playlist of music which will be a whole separate post because obviously you need to know exactly what I listened to for 26.2 miles.

 

I think I could also write a decent amount on all my spectators and signs, so I will save that for later, but the important thing right now is that I saw my family around mile 4.5 for the first time and I was STARVING (I'll explain why when I write about the pasta party...do you like all my cliffhangers?) so I yelled to my mom to buy me a bagel.

Sure enough, when I saw them again around mile 11, my dad had the bagel for me so I grabbed half and ate it while running.  I took water at every water stop, and Gatorade at I think only 2 during the first half and every station the 2nd half.  Apparently when you lose a lot of sodium, your body essentially starts producing salt, so I had a white ring around my face when I finished.  I also took GU Energy Gel 3 times throughout the race - around miles 9, 16, and 22.

Angela and I didn't talk much throughout the race, but when we did, the conversation went like this:

*Pass a mile marker*

"7:32"

"We should slow down a little and save it for later"

"Yeah, we should"

*Pass a mile marker*

"7:26"

"We should slow down"

"Yeah, we should"

*Pass a mile marker*

"7:34"

"This is comfortable, but we should maybe slow down a little more"

"Yeah, we should"

But we did not slow down.  I personally am glad we did not...hopefully Angela feels OK about it.  I know it is best to run negative or even splits (or even slightly positive splits at the marathon distance since negative/even splits are extremely difficult at that distance), but I also knew that by the time we were at mile 9, I needed to just go with it while I felt good.  And I did feel really good.  Angela decided to ease up a little and dropped back from me around mile 15-16.

(professional photo by MarathonFoto)

Around mile 19, Mac magically appeared.  I was very surprised because he had passed Angela and I around mile 10, but apparently he made a bathroom pit stop somewhere along the way.  He and I ran together for about the next 2 miles until he started to fade back a little.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how even my pacing was for all of the race.  Yes, I died off the last 10k, but not nearly as much as I could have (or did during my previous marathons).  I ran it pretty exactly according to my plan.  Since I knew I wanted to beat my time from the Columbus Marathon in 2010 and I knew my splits from that race at the 10k, half, and 20 mile marks, that's what I was comparing myself to.  I was 1:40 ahead of pace at the 10k, which worried me a little because I was afraid maybe we did go out a little too fast.  But actually, I remember thinking I was only 40 seconds ahead...not a minute and 40 seconds.

(professional photo by MarathonFoto) 

And it's a good thing I did think that because at the half, I was 58 seconds ahead of my first half of Columbus.  And knowing myself, if I would've thought that I went from being 1:40 ahead of pace to only 0:58 ahead of pace, that might've mentally screwed me up a bit...but what you don't know can't hurt you.

After we hit the halfway mark, my plan was just to make it to 20 as fast as I could, knowing that no matter what, the last 10k was going to be miserable.  I wanted to/thought I could be at mile 20 between 2:31 and 2:34.  My brain was shut down at this time, but I think I remember being there right around 2:32:00 - 2:32:30, which was 2 to 2 and a half minutes ahead of my Columbus pace.  I didn't mentally put that split into my head though because I thought they recorded a 20 mile split with the chip so I figured I'd look later, but I guess not.

(professional photo by MarathonFoto)

Where I started to really struggle was around mile 18.  I knew I had about an hour or so to go and knew I could do it, but that's where I did start to experience some mental doubt in how fast I could realistically do those last 8 miles...I went from feeling pretty awesome to not so great pretty darn quickly.  I made the decision to walk through the next water stop I saw and that I'd walk through each one after that, which is also exactly what I did in Columbus.

So I would run all the way to the very last Gatorade person at each water station, take that cup, and start walking while I drank it and then take one of the very first cups of water, drink what I could, and make myself start running.  I imagine each stop was about 30 seconds, but really I had no concept of time.  I once again surprised myself with the fact that I really did make myself start running ASAP after drinking my liquids.

