Happy Halloween from Colleen :)

I like when my name rhymes with things, so that's why Halloween is a good holiday.  But here's some other reasons why:

Candy.  Free candy.

My favorite Halloween candy will always be Kit Kats I think.  M&M's and Nerds were also big favorites of mine.  I eat M&M's on the reg, but I don't think I've had Nerds in forever.  It's not candy, but here's a cupcake I ate (at 9am) from a co-worker:

Costumes.

There is no costume in the world that will ever be as good as my parrot costume.  I wore it multiple years and I love it and wish I had it for my children, but it is gone forever.  I am unfortunately not wearing the wings in this picture, but you can kind of see the tail - the wings were awesome and colorful like that.

Senior year of college, I was Pippy Longstocking.  My roommate Colleen, who now has her very own running blog too, did my hair really awesome like that.

I was Dora the Explorer during 5th year of college.  The night before I was Dora, I was a gymnast which was also an awesome costume but I unfortunately have no pictures of.  I wore my cousin Katie's red, white, and blue leotard and matching scrunchy with tons of glitter in my hair.  Anyways, I bought the Dora the Explorer backpack, kept the tag on, then returned it after.  That's how it's done.

 

Being a troll with Christina was easily the best costume of my adult life (thus far).  My hair had remnants of green in it for days, no matter how hard I scrubbed, but it was worth it.  I haven't worn the nude body suit since, but I hope to one day soon.

The annual Halloween card from the Grandparents Smith.

My freshman year of college was the first year of this card.  It has since become an annual happening.  The front says, "A Scary Thought" and on the inside, "Life Without God." Usually they include a $1, but this year it was even better...at least for me that is.  A scratch off lotto ticket was inside and I won $10!  This year's card also had 3 riddles to solve; do you know the answers?

What do ghosts serve for dessert?

Who won the skeleton beauty contest?

What do witches put on their hair? 

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!!

Why I Love UD

A few weeks ago I posted about one of my two favorite places in the whole wide world.  Well, my other favorite place is the University of Dayton.  All the recent Facebook posts about students moving back to campus or their younger siblings moving to campus makes me wish I could go back (for college again, not just to visit...visits are nice too though).  Today is the first day of classes, so what better day to post about UD?!  I'm really not sure I can convey all of the awesomeness in just this blog post, but I'll do my best to give the highlights.  :)

- Community! - How could I not start with the cliche reason everyone loves UD?  I don't even know how to describe it, but it's there.  One of the things I remember hearing in one of the videos shown at an event about the community is how EVERYONE holds doors opens for people behind them, no matter what or how far behind you that person is.  I realized that was so true around campus.  Everyone is so friendly and kind to each other, in little and big ways.  Even now in real life when someone doesn't hold a door for me, I automatically think "that person definitely did not go to UD."

- Friends! - Some of my very best friends are the ones I made while at UD. We have the best memories ever and will continue to for years to come :) (after we force all our own kids to go to UD so that we have an extra excuse to go back all the time)

- Basketball! - The UD Arena is consistently ranked as one of the best arenas in college basketball with the best fans. Basketball is also a great excuse to go back to campus.  This past winter, my friends and I went back for the game against Xavier.   We will have to figure out a different game to go back for this year though due to all of the conference re-alignment business going on.  Also, the Dayton Flyers fight song is awesome.  And I really like the fact that it's not one of the super big, popular schools that everyone has a t-shirt from.  So if I see someone walking around Chicago (or anywhere) with a UD t-shirt or driving with a UD sticker on their car, I know they almost surely went there (or have kids that do/did).  There is even a bar in Chicago with UD affiliation to go watch the basketball games at with other fans!  (This photo below was taken at Milano's at UD though)

- Tim's! - Most UD students either love Tim's to no end, or hate it and usually refuse to go. It's one of the dirtiest most college-like bars out there I'm sure.  I'm on the love end of the spectrum.  I really like to dance (not well, but everyone there is too drunk to notice anyways) and Tim's facilitates my love for dancing.  There are never good pictures taken at Tim's because nobody is capable of decent pictures by that time, so this is me and one of my favorite people to go to Tim's with, Brigitte - a Tim's VIP.

