Race Recap: Santa Hustle 5K!

And this is it: my last race recap of the year! My December event was just a little old 5K - a little old 5K with over 8000 runners in Santa/Christmas themed attire! Last Saturday I got out of bed before it was light out to head down to Soldier Field to meet up with my friend Ron, who you may remember from my April event - he ran the Ravenswood Run 5K with me. But today I was particularly honored to have him join me, because it was his birthday!

In our Santa shirts, hats and beards!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day for December - almost 60 degrees when we started at 9:00 am. I arrived a little too close to the start time, so we had to jump the fence of a corral that wasn't too crowded; we ended up with all the 9 minute mile folks. You've got to see it to understand the sea of Santas!

We headed south from Solider Field under McCormick place, and as we ran by I got a nice chocolate chip cookie from the cookie station. In addition to the traditional Gatorade and water stations, this race had cookie and candy stations! The race turned back north along the lakefront path right near 31st street, and we ran comfortably to just before the end, where Ron successfully out-sprinted me to the finish line. My time was 30:03.90 and Ron's was 30:03.23, so I guess he beat me by 67 hundredths of a second. I'll get you next time, Ron!

We grabbed our water and treats, and followed the crowd of people across the lawns until we stumbled upon...the reindeer pen. Yes! There were actually two live reindeer just hanging out and eating grass right there on the lake front. 

Reindeer!!!

It was a nice race, well-organized, not too crowded, and fun in that silly, kitschy sort of way. And we headed to brunch afterwards to celebrate Ron's birthday and the completion of all 12 of my events for the year. Woo-hoo! :)

Race Recap: Hot Chocolate 15K

This morning was the 11th event of my Year of Racing Slowly - the Hot Chocolate 15K.

You know how in life, some days are epic-ly awesome, and other days, you're just trudging through to get to the next day? Well, this race was the latter for me, unfortunately.

It all started with me coming down with a nasty sore throat on Friday night and feeling tired and sick all day Saturday - and then when I showed up at packet pickup at 3:30 pm, I had to stand in a HUGE line outside in the cold for over an hour and 15 minutes to even get inside the Expo tent, where more lines awaited me. This morning, 5:00 am came way too soon, but I pulled myself out of bed, took some DayQuil and got ready. But then Eliana woke up right before I had to leave and she had trouble with the quick transition and was sobbing and crying for me as I left through the front door, and I felt terrible about leaving her. Then as I walked down the street to the Red line I realized that with the scene at the door, I'd forgotten my phone, my chapstick, my credit card/cash and my energy chews - nothing absolutely necessary, but a bummer all the same. Luckily, I did have my CTA card, so I hurried towards the Jarvis stop - only to find that it was closed for construction. I came really, really close to just heading back home, but I am a bit stubborn, so I changed direction and walked to the Howard stop. Of course, the trains were running late, so by the time I finally got down to the start I had to hop a fence to get into my start corral. But I made it, and a nice lady took this picture of me and texted it to my phone at home so I'd have it.

Can you tell that I'm feeling tired and sick? :)

The actual run was crowded, but I liked the course - the south side of the lakefront path is one of my favorite areas in the city, and there was a beautiful view of some of the skyscrapers above the river as we came up onto Wacker from lower Lake Shore Drive just south of the river. I finished the 15 kilometers in 1 hour, 43 minutes and 37 seconds. The Hot Chocolate race is known, of course, for the hot cocoa and fondue that you get at the post-race party, but I was so anxious about getting home to Eliana that I just cut over to the Red line right after I crossed the finish line and skipped the whole post-race party thing.

The bright side (there is always a bright side, right?) was that I actually felt pretty good while running, that I beat my previous time by 2 minutes and 56 seconds (PR!), that Eliana was in a great mood when I got home and we had so much fun playing and watching the Bears game together and that in the evening I enjoyed some Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream to make up for skipping the chocolate treats at the end of the race. All's well that ends well, right?

This afternoon I mailed in my registration for the final race of my Year of Racing Slowly - the Santa Hustle on December 1st! Email or call or message me if you'd like to join me!

Race Recap: Chicago Marathon!

Wow, wow, wow. I'm still flying high on the endorphins (yes, endorphins!) from Sunday's race.