The last mile was pretty much the worst thing ever, especially "Mt. Roosevelt," the small hill within in the final 400 meters of the course. By this point I really knew I was going to finish in a great time though, so that made me push throug that final mile. And I saw Aunt Bernadette  saying "you're doing it!" Because she knew I would PR.

And then I finished!!

 (professional photo by MarathonFoto)

So I have a lot more details I could share and want to share, but those will come later this week because I've done enough rambling for now.  Basically, the race went as perfect as it could have and my pacing was better (more even...not quite as much dying at the end) than I could've ever expected from myself.

A Look Back at My First 2 Marathons

With the Chicago Marathon coming up IN 4 DAYS, I decided I should write a little about the 2 other marathons I have finished.

Columbus Marathon 2010:

Alex and I decided during the spring of our senior year at UD that we would train for the Columbus Marathon in October.  We were set to be roommates during our 5th year and thought this would be a good way to keep in shape since we wouldn't be running for UD that year.

(I know, I've already had this picture on the blog, but I think it's one of our best.)

I was coming back from an injury that had me confined to cross training during the spring, but slowly began to build up mileage throughout June and July.  By the time I was back at UD in mid-August, I was having no pain while running and was so happy to be back on campus and able to run with Alex and the younger UDXC girls.

Alex and I talked about running and the Columbus Marathon A LOT.  It was the first marathon for both of us, so it was a great learning experience.  I think one of my favorite discussions was about what form of energy supplements to take while running - the gu, the gummies, etc.

Here were my race splits:

I ran the race exactly as I planned - start at 8 minute pace for the first 5 miles, pick it up for as long as I can, and then I drastically slowed down over the last 10K.  I remember miles 6-18 were all between 7:15 and 7:35 and I remember thinking that the half marathon in the middle of my marathon would've been right on a PR.

Terrible picture, but it's the only one I have.  I had no race spectators so I had to ask a random lady to take my picture after I finished.  I was super pumped to have finished my first marathon in a time that was significantly under the BQ time - 3:28:55.

Chicago Marathon 2011:

I registered for the Chicago Marathon in February during my 5th year at UD.  I had been a spectator at the Chicago Marathon every year since I was a junior in high school when my cross country team volunteered at a Gatorade station along the course and really wanted to run it.

My training was decent in the earlier part of the summer...and then I started a public accounting job.  The longest run I got in during that summer was 17 miles on a Saturday morning in mid-August.  And then I went to work for a solid 14 hours that day.  I got very sick one day about a week later at the end of August due to being over-worked and after that, I think I didn't run at all for a solid 2-3 weeks.  Then I tried to get in a few more runs, but by that time, it was too late to get in any real training.  Needless to say, I was not prepared for the race and had gained about 10 pounds in just a few months due to the stresses of my job and minimal exercise.

I remember thinking the first few miles were OK, but by the time I started heading back south from Wrigley, so about 6 miles in, I could tell it was going to be a rough day.  From these splits though it looks like my first half was fairly decent...then I crashed and burned.  My mom told me I looked a lot better when they saw me around mile 18 than I did around mile 10.  I think by that point I knew I wasn't going to finish in any great time, so I just did what I could to finish and experience the race.

(sign made by Rachelle)

I had lots of spectators at this one - Mom & Dad, Catherine (Matt was running too!), Rachelle, Bailey, Jim & his sister, and a few aunts, uncles, and cousins (Aunt Bernadette & Uncle Rob were running too).  The best part though was that right when I finished, I crossed the line and almost fell over in Christina.  She told me she would be working the finish line (she was a PT student at the time) to help runners and luckily I found her right away!  And then the worst part of the day...walking a gazillion miles from Grant Park to wherever the car was parked.

And now I will have even more spectators at this year's Chicago Marathon!!

