She emerges from the depths of purgatory....

Run #92 Gargoyle Gallop 8K Race Report

Date:  October 26 at 9am

Place:  63rd Street Beach House, up north and back

Mileage:  4.97 miles (I hate to be all like, "well my Garmin said..."

Time It Took:  1:02:31   yeah, that terrible, whether it was 4.97 miles or 5.04, which is what my old lady (Garmin) said.

Pace:  12:34

Miles This Week:  7.97

Miles This Month:  27.64

2008 Total:  516.54

Thought/Comments:  ran crappily, about as crappily as I felt.  I've been feeling kinda "eh" most of the week, and since I'm not training for anything, I decided to just allow myself the extra sleep.  Didn't seem to make a bit of difference today, still feel like "eh", now on the downswing to eeww, as I lie here on the couch and type this.  the only bright spot was the end, this girl tried to pass me, and I sped up and dusted her...as much as one can "dust" someone in an 8K past the hour mark.  BLECH!

Old school race, no chip time, just calling out the time when you finish, not counting the time it took you to start.  I know my place by now, and started in the back.  Granted, it was probably only a 7 to 10 second difference.

Anyway....there it is.  Not pretty, but completed.

Run #91 Girl Interrupted

Date:  October 21 at 5:50am

Place:  treadmill at home

Mileage:  3

Time It Took:  35:23

Pace:  11:48

Miles This Week:  3

Miles This Month:  22.67

2008 Total:  511.57

Thoughts/Comments: 

House Rule #1  The first step is always the creakiest.  As I was sneaking out of my bedroom to head downstairs to the treadmill, I noticed how loud the stairs were.  Maybe with cooler weather they are creakier?  My first step and I was like "OH NO!"  I heard Zoe tossing and turning, so I waited a few minutes before progressing.

And of course, just about 3/4 into my first mile, there she was at the door.  "Hi Mommy!  Mommy are you done?  Mommy!  Mommy!"  So I got off for a few minutes, found Blues Clues was on Noggin (there's nothing more worthwhile on cable than the round-the-clock "It's like pre-school on TV" Noggin Channel.)  I got her some chocolate milk, put her under a blanket on the couch and VOILA!  I just bought a few more minutes for myself.  As I was walking my cooldown she was back at the door "Mommy are you done?  Mommy!  Mommy!" and so I at that point I really was done. 

Whew, getting runs in by hook or by crook!

Run #90 Just a run

Date:  October 18 at 5:45pm

Place:  Treadmill at home

Mileage:  3 miles

Time It Took:  35:43

Pace:  11:54

Miles This Week:  8.85

Miles This Month:  19.67

2008 Total:  508.57

Thoughts/Comments:  Slept in this morning.  Didn't feel like "running and rushing", because even though it's Saturday, I had to work for a few hours this morning at a community meeting. Anyhoo, I got the run in eventually.  To meet y goal of getting in 4 runs this week, I will need to run tomorrow, also.  Preferably in the morning.

Happy weekend, everyone. 

Special shout-outs:

 to Andrea N, who will be running her first marathon tomorrow morning in San Francisco.    GO ANDREA!!!!!

and to a new running friend I met last week at Chicago who ran with Lou in the leg before I did, Freedom Runner, who will be running the marathon in Grand Rapids.  GO LIZ!

Run #89 A little speed training never hurt nobody! (at least I don't think so)

Date:  October 17 at 9:15am

Place:  Treadmill at home (Jada's home today, so when the alarm went off at 5:30am and I felt tired, I rolled over and said to myself "later!"

Mileage:  2.1  (My actual goal was in minutes, this was the mileage that I ended up with) + .25 cooldown

Time It Took:  24:00

Pace:  11:25

Miles This Week:  5.6 + .25 = 5.85

Miles This Month:  16.67

2008 Total:  505.57

Thoughts/Comments:  So my goal is to do 1 speedtraining session each week.  I would guess this qualifies:

3 minutes at 5mph, followed by 1 minute at 6mph:  repeated 6 times

Maybe I should shorten my slower pace to 2 minutes?  I dunno.

Happy Friday everyone!  Jada is off today and we're going to head out and do girl stuff.  First stop, get these bushes (aka eyebrows) done.  I get them threaded up in an Indian neighborhood.

You'll NEVER BELIEVE what I did today.

1) Strength training earlier this evening! (at home, b/c I may never be able to go to the gym again until my girls go off to college, and then I might be too broke for a membership.)

2) I wanted something warm and toasty that would bring me some comfort while watching a sad new episode of L&O SVU about mental illness. Anyhoo, I had already told myself that I could have my favorite soup (which is full of sodium and 6 WW points, even though I only have 1 point left for today. BUT I HAD SOME PLAIN HOT TEA INSTEAD.

I am as amazed as you.