At the end of the race, with my #1 fan. ;)

This year's experience was so totally different than my experience in 2006. I didn't train very well that year, and didn't truly understand how hard it would be. In 2006, by mile 20, I was so emotional that seeing a little girl cheering her heart out made me start sobbing; by mile 23, I couldn't really form coherent phrases anymore, and by mile 24 I would jog for 2 blocks only to fall back to walking a minute later. It was rough; the 2006 marathon broke me. I finished, in 5 hours, 37 minutes and 36 seconds, and I was proud of myself, but I was absolutely miserable and swore that I'd never do it again. My only claim to fame was that I managed to beat the oldest man to run that year (82 year old Arturo Guzman) by 2 minutes.

Fast forward to this year. I trained really well from May through the beginning of September, which is difficult enough with a baby/toddler...but then when I started working again, that's when it started to feel impossible to fit everything in. I skipped or shortened some midweek runs, only did 14 miles instead of the traditional 20 miles three weeks before the race, and then managed to injure my calve muscles so badly two weeks before the race that I had to take an entire week off of running. On Saturday, when I did a little 2 mile run just to warm up, I had a nasty cramp in my quad on my right leg. So when Sunday morning rolled around, I was truly unsure of my ability to finish.

But along with the nervousness was a fair amount of excitement, and I definitely felt such a huge wellspring of support from my friends and family...my brother Daniel drove in from Cincinnati for the race, we had a tasty carb-loading dinner from my Dad and Kathy (Wits End Catering, y'all! Check them out!), and so many friends wished me good luck via this blog, email and Facebook. So I crossed the starting line with a smile on my face. I first saw some familiar faces just past mile 4 in front of LaSalle Street Church, but was distressed when I ran up and tugged on the (unexpectedly) locked doors to the front of the church building, as I was planning on getting rid of all of the coffee/Gatorade/water I'd ingested that morning in their nice clean bathroom! Oh well. Savva was waiting for me just before mile 5, and he gave me a bite of bagel, some Chapstick, and a big hug before I tasked him with finding me some sunglasses (I'd dropped mine accidentally when taking off my sweatshirt while running) and then ran off. At mile 7.5 I saw a friend that I used to work with at Lake View, and then at mile 9.5 a family that I used to babysit for when their kids were little. High fives all around! Just past mile 10, there was Savva again, along with Lisa and Daniel. Check out the cool new sunglasses.

My peeps make the awesomest signs.

I was still feeling strong, eating a few Clif Shot Bloks (these sorta jelly gooey carb things) and walking through all the water/Gatorade stations for little breaks. Just after mile 14, I remembered why you're never supposed to wear gear that you haven't previously worn on a long run - my cold weather running tights were starting to chafe. And right then, at that moment that I realized that it was beginning to hurt, I looked up and saw on the side of the street...a man in a gorilla mask holding a pot of Vaseline out for the runners. Perfect! And strange.

I next saw my cheering crew at mile 16, and my legs and feet were definitely starting to hurt. I got some ibuprofen from Savva's magic backpack of necessary things, slapped a bandaid on one spot on my shoulder that was chafing, and set off again into the sea of people. In Pilsen, around mile 19, I came upon my Dad, Kathy and their beloved dogs waiting for me with a beef taco and some wonderfully warm and sweet coffee. Some may say that beef is not the ideal marathon food, but now I must respectfully disagree.

When I hit 20 miles with my mood still good, my thoughts still coherent, and my body merely aching rather than screaming in pain, I started to have this wonderful, incredulous but ecstatic feeling that I would actually be able to finish and it wouldn't be so so so bad!

Just before Chinatown, after mile 21, I saw Savva and Lisa again - Savva then headed to the finish and Lisa jumped in to run with me. We chatted, and I told her about some of the funny signs I'd seen: "I don't do marathons...I do a marthoner," "Hurry up, the Bears game starts at 3," "Worst Parade Ever" and "Go Wunners, Go!" with a picture of Homestar Runner. I was definitely getting pretty tired at this point, and ugh, it hurt, but Lisa kept me going to mile 23 when she jumped out and Daniel jumped in. This is tradition, now, as last time he also ran me in for the last three miles. The only difference was that last time I was going so slow that he just speed walked next to me, and this time he had to jog. He almost made it to the finish line, but just like last time he got kicked out before the turn onto Columbus because he didn't have a bib number.

So before I knew it, I spotted Savva on the sideline just 200 meters from the finish and gave him a huge hug and kiss before sprinting towards the finish line, grinning like a maniac. I did it!!!

