Xsport Rock 'N Roll Chicago Half Marathon Recap

This summer Chicago has had about 2 weeks of hot temperatures.  The Xsport Rock 'N Roll Chicago Half Marathon was going to be run on the tail end of it.  I know most of us runners had been stalking the weather reports hoping for a break from the heat.  We didn't quite get the break in heat we were hoping for but it was better than the Burgers and Beer 5K. 

The race started at 6:30 a.m. and I was in Corral 20. 

I woke up around 4 a.m. and the mangie was NOT interested in going for a walk. I actually had to drag him out of my bed to go walking!  That NEVER happens!!  

For any of the Grant Park races I always park at work and walk over.  I knew it wasn't that far from the start because the map had shown that we'd run past my work building at about the .5 mile point.  

It was crowded but everything seemed really really spread out.  I managed to find a porta potty near the after party stages and vendors that had NO wait.  Score!

Then I met up with my half marathon training buddies.

For 7 weeks Amy sent out a weekly email detailing our training for the week.  We basically did a training program that included 3 runs per week: Tempo Run, Speedwork or Hill Repeats (this rotated) and then the Long Run.

Of course this being Chicago basically our only hill opportunity was Cricket Hill.   We did our speed workouts at the Lakeshore Track off of Chicago Ave downtown.  Track workouts are TOUGH but I do have to say I always enjoy the accomplishment afterwards!!

So the three of us lined up in corral 20 but basically everyone kept pushing themselves forward and I know we started ahead of the 2:15 pacer (who was positioned at the front of corral 20).  We only had to wait about 20 minutes before we started which was a nice surprise.  Honestly after long waits in other races with a later corral I was happy not to have to wait 45 minutes to an hour!

The race started out exciting enough as we ran along Columbus crossed the River and turned at Grand. We basically made our way West until about the 4 mile mark and started heading East.  We hit Michigan Ave around mile 6.5 and since this was the most crowded area with spectators and cheerleaders this was DEFINITELY my fastest mile.  And then we hit the dead zone and then came the wall out in the bright sunlight.

Michigan Ave. ALL the way down to 31st street was really really boring.  And then once we hit 31st Street we basically came out of the shade for the first time all morning. And did I mention at this point it was probably nearing 9 a.m.?  So yeah it got hot and it got unbearable.  Also the water stations along this stretch were TERRIBLE.  The tables had empty cups.  So we had to pick up an empty cup and hold it out and hope we got some Gatorade and/or water.  A friend was running a slower race in a later corral and she told me she didn't get ANY Gatorade until mile 12!

I don't really blame the volunteers at all for this mess.  I mean for THAT many runners yeah it's gonna be hard to keep up.  The Race Organizers should have made sure they were equipped to handle it all!  Also there were no sponges until Mile 12 and at that point it was almost too late.  There were a TON of hoses along the way but I am not sure if they were official hoses or not but I definitely ended the race with soaking wet shorts (not pleasant for the after race).

There were medical tents along the way so I grabbed ice from the bags they had laying in front of them and stuffed ice in my sports bra.  That actually helped a lot, but being able to get more than 1 cup of water at each aid station would have helped even more!

The race did offer a ton of splits which is nice especially for a person like me who forgets her Garmin a lot (or in this case it went haywire for the first few miles).

• 5 km
• 10 km
• 10 mile

• 31:53
• 1:03:13
• 1:42:32

• Pace
• Chip Time
• Clock Time

• 10:16
• 02:14:30
• 02:36:38

So I got a new PR!!!  And this is the first race I can confirm that I actually did negative splits!!!  

Would I do this race again?  Probably not.  I don't like the middle of summer unpredictability of the weather.  And also next year I am shooting for the Half Ironman Racine which is the same date!  ;)

Xterra Big Elk Half Marathon Race Recap

Most people that know me know that I'm addicted to races.  So the minute I realized I was going home to attend the Firefly Music Fest I started searching for races in the area.   Half Marathon was my favorite distance and I was excited to find Exterra Big Elk Half Marathon.   Of course it took me awhile to commit to running when I looked at the course elevation chart!  