Guest Post: Catherine's Running Craziness and Taper Secrets

I’ve known Colleen since freshman year of high school.  We had a lot of classes together, but more importantly, we were on the track team together (and cross-country team junior and senior year when Colleen came to her senses and realized running was way cooler than tennis).  It was through running that Colleen and I became best friends and truly embraced each others craziness.  And let me just tell you, running together year round can bring out a whole lot of craziness!  For instance… 

• We ran together all summer talking about saving money for mini iPods, Kenny Chesney, and how it weirdly always smelled like donuts (I finally spotted the Dunkin Donuts during one of our last runs that summer).
•  We ran for literally hours at a time in the halls of Res when it was too cold or icy to run outside during winter track.
• We would go entire runs speaking only in Spanish to practice for the AP Spanish Exam (ahora, pon en marcha…)
• We became obsessed with all things York and Elmhurst.
• We also became obsessed with tigers and discussed tigers body slamming runners on the track (hence the “tiger” shorts in the Bandit Turkey Tigers.
• We know to always do an equal number of crunches so we don’t get stomach bulges (thanks Coach Mickey!)
• We ran the former CDC together as our first half marathon, where we met John “the Penguin” Bingham and received the coolest deck ofcards that are still in mint condition.
• And most importantly, we stayed crazy enough to keep running and train for half marathons and marathons.
• Unfortunately, due to real life and work schedules, Colleen and I don’t get to run together nearly as often as we would like.  But, we still talk about running constantly and share the crazy things that happen while we run…

• After having my water bottle stolen during multiple track workouts at Olympia Park, I finally took measures into my own hands: 

• I was just running along in the early morning hours, minding my own business, lost in my thoughts, and then bam, my shoulder hits a car’s side mirror. Sadly, this happened more times than I care to admit to the World Wide Web.
• I made friends with a construction worker in Norwood Circle.  It a little over a mile around, which was perfect for my paced and tempo runs, so I ran there every Friday.  They’ve been fixing the sewers there since May so one worker started to recognize me and would count my laps as I passed each week.
• We began running so far that 12 mile step back weeks seemed short
• Colleen had some adventures with crazy exercise contraptions. 

So as you can see, marathon training gets kind of crazy, but the marathon taper can make you even crazier.  Since I just finished my taper for the Fox Valley Marathon I figured I would share some tips to help stay calm, stay focused, and reduce the crazy in the weeks leading up to a big race. 

•  Test out your race day attire.
• Test out your race day fueling.

(Props to Colin Meyer for coming up with the best way to carry gu on your shorts – comfortable and easy removal!)

• Get lots of rest, drink lots of fluid, make sure your salt and electrolytes stay in balance (you’ll especially want to do this if temperatures are going to be in the 90s…trust me :/)
•  Have confidence in your training and yourself.
•  Stay positive and keep reminding yourself why you run.  You might question yourself during the later miles of the race, so remember that not only did you choose to do the marathon, but you actually paid money to experience this pain.
• Remember to have fun and enjoy the race!  You trained all summer for this!

In looking back at my race day experience, I think what made the biggest difference this year compared to my other marathons was my mental preparation.  Although the last few miles were extremely difficult and pretty much everything was hurting, I did not let that pain get into my head.  Instead, I kept reminding myself that this is how I am supposed to feel and if I wasn’t in pain, I wouldn’t be running fast enough.  During the taper, I repeatedly focused on why I love running, how blessed I am to be able to run, how I am ready for the marathon, and that I can handle the pain.  So then, when that unavoidable pain set in during the race, I was able to recall these positive thoughts and remind myself that it is supposed to hurt.  The mental game continues even when the race is over. You spend months and months preparing for this one day, and then just like that, it’s over!  Remember that a marathon is a journey, not a destination, and we keep running even after we cross the finish line.   And so I leave you with one of my favorite quotes; it is applicable to all walks (or “runs”) of life and is perfectly suited for the marathon.

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."

(Tom Hanks, A League of Their Own)