At the end, I met up with Mom, and Danny again - here's a few pics:

With my beloved Mommy

And my awesome little bro

So I finished in 5 hours, 18 minutes and 55 seconds, improving my time from 2006 by over 18 minutes! I had to check, of course, how the oldest man did - this year, it was an 85 year old gentleman and he took 6 hours and 45 minutes, so I totally swept him and kept that particular win streak alive. Just out of curiosity, though, I then checked to see how the oldest woman did, and found this:

Yes, that's right - not only did the oldest woman to run yesterday finish about 50 minutes faster than me but 5 out of 10 of the women in the 70-74 year old age group beat me by at least 25 minutes! I guess I still have some work to do on my running. :)

All in all, it was an amazing day and I am so glad I did it, and I may even want to do it again! Thank you to all those who have supported me, whether by coming out to cheer, praying for me, getting me a card and an AWESOME Chicago Bears cookie (thanks, Latin colleagues!), or giving donations towards the nonprofits in the Year of Racing Slowly project. You are all appreciated so much!

I can't believe the marathon is TOMORROW!

Ahhhhhhh!!!

But I'm so excited. :)

Here's what I'll be wearing tomorrow, so if you're out spectating, please watch for me!

If I'm feeling warm!

If I'm freezing my ass off! :)

Race Recap: Storm the Stadium

Solider Field, the day before the Bears vs Rams game

Yesterday (Saturday the 22nd) I headed out on a beautiful fall day for Storm the Stadium, my second stair climbing race of the year. This one was quite different than Hustle Up the Hancock - outside instead of inside, up and down instead of just up, and different sized stairs in each.

This is the first time that this event has been put on, and man, the organizers have a LOT of kinks to work out. After having done so many races this year, there are things that I have come to enjoy, and even rely on, like a cool race-specific tech shirt, signage and helpful volunteers to tell you where to go, Gatorade to guzzle when you get thirsty, a gear check to store your stuff while you're racing, and open bathrooms to use after you've drunk all that Gatorade. Storm the Stadium was missing all of this stuff!

Plus I'm almost positive that the friendly but clueless volunteer at the start screwed up the official timing; there was a chip reading mat at the start that he unplugged because he was annoyed with the beeping. But each beep is the confirmation that each person's unique chip has been recognized at the start - right before I started, a guy ran up and was working on it, but they had me start anyway. So we may never know my official time!

But the core race experience was actually really cool. We started at the bottom of the highest deck of seats, on the west side of the field where the stairs are really steep, and climbed up and down seven flights. At the top, the view was gorgeous, and I couldn't help but stop, catch my breath, and get a picture.

At the top! Gorgeous view of the lake.

Then I had to run down to the lowest level of seats on the east side of the field, and climb up and down all the really nice shallow stairs from the concourse to the edge of field, from one end zone to the other. And that was that!

If I ever manage to watch a Bears game from these seats,
I might pass out with joy. :)

Today, the day after, my calves are KILLING me. But I still went out and did my 12 mile run at 6:00 am, and the crazy thing was that my legs didn't hurt at all while I was running, but after I stopped ... ouch. Despite stretching and using The Stick to massage/roll out the muscles, now I can barely hobble around the room. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Look what came in the mail today!

Ahh! I'm really doing it!

I absolutely can't believe that the marathon is two weeks and two days away - the past month has flown by since I've been so busy with work. And my marathon training has suffered a bit in quantity, due to exhaustion and to simple lack of available daylight hours in which to run. But I'm confident that I'll be ready, come October 7th!

If you're planning on coming out to watch the marathon, please let me know, via email or phone or Facebook or whatever - I'd love to try to meet up with you while I'm running! Last time I did it, in 2006, through some luck and some planning I was able to see someone I knew every 3 miles, and that was super motivating (plus I was able to steal sips of all their various coffee drinks).

I'm officially on the "taper" part of the training, and am planning on doing 12 miles on Sunday morning. Almost there!

A New Race!

I'm excited to announce that for September, I've signed up for a new race - new for me, and new entirely because this is the first year it is being run. Storm the Stadium is a 3000 stair climb race in Soldier Field this coming Saturday, the 22nd of September - perfect for me because I really enjoyed the Hustle Up the Hancock race I did back in February, which was about 1600 stairs. Of course, I haven't done any stair climbing since February, but marathon training should count for something, right? :) Stay tuned for a post Saturday night to report on how it went!

August Training Recap

August 2012 Stats:

• 19 days working out

• 118.5 miles running

• 64 miles on the bike

• 44 laps in the pool and 1.75 miles in the lake

Wow, I seriously cannot believe I ran that many miles this month! So, from here on out, all of my races are running races, so it is definitely a relief to know that I don't have to work in any more swimming or biking or stair-climbing - I just have a singular focus on getting my miles in before October's Chicago Marathon!

If all goes according to plan, in September I'll run 17 days for a total of 128 miles and cross-train 5 days (but, in all likelihood, that cross-training just won't happen). But I am going to get those running miles in, come hell or high water! (The latter of which I may be experiencing in just a few minutes if I head out into this post-Isaac storm that promises to shower the Chicago area for the afternoon and evening.)

Race Recap: Chicago Triathlon, x 1/4

Saturday morning after finishing!

It has been a crazy week, y'all - my first week of orientation/work at Latin after two years off. The days have been filled with new faces, names, policies & procedures; the schedule was so packed with meetings and trainings that the only two concrete things I got done were to adjust my desk chair and set up my voicemail. Everyone is so friendly and helpful, but I miss my baby girl SO MUCH during the day. And sleep has been a bit lacking, since I've needed to wake up at 5 am to go for marathon training runs, and then the only time to do things like benefits/HR paperwork is at night. Whew! Transitions are hard. I know I'll get through this one just fine, and my family has been so supportive, but it is still hard.

So, Wednesday night at about 9:45 pm I went to chicagotriathlon.com to check on my wave start time for Sunday's Olympic distance race that I've been prepping for all summer - - - but when I put in my last name into the search function to see my bib number, it didn't have any results. "Strange!" I thought, then tried my first name. 0 results. So I tried "Joe." Plenty of Joes. There's a different spot on the site to put in your name to confirm your entry. Still no Danikas. 

Next, of course I searched my email for my entry confirmation - - - and apparently, I never actually registered for the triathlon. Yeah. Wow. MAJOR MISTAKE, and highly embarrassing. After quietly freaking out for a while, I started grasping for what other options there might be for an August race. And I realized that while online registration was closed, the website said that there MIGHT be spots open for Saturday's Super Sprint triathlon, taking place this year at Montrose Beach. A Super Sprint is half of the sprint distance, which is half of the Olympic distance, so a 375 meter swim, a 10K bike ride and a 2.5K run.

Friday afternoon I dashed out of work as quickly as I possibly could and drove down to the Hilton on Michigan Ave and breathed a huge sigh of relief when I was able to register. So then Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and rode down to get my bike and stuff into transition. Then Savva, Eliana, Lisa & Aislin all met up with me, and I headed down to the beach for the swim start. In contrast to the big tri on Sunday morning in Monroe Harbor, this one begins on the sand, and when the air horn sounds you have to sprint into the water with the 50 other people in your wave which results in a ton of splashing - it was SO MUCH FUN. I felt like I was 5 years old and literally laughed out loud with the joy of the feeling. The swim was great - I was very slow, like usual, (there were 47 people in my wave in front of me and only 2 behind) but I swam front stroke the whole way and the nice sandy bottom was a lot better than the scary seaweed in Monroe Harbor. The bike is on Simmons Drive, and you the same 1 mile of road six times (up & down, up & down, up & down) which is a bit boring but the good part is that I was able to see my cheering squad over and over again. Then I headed out on the run and before I knew it, it was over! I finished in 54 minutes and 12 seconds, 23rd out of 71 people in my female 20-29 age group and 256th out of 569 people all together. Not too shabby, I guess. :)

Afterwards our wonderful friends Ali & Foster made us breakfast (banana chocolate chip pancakes, yuuuuuuummmmm....) at their place and so it was pretty much a perfect day! Thanks guys!

Whoa! 100% donation match for the next 15 days!

Hey everyone! I am so so so excited to say that a person (who would like to remain anonymous) has offered to match all donations towards the 12 non-profits in this Year of Racing Slowly project for the next 15 days, up to $1,500! SO COOL!

It is exactly 15 days until the Chicago Triathlon, so anything you give through the day I swim, bike and run in support of these non-profits will be matched, for double the impact. Please click on the donate link above to see how, and if you do it online, please just send me an email to let me know! I would love love love to have another $3,000 worth of donations for these totally awesome organizations.

Okay, now I've got to get off this couch and get on my bike to head down to Ohio Street Beach for my first full mile swim in the lake. :)

Fear of Fish

I finally I did the thing I always dread every year: I swam in the lake.

I like colorful little pet fish in tanks, and have no problem visiting the aquarium. But put anything that grew up in water on a plate in front of me to eat and my stomach will clench up. I even had trouble taking prenatal vitamins with DHA that I knew had fish oil in them. My family finds this phobia rather amusing and has played terrible tricks on me throughout my life, including telling me that a swordfish steak was a pork chop when I was 9 years old, feeding me squid ink pasta when I was 20 years old (I thought the black color was just a novelty thing), throwing a shrimp tail on my bare skin at Ikea and dangling baby calamari (tentacles & all) in my face at an otherwise lovely family meal.

But for me, the only thing worse than eating a fish would be to inadvertently touch a fish/sea monster while in a lake, ocean, or river. Slimy! Cold-blooded! Potentially trying to eat me or drag me down to the depths to never be seen again!

It's like this.

Now, it is absolutely necessary to do some lake swims when you're training for the Chicago Triathlon, because this race's swim course is in Monroe Harbor, right by Buckingham Fountain downtown. You need to practice swimming in a straight line, experience the cold water, get used to being hit in the face with a wave right when you're taking a breath, and develop the endurance to keep going with no breaks like those you can take while turning around at the end of each lap in a pool.

So at 5:30 am in the morning I got on my bike and rode down the lakefront path (so much faster than running!) to Ohio Street Beach, which is just north of Navy Pier. This is the spot where many triathletes in Chicago do their training, because you can swim a full half mile north right along the seawall, and there are a few buoys to help guide you. I locked up my bike, struggled into my wetsuit, and waded in. I am always so scared that I am going to touch a fish - and there is plenty of gross seaweed that you can't avoid swimming into, as well as lots of fish-impersonating (imfishating?) trash such as sneakers, bottles, solo cups, etc.

Ohio Street Beach, just north of Navy Pier

But somehow, someway, it was a perfect day for a swim - the water was completely calm, plenty of other folks in the water, and I just DID it. And front stroke the whole way! And the only fish I saw were tiny little skinny 2 inch ones, which are not SO scary. I did a half mile, which is half of the full international distance, so I'll have to come back at least a few more times. Wish me luck!

July Training Recap

July 2012 Stats:

• 22 days working out
• 96 miles running
• 106 miles on the bike
• 77 laps in the pool and 1/2 mile in the lake

Well, I definitely skimped on my bike & swim training in July - but the thing I'm really NOT skimping on is the running required for the marathon. I KNOW how miserable I was during the 2006 marathon, because I severely undertrained, and I'm trying really hard not to do that again.

For August (and September, actually), I'm just in survival mode. I'm starting a new job on August 20th after 2 years of being a stay-at-home mommy/very-part-time tutor, and I've got a to-do list a mile long of things that need to get done in the next 3 weeks. But all I WANT to do is spend every available moment with my baby girl who I am going to miss SO MUCH when I'm away from her all day. So this training really feels like a burden right now - but it has got to be done, and I know I'll be grateful I did it on August 26th when I'm in the water during the triathlon and on October 7th when I'm (slowly) running the marathon. And I'm definitely motivated and buoyed by the generous and sacrificial donations I've received in the past few months for some of the 12 nonprofits. Thank you to those who have given!

Race Recap: Venus de Miles

At the end of the Venus de Miles, two happy gals!

Sunday morning was my July Year of Racing Slowly event: the Venus de Miles! This was my first time doing this 62 mile women's road ride, which started in Lake Forest and went all around the trails and roads in Vernon Hills, Libertyville, Mundelein, Hawthorn Woods, Long Grove, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield and Highland Park - quite the tour!

My best biking buddy Lisa and her beautiful 5 month old baby Aislin slept over on Saturday night so we'd be ready to head out insanely early for the 7 am start - we left both Aislin & Eliana with Savva for the 9.5 hours we were gone, along with the additional help of my mom for the morning shift and our friend Ali for the afternoon. We arrived just barely in time for the start, so there was no time for a bathroom break - I believe that this definitely upped our average speed for the first 15 miles before the rest stop.

A note about our training for this ride: both Lisa & I are in great shape right now, fitness-wise. She's been doing cross-fit, and I'm doing all of my marathon training runs. But, riding a bike for 62 miles rests on one thing and one thing only: how tough your butt is. And that's why you SHOULD build up to that distance with a number of training rides; do a couple of Saturdays with a 30 miler, then a 40 miler, then a 50 miler, along with some shorter rides during the week and you'll be fine. But Lisa & I are busy mommies, snuggling our little people for many hours a day, and so our training for this ride consisted of exactly one 26 mile bike ride. Which is 62 backwards, so that counts, right? Plus, Lisa watched the Tour de France and has a bike tattoo. I wore t-shirts with bikes on them for the three days leading up to the ride. So we were totally ready.

All in all, it took us about 6 1/2 hours to cover the miles, including 4 lengthy rest stop breaks where we snacked on the ample yummy food and I laid in the grass and stared up at trees while Lisa pumped - yeah, Lisa managed to do this ride just 5 months after giving birth to the wonderful baby girl that she is exclusively breastfeeding - total ROCK STAR! But, this did result in us being at the VERY END of the ride - like, literally, the sweeper people rode past us when we were just about 4 miles from the finish and asked if we were okay and if we were going to make it, and admonished us to stay together. Ha.

But, ladies, if you're considering a long bike ride for next year, this one has great support during the ride and an AMAZING after-party. There were manicures, pedicures and mini-facials being done by beauty school students, two free cocktails, a Mexican feast, and boutique gourmet ice cream. We arrived near the end, so they were out of ice cream and our manicures were a bit rushed, but that's just extra motivation for us to train better next year to go faster! Of all the athletic things I'm doing this year (running, stair-climbing, swimming & biking), biking is definitely my favorite by far, especially with such great company. :) Thanks, Lisa!

That's the great post-ride food, chowed down by Lisa!

The next day my shoulders, neck, arms & back were really sore, so I took a very nice rest day - but now I've got to get right back to training for my August event, the International Distance Chicago Triathlon on August 26th! Don't forget to come cheer me on for this one!

Workout Music Recommendations, Please!!!

Hey all! I'm beginning to recover from this morning's 14 mile run along the lakefront, which began at 5:30 am and lasted until almost 8:30 am...see, I am being perfectly honest when I say that I am a SLOW runner! (I averaged a 12:37 minute mile.) I'd sort of forgotten about all the icky bits of long runs for marathon training - the very early alarm clock setting, blisters,  exhausted and painful legs, and the chafing in places mentionable and unmentionable. But I still believe it is all worth it to reach my goal of finishing another marathon and raising money for great nonprofits in the meantime!

When I'm exercising, I definitely like to listen to music, but I haven't overhauled my playlist in years - and that's where you come in! Please, give me one or two (or ten) of your favorite songs to get you going when you're running or at the gym. Obviously, upbeat is good, and I'm a sucker for lyrics that mention running (i.e. "So I ran faster..." from Tori Amos' "Precious Things" or "You'll run and not grow weary..." from U2's "Drowning Man" or even "In a mile you'll be feeling fine..." from Citizen Cope's "Son's Gonna Rise.") 

Here's what's currently on my playlist; are any of them your favorites? Some of them are definitely tease-worthy as well, don't hold back. :)

Ani DiFranco - Manhole, Gravel

Boyz II Men - Motownphilly

Braddigan - Valeu Valeu, Ileana

Citizen Cope - Son's Gonna Rise

Dave Matthews Band - When the World Ends

Dispatch - Melon Bend, Con Man, Beto, Broken American

East Mountain South - Rain Come Down

Eric Clapton - Layla

Gaelic Storm - Bonnie Ship the Diamond

Homestar Runner - Everybody Knows It

Jars of Clay - Flood

Joan Osbourne - St. Teresa

Juanita Bynum - Shake Us Again

Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl

Live - Meltdown, Pain Lies on the Riverside, Forever May Not Be Long Enough

N'Sync - It's Gonna Be Me

Nirvana - Verse Chorus Verse

Radiohead - Reckoner

Red Hot Chili Peppers - This Velvet Glove, Dani California, Snow, Charlie, Stadium Arcadium, Slow Cheetah, Torture Me, Strip My Mind, C'mon Girl, Wet Sand, Hey, Tell Me Baby, Hard to Concentrate, 21st Century, She Looks to Me, Make You Feel Better, Turn It Again

Shakira - Hips Don't Lie

State Radio - Mountain, Right Me Up, Fight No More

Tori Amos - Precious Things

U2 - The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Magnificent, Breathe, The Saints Are Coming

June Training Recap - halfway through the year! Plus, a change of plans regarding July's event.

Hey everyone! I'm freshly showered after my 11 mile run this morning, and happy to report these stats for my training this month:

June 2012 Stats:

• 16 days working out 
• 71 miles running
• 14 miles on the bike
• 1/2 mile swim (like 22 laps)

The middle of June was a bit tough, scheduling-wise, because my husband Savva was out of town for 10 days so I was on solo-Eliana-duty (this is a very fun duty to have, by the way). Going to work out required either Elly's napping to coordinate around the Kid's Club