That's pretty scary for this city girl that lives in Chicago!  About half of the runners were doing the loop twice in order to complete a full marathon.  I had briefly considered doing that but I hate loops.  *spoiler alert a GREAT decision on my part to only do the half!!

Here I am all smiles this was right before the course pep talk.   The race was sponsored by Power Bar and they explained that there would be at EVERY age station just about every 2.5 miles.   OK at a lot of races you are lucky to get a SINGLE energy gel.  And usually these are located at around the mile 9 marker.  But I was about to get them offered to me at 6 different spots??  That's a lil bit weird??

Here I am starting the race all smiles!  I told my mom to come back in 3 hours.  She hadn't even actually showered yet when she dropped me off!  

The course starts off with only a little bit of time before we switched into single trail.  A few people in the race commented that they were surprised we didn't have a longer wide trail to help it thin out.  I'm not sure how these people ended up finishing the race that I was so slow at points I was running on my own with no one else around! 

The trail was really windy and luckily we were downhill for the first few miles.  Those were my favorite miles as there is nothing more exhilirating than running downhill and having to concentrate on nothing but the person's foot in front of you.  It's like a total roller coaster and you have to be careful and dodge mud, roots, bushes etc.  

But still I looked at my watch and noticed that close to 35 minute had passed and I hadn't even gotten to my first aid station yet?!  Suddenly I realized why they were giving gels out at EVERY station.  We were going to need them!  

Side note: hot gels in the summer taste WAY better than frozen gels in the winter. 

Garmin says the rest of my mile were at a pretty steady 13 min mile pace.  There were A LOT of hills that were just basically like stairs because of the tree roots that we had to climb.  There were a few spots where we were out in an open field trying to get to the other side and the trail that was waiting for us.  Those spots were the worst because we were out in the heat and not the shade.  Towards the end of the race I'm pretty sure the temps got close to 80.  

Well right around mile 7ish me and a group of people came upon what we thought was a repeat aid station.  Actually it wasn't we'd made a wrong turn and gone the wrong way.  So now not only had I been out on the course for over and hour and a half but I was back at mile 5!  Luckily instead of having to continue on the course again at mile 5 the aid station lady called and got us a short.  It still added at least a 1-1.5 miles to our course.  Garmin says I ran 14.25 miles.  Is that an ULTRA half marathon?  

By the end I was pretty delirious.  It was hot.  I'd gone through my water bottles 4 times.  But at least every aid station let me refill!  The last station had Swedish Fish (my favorite!) so that was a nice surprise.  Also one of the stations had pickles my EVEN MORE favorite.  If you haven't ever had a pickle on a hard long sweaty run, please try it out!!!

At the race they had tons of snacks and even jars of Biscoff.  I have no idea what Biscoff is so I gave that to my mom.  They had piles and piles of Power Bar gels to give out too!  I love trail running because there are ALWAYS yummy snacks!!

Official time: 3:08:26.

Would I do it again?  YES!  I mean it would be nice if I could train for the terrain but I liked the change of pace even if I was really really slow.  Also the medal was really sweet AND we got a Tshirt AND a hydration backpack!  How cool is that???  Definitely well run race.  Can't wait for next year!

Tomato Blast! (My worst idea ever!)

I am a sucker for a good Groupon.  Most people know that about me.  So back in March when I saw the Groupon offer for the Tomato Blast I bought it right away.  I mean who cares if the event was 4 months away?!  It was going to be fun!!

And obviously Shruti had the same exact thought!  Since she bought it too.  

We took a cab over to Soldier Field only to realize that it would have been cheaper and easier just to drive and pay for the parking.  And the Tomato Blast wasn't actually in Soldier Field it was basically in a parking lot outside of McCormick Place!  So that was kind of annoying.  After that long walk we got there just as the tomatoes were about to start blasting.  