Run #88 Back At It

Date:  October 14th at 5:20am

Place:  Treadmill at home

Mileage:  3 + .5 (walking, warmup and cooldown)

Time It Took (for the run): 35:37

Pace:  11:52

Miles This Week:  3 + .5= 3.5

Miles This Month:  14.32

2008 Total:  503.22 (Yay, I finally broke 500!  Sheesh!)

Thoughts/Comments:  My legs protested, but I just did it.  To go from running 7+ miles with crowd-lined streets and people cheering and handing you water and gatorade and pretzels...to go from that, to the yellowish light oddly bouncing off the brick wall in my exercise room as I stare at the curtains on the window and amidst storage boxes strewn about is quite a letdown.

BUT!  I should be happy that I have a treadmill at home and can get on it at the crack of dawn or even in the middle of the night instead of running while its dark outside (i wouldn't) or trying to figure out how I can fit a trip to the gym in my crazy schedule (i couldn't)...so I'm counting my blessings.

Have a great day!

This deserves an award...

Wow.  Read this.

Run #87 Chicago Marathon Non-Race Report

Date:  October 12th, joined Lou between Miles 18 & 19, Ashland Avenue at 14th Street; temp somewhere above 80.  (But not as hot as last year, whew!)

Time:  Sometime after 12:30pm

MIleage:  7.72 (according to Garmin)

Time It Took:  Lou's Support...that was all that mattered.

Pace:  Lou's Pace...that was all that mattered.

Miles This Week:  10.82 (really Lindy?  pathetic!)

MIles This Month:  10.82

2008 Goal:  499.72

Thoughts/Comments:  So as you all know, I decided that if I couldn't run the marathon, I'd do my best to run with Lou.  Here's how my day went:  Left house like I was on a stealth bomber spy mission, sneaking out so as not to wake up the girls.

Race Start

My friend Rabiya (visiting from NYC) and I took the train downtown and met my friend, co-worker and fellow runner to stand on one of the bridges just past the start line to cheer runners on and hold signs.  Specifically, I was looking for my pasta party invitees and friends: Annah, Lou, Sheena, Melba, and Anne. We watched the wheelchair athletes start off first, followed by the elite runners, and finally everone else.  I was proud that our signs kicked the butts of all other signs out there.  No white posterboards for us!  We had these flourescent orange, yellow and green ones that were extremely visible.  Amidst the thousands of runners, I was able to pick out Annah, who was happy to see my bright orange neon sign.  Note to non-runners:  one of the coolest things about the Chicago Marathon is the loud, supportive crowds.

We've Only Just Begun

On our way back over to State Street to catch the Red Line back home, we watched runners at around Mile 2 (and listened to Nicole complain about not being able to buy her CTA day-pass. ALRIGT ALREADY!).  I saw Sheena and we cheered and she waved....saw Lou who ran right past me and I screamed my head off and almost tripped my way into the crowd.  Her iPod must have been playing her favorite song, and I knew she wasn't looking for me at that point in the race.  :(  I even saw another friend from my undergrad days.  I mean, in a race of 45,000 people, it's kinda odd to run into so many people you know.

The Beat Goes On

So then Rabiya and I headed back south.  I got home, packaged and tied ribbons on 50 cookies, put on my race gear, delivered said cookies, and headed back to meet Lou. She would occasionally text me to tell me where she was.

So I get over to Ashland Avenue at 14th Street between Miles 18 and 19, and I notice a few things as I'm standing out waiting for Lou:  1) Wow, it's hot out here!  2) Oh...I've been so busy I forgot to eat anything!  3) There are hardly any people in this section because for about 6 blocks they have half of the street open.  4)  People are wondering why in the heck this crazy chic is putting on a race bib at Mile 18, carrying a plastic grocery bag. (that would be me)  5)  I cheered runners on, and the ones who looked at me funny can wonder about me in their blogs today.

Here Comes Lou!

Lou was delivered to me by her friend Liz, who ran with her for about 4 miles leading up to this point.  Fully engrossed in my race support role, I've got pretzels, rapid release Tylenol, gatorade, bottle water, sunscreen and extra gu if necessary.  I'd like to think I was a sight for sore eyes...and calves, quads and hammies...So we start running.  She was awesome...we walked a bit, then ran.  And did this for quite awhile.

The Course and the Crowd and Stuff

So we went thru Pilsen, which I was really anxious for. Pilsen is "the Heart of Mexico in Chicago" (so read the banner) and as soon as we turned onto 18th Street, there were DJs playing house music that took me back to high school days.  There were a few dancers, and little kids yelling Si su pueda!  Yes You Can!  It was great!  Loved it!  The smell of tacos and other ethnic food-fare filled the air, and the smell of food wasn't all that annoying as it can be when running. 

So we leave Pilsen and hit this boring, hot industrial stretch.  We're chatting some, walking some.  Lou tells me we need to be on the lookout for "@" (Angela.)  On Archer Avenue, there she is with pretzels, Smart Water and other stuff.  We talked to her for a bit and then went on our merry way! @ ran her first distance race back in May at the Soldier Field 10, and whooped both me and Lou!