- Dining Halls! - UD had some pretty great dining halls. I don't have much else to compare them to though except the few times I visited ND (also great dining halls).  The fact that I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain a pound was pretty great too. If I went back to that lifestyle, I would gain at least 50 pounds in a week. Through my sophomore year, VWK was all-you-can eat and despite being in my picky eating stage still, I ate as much grilled cheese and pasta as I could.  Pita pizzas from KU, ice cream from The Galley, and chicken tender wraps from VWK and Marycrest were all my favorites.  I think I ate the exact same thing for lunch every day freshman year at the Empo - a turkey sandwich and a Crunch bar. The dining halls were also a great place to just sit with friends for awhile and chat and people watch.

- Ghetto! - I guess this goes back up to the part about the community.  For anyone who isn't familiar with UD, juniors and seniors (and 5th years) can live in the student neighborhood lovingly referred to as the Ghetto. Some of the houses even have their own names. When the weather is nice, everyone is outside on the porch or in the yard. Sometimes you can bring your couch in the yard...

- Dayton 2 Daytona! - This is the greatest vacation ever created...for college students; nobody else would survive this. It is also the unhealthiest trip ever created. There really isn't any other way to spin this besides a very cheap vacation with all UD students drinking all day long at the pool, beach, and the local hotspots for 6 days. I went 2 years and as much fun as it was, my body would not be able to handle something like that ever again.

The UDXC Team! -Probably the best group of girls ever.  I only competed on the team my senior year, but it made the year so enjoyable and I became friends with the best people!  Actually I was friends with the majority of them before senior year, but then running together every day brought us even closer.  I think it was during my training to try out for the team and then competing with the team that has made me realize my potential as a runner.

There's so much more I could say about UD and stories I could tell, but those are the parts that are most memorable to me.  Obviously, it's the people that make it so memorable, not just the place.  Oh, and I learned a lot and got a couple degrees.  That part is important too!

I'd like to especially wish a happy first day of classes to my brother Kyle and to the siblings of some of my best friends.  It's a family school.  GO FLYERS!!

UD Friends - Why do YOU love UD??

Why do you love YOUR school?

Last Year's Inaugural "The Joe Marathon"

The Joe Marathon is possibly one of the greatest things ever created.

"Inspired by Shannon who asked, 'why do you pay for a marathon, why don't you just run in the streets?'"

Uncle Joe told us he was going to plan a marathon to run in the streets around Arlington Heights.  Until the week and the day before, we really had no idea how much planning he put into it.  And he didn't know how much we planned also, by creating special t-shirts for the occasion.  What good is a race without a t-shirt?

The race took place on 6/30/12 (Uncle Joe's birthday) at what was supposed to be 6:30am, but was moved up to 5:30am due to the heat.  He trained for the race in the months beforehand, and eventually mapped out his route of 26.2 miles starting and ending at their house.  The course passed by a lot of special locations, including the houses of most of our relatives in the area.  The night before the race, Uncle Joe drove around placing yellow signs like this one at every mile marker.

On race day, I think almost everyone from the Smith family participated somehow (except the R. Smiths who were in Hawaii, so that's a good enough excuse), whether it was by running or biking with Uncle Joe or just being outside to cheer, support, and hand out water.  Of course, Grandma and Grandpa brought donuts for anyone not running.  Catherine came out to participate too!  Another surprise to Uncle Joe besides the t-shirt was the police escort he got near the end of the race.  Since Grandpa volunteers at the police department, he has lots of connections.  Uncle Joe planned the course so that there weren't too many major streets to cross to avoid traffic.  But near the end, he had to cross a busy intersection and by that time it was a little later in the morning so traffic was a bit heavier.  Grandpa got his police buddies to STOP traffic in the intersection during this segment of the race!

This year's Joe Marathon is taking place on 6/30 again, but will be a little different.  Uncle Joe did not have time to train for a full marathon this year, and neither has anyone else.  So it's going to be run relay style.  Anyone who wanted to run decided how many miles they can do and since we already have the 26.2 mile course, why not use it to make a relay-style marathon?

Uncle Joe will run from the start to the halfway point, 13.1 miles, with the help of Jessica for the last few miles.  I'll run from the halfway point of The Joe to mile 20 to get in a 7 mile run on Sunday.  Aunt Bernadette will take over at mile 20 and run to the finish.  Maybe if I'm feeling good I'll keep running a little bit with her.  Many other family members have also offered to bike, take pictures, or provide support stations with water and cheering throughout the course.  It should be a fun event!