And they were just letting everyone in!  It was sort of chaos!  I didn't want them to forget about my free beer.  Luckily we found a guy who looked us up on a list and then gave us our beer tickets.  But then I realized that there was no way this beer ticket would survive.  I mean people were throwing a lot of tomatoes.   But Shruti was confident that if she put them in her pocket they'd survive.....

**Spoiler Alert** They did!  In line at the beer tent, yeah it was really cold and gross to be covered with tomatoes!  

Basically there was a bunch of tomatoes flying EVERYWHERE.  And these were hard ripe tomatoes!!   I totally have a bruise on my arm.  The ground ended up being covered in what looked like marinara.  

And when we were done we thought we would never be able to convince anyone to take us in a cab!  And we were sort of right.  It took us at least an hour to FINALLY flag down a cab.

Would I have liked it better if it'd been hot out?  Probably I mean they had a huge hose to wash everyone off but since it was already freezing I didn't want to be in even wetter clothes!  I had brought my backpack so I was able to change in a porta potty.

The most fun though was when everyone started dancing like crazy.  I am always up for a good dance party.  If no one had danced at the end I would have REALLY hated it.  As it is I doubt I'll EVER partake in a tomato fight again.  I see on Yelp I'm not the only disappointed one.

Weekly Recap W/E 7/27

Week ending 7/27 was a busy busy week and I think I might have burnt myself out.  As a consequence week ending 8/3 is going to be REST REST REST.

Sunday

Rock N Roll Half Marathon- PR CITY BABY!!! 2:24:30!!!

Monday

A.M. Bootcamp  I woke up with stiff legs but being able to sprint in the bootcamp class actually helped my legs (I thought).

P.M.  Swim (got my ass kicked up by super fast Heidi!!)  and TRX strength.  I did a few lunges and my quads were SCREAMING.  At this moment I knew I had pushed myself too far.

Tuesday

A.M. 20 mile bike ride.  Normally I do a Tuesday morning bike/run brick but my legs were so dead I only wanted to ride.

P.M. CARA Pub Run.  Was running late so ran about 5 miles on my own.  This felt great as the weather had actually cooled off!!!

Wednesday

A.M. Bootcamp

P.M. Beginners Group leading so about 2ish miles run/walking

Thursday

A.M. My first mile repeats at the track followed a swim in the lake.  Unfortunately I must swim the slowest mile ever because I ended up getting a parking ticket :(

P.M. Undie Dash 5K!

Friday

REST

Saturday

12 mile long room with the training group.

Yeah I think I did too much.  And I just felt physically awful the entire week.  So this week I'm resting and catching up on laundry!

Borgess Kalamazoo Marathon Race Recap

March 26th, 2013 will forever be remembered by me as the day I got my MRI test results.  Officially diagnosed with stress fractures in BOTH legs.  Sentenced to the bench for 6 weeks.  Yeah and my marathon was to be in 5 and a half weeks!  So yeah, kind of an upsetting day.

So for 5 weeks I didn't run at all and then the Ravenswood 5K happened and I tried to test out my legs. At that point I was 4 and a half weeks into not running.   And I ran it and I can't say it was pain free or anything.  But it didn't hurt.  (Yeah I know that makes no sense.)  And I also ran 33:38 which actually wasn't that bad!  My last mile was even a 10 minute mile (but it hurt I just wanted to be done).

Right and did I mention that my Mom was already scheduled to fly in to be there for my first marathon. And that she is sort of naive about injuries so she didn't really know it was probably a bad idea for me to go and run the Kalamazoo Marathon.  But I did.

AND I FINISHED!!!!

The Borgess Kalamazoo Marathon has this totally cool 50 state program.  Basically if you are the 1st person from your state to register then you get a free registration and a free pair of New Balance shoes!

To be honest the shoes are pretty useless to me since my Physical Therapist says they give me NO support and she basically forbid me to do any physical activity in them.  Still it's pretty sweet of New Balance to hook us up in a cute pair of sneaks!