Up next?  Chinatown!  ANother neighborhood I was looking forward to, but this didn't live up to its reputation.  Maybe because we were some 5 hours into the race and it was over 80 degrees, I dunno. But here we saw Lou's mom, but we stopped like two seconds and kept going.  Off to the right I saw this chic on the ground, she looked like she had passed out, fell and hit her head.  She was bleeding and some paramedics were wrapping her head in gauze and holding her head up some. I recognized her as someone I had cheered on, I remembered that bright green shirt.  :(  I don't know if Lou really saw it or not, she didn't say much, and it was loud still (from the music/crowds/etc), so we just kept going.  Another dull stretch underneath the Dan Ryan, but it was some welcomed shade.  Also, I know this part of the course well, and knew that we'd be turning up ahead a few times and then in the home stretch back up north to the finish line.  Right before we turned onto 33rd Street, there were these big Nike signs up that said "Leave Your Old Self Behind" and then there was this big Jumbotron screen that was showing runners going by.  Lou and I were quite pleased that we didn't look like total morons.  Lou said she looked pretty good at Mile 22 (she did), and I said I looked good for 22 also (HAHAHAHAHA....ok, not funny.)

In the Mean Time

So the miles seem to be flying by.  I don't know if it felt that way to Lou, but I was quite surprised as they popped up.  I kept looking at my Garmin to double-check...and SHO NUFF, it was on point.  All the while, whenever we are taking walking breaks, I'm texting Meg, our other running buddy from last year's CES training group.  She JUST finished therapy for her torn ACL (yes, we were a sickly bunch this year), and was planning on running in the last mile.  She too had a bib and had planned on running the race.  Anyway, at some point she decides to walk back to Mile 24.  I found this to be kinda funny because that is the EXACT same thing she did for me in Cincy...waited and waited at 25, and had enough time to walk back to 24! 

The Home Stretch

Lou's ankle was really bothering her at this point.  We did lots of walk-running, and she perservered.  She was overly worried about finishing before the course closed.  Now I kept reassuring her we were fine even if we walked the whole thing in.  There was Meg up ahead and she reassured her, but Lou was PAST tired and bordering on delusional (in a most understandable "I've run 24 miles" kinda way) at this point, so she kept wondering out loud.  A little while later, two more friends of Lou's joined us and stuck around till shortly before the finish line (they didn't have race bibs.)  We were all surrounding her and cheering her on.  It was a running entourage, and it was lots of fun!

So with her ankle hurting immensely, we walked from an aid station to up ahead where we could see the "1 Mile Left" sign.  And then we ran it in.  As we turned the corner on Roosevelt and went up Chicago's version of a hill, Meg and I were cheering Lou on and she was getting all misty-eyed and had a look on her face like "OH CRAP I'M ABOUT TO FINISH."  Just before the finish line, she took off in a sprint and crossed!  YAY!!!!  Meg and I crossed behind her.  It was exciting and although I thought I might feel weird about "finishing" after what happened last year, I wasn't.  However, it was the best NON RACE, 7+ mile run I've ever had! 

So Lou went off to the Medic tent to see about her ankle--it seems to be ok, they recommended ice.  And I went off to journey to my car.

Post Race

With my bib and "fake medal" (that I DID pay for), I must have walked a half mile to the train, and then another mile back to my car b/c there wasn't a bus in sight.  I gave the girls my medal to add to their toys.  Later at night, I realized I hadn't had enough water and electrolytes, b/c horrible debilitating cramps hit me as I was lying on the floor.  I nearly fainted when I tried to reach for my water bottle.  I had Rabiya fetch me some salt.  I mean, it's not funny, but it kinda is.  Especially since I only ran a few miles, LOL!  Last year that only happened once, and that was after my 20 mile run.

Anyhoo, this post is entirely too long anyway, but that is my Non-Race Report for this year's Chicago Marathon.  Next year should be back to the real deal.  I don't plan on any marathons before then, just halfs and other smaller races.  Remind me of that if I suggest anything else, friends.  The goal in sight is the CHICAGO Marathon.  Not just any marathon.

Eating and Running; Running and Eating!

SUBTITLE:  Sweet Glory!

 

You might think this is a post to lament over my eating way too much food and not running enough. No, it's not, although said post might be warranted. I'm writing about two upcoming events.

 

This Friday, in an effort to absolve my running sin of not running the marathon that I signed up for, I'm hosting a pasta party..."Eat and Run: Let the Carbo Loading Commence," reads the evite. My NYC friend is coming into town, and we're making the pasta from scratch. Yeah, you read that right, and yeah, I'm pretty proud and ONE BAD chic, eh? So I've invited my marathoning friends, and a few who are not running this year for various reasons. And we're going to eat! YAY! Me like eating!

 

Next event...and get ready for this one, cuz it's a beauty. I am signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15K. (whatever, you say.) But first....there's the awesome gear. I mean, this is some NICE STUFF!!!!!

But it get's better...the sponsor is Hershey. HERSHEY! (Shhhh, do you hear the angels singing?) The website reads "After the race, join us for the SWEETEST post race party you can imagine with CHOCOLATE, CHOCOLATE, and MORE CHOCOLATE. Just imagine dying and going to Chocolate Heaven, because it exists at the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k post race party."

 

WOW. I'm just worried that as a 12:00 pace, there will be no chocolate once I've finished running. I'm envisioning something similar to the chocolate river in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

 

Anyway, I hate to just dash off after writing about eating and running, but I gotta go!