Oh have I mentioned that I had NO idea that Kalamazoo was in the Eastern Time Zone?!  We left Chicago at 3:30 a.m. in order to get there in time for the 7:20 a.m. race photo.  Well we thought we'd be getting there 6ish until suddenly the clock in my car had jumped an hour ahead!!  My mom literally dropped me off and I ran into this photo just as they were taking it!

The race started at 8 so just before about 500 of us marathon runners lined up at the start.  I lined up at the way way back since I had no idea if I would be able to finish much less actually hold a pace!  In the back were a bunch of Marathon Maniacs and Mittens Challenge runners.   Even though this was my first marathon I felt an instant kinship with these guys.  We would struggle though it together.   Maybe one do I'll be a Maniac too!

Usually one way that I count down the miles is by counting down the water stations.  They had advertised aid stations at least every 2 miles but I really think they came every mile and a half!  There were so many spectators from the town that had set up their own homemade aid stations there was always some sort of support.  My faves were the Girl Scouts with cookies and the Boy Scouts with popsicles!  And there were at least 3 guys with pickle jars and a lady with orange slices!!   There was a homemade neighborhood Baconville and even an Elvis that you could stop and take your picture with!

I don't know the area at all so it's hard for me to describe the course very accurately.  Basically we seemed to go from the course start into town and then basically around the outskirts of the whole town. I'm imagining we crossed into nearby towns as well.  There were a lot of neighborhoods that we ran through and I always enjoy that.  Most of the race I was running behind an older man that had a sign on his back about the many many marathons he'd run in the last year.  I wanna say it was at least 50.  He was running with two local ladies and they were giving him the tour of the town.  He also used a walk/run method so a few times I got ahead of him.  And every time he caught up to me.  He definitely finished faster than me but I'm not sure what his exact time was.

This was the first race I'd ever run wearing an iPod.  Now I am not an iPod user AT ALL.  In fact I basically just grabbed my Shuffle and uploaded random songs (for the first time) the night before.  So I had no control over my playlist.  Thankfully I have a good mix of upbeat Pink songs and downbeat Regina Spektor songs.  I really enjoyed listening to the music but at the same time I haven't even used the Shuffle since.

Garmin says I hit the Half Marathon point at about 2:32.  I remember thinking that I had a chance to finish right around the 5 hour mark.  I like to think that I'm half marathon ready at all times, considering just 2 weeks later I ran the Chi Town Half in 2:27 I'd say I did stay half marathon ready despite not running for 5ish weeks!

After the half way point Garmin says that most of my mile splits 12s and 13s.  I'm quite proud that none of my miles were 14 minute miles!  And I'm proud of the random mile 2 surge I had (it was the Egg McMuffin I swear!!) that got me a 9:59 mile!

Around mile 24 I was really starting to cramp up in my thighs.  For the first time I thought that I might not actually finish the race.  I grabbed 2 water cups at this aid station.  I can't believe I didn't run with a water bottle during this race actually.  This is the moment where I definitely reconsidered whether or not I should have attempted this marathon.

I got pretty delirious from this point on til the end.  You can see it in my eyes in the pic below.

At the last .4 mile or so a 10 year old chubby local girl came up to me and asked my permission to run with me.  I have to be honest if she hadn't shown up at that moment I don't think I could have gone on. She pushed me til the last turn, then she told me I had to do it on my own.

So I did.

1st Marathon DONE.
5:22:45

Would I do this marathon again? YES.  The crowd support and the aid stations were AMAZING.  I can't imagine a better first marathon.  And of course I have to go back again and obliterate that time.  I'm capable of much faster than that!!!!

Chicago Undie Dash 5K Race Recap

Somewhere back in April (and I was probably drunk) Jamie got me to agree to sign up for the Chicago Undie Dash 5K with her.  And then she bailed.  And I still ran it!!

I managed to coerce not one but two of my Marathon Training Group Buddies to head downtown on a Thursday evening and run in their underwear!  Well for Adrienne and I underwear=shorts.  In our world capris=shorts!!

This was my first time wearing just a bra and I kinda liked it!  But when I did get a bit sweaty I had nothing to wipe my sweat on!

I'd say there were about 300 runners total.  I'm just guessing maybe there were more!  I was surprised by the turn out and though that there were some GREAT costumes!  Too bad we were so boring!!

The race started right on time at 6:30.  Gear check was a breeze despite the fact that basically EVERYONE had gear to check since not everyone arrived in their undies ready to run!

We started out really close to the docks and lake but then ended up higher so we actually ran long grass for a bit.  This made it so while it was an out and back course we weren't all trying to fit on the same lil Lakefront Path.  We reached the grass about a lil over a half a mile in and I'd say this was the point where the crowd really thinned out.  This only made us run faster because if we were with a crowd we at least felt a bit covered!!

The path curved so we ran underneath Michigan Ave basically right to the bridge by the Metra Station. This is actually the first time I'd been on this portion of the path!  It felt a lil exciting since it was a new direction that I was not used to!

The water station was located about a quarter of a mile before the turn around which was nice because it meant we hit that station twice.  Hills kill me and somehow the few hills in Chicago seem to kill me every time!  From the water station to the turn around on the bridge it was basically all up hill, but at least every hill if usually comes with a corresponding downhill.

The path back towards the start definitely felt like it was slightly downhill.  Maybe it was psychological because the weather was nicer, but to compare Burgers and Beer 5K the return bath was along Columbus Dr. and that felt way more torturous!

Before we knew it we crossed the finish line together.  The race wasn't chip timed but Garmin says we crossed in 10:17!

Now the post race party was a BIG disappointment for me!  Apparently I signed up so early that I'd read all of LAST year's party details.  These details included a free Mike's Hard Lemonade as well as an after party on a boat!  Now they communicated to us that they would no longer have the party on a boat but NOTHING about no free drink!

In fact this is cut and paste from their website:

Post Race Party Details!

How much do we like to party?  

We have outgrown the boat, that's how much.  

Don't Fret! 

NEW POST RACE PARTY LOCATION:

Friendship On The Lake Restaurant.

Enjoy a lakeside, "hilltop" party only 200 meters from the finish line. Music and dancing? Of course!

Party goes until 11PM  

Additional food and drink available for purchase.   

Spectators can come too. Just $5 at the door.  

Additional food and drink makes it sound like you got a free drink at least!!  And I hope no one paid $5 at the door!  It was a big open space with a band and some tables and then food and drink for purchase.  

Bottom line I'd only run this race again if I really really wanted to run in my "undies" again.  And while the pink free race shirt is pretty cute....SHOULDN'T THEY BE GIVING US FREE UNDIES???

Trying to Find Balance

It's really tough when triathlon training to find the time to actually take a rest day.  I mean I know there are specific training schedules out there but I never seem to be able to follow them.  Too many other things get in the way and I miss a swim on a Wednesday and have to shift etc. etc.

And then I have too many friends that are training too. I'm constantly getting IMs or emails about working out!  One friend wants to strength train, another a track workout and a third wants to swim in the lake!  How do I choose? How do keep it all straight?

I'm the worst at saying "No".  Now I'm roped into running the Undie Dash 5K and I'm not even comfortable with undies!!

Usually my lack of clean clothes will dictate a rest day.  Since I'm so busy I have very free time and have to squeeze the hour and a half to do laundry SOMEWHERE.  Plus it's been so hot and sweaty that my clothes STINK!!!

Mondays nights and Tuesday mornings I have Tri Club, Tuesday Nights Pub Runs, Wed Nights Beginners Group Leading, Thursdays Bowling, Fridays Beach Volleyball, Saturdays Marathon Training in the early A.M. and Kickball in the afternoon and finally Sundays is Softball.  I haven't even mentioned that I actually work Mon-Fri from 9-6!  And instead of staying super busy with a lot of fun, I usually end up missing things!  Either from other commitments or being just plain tired.  So really I'm just half assing about half of my commitments.

It's not good.  And I need a break.  How do you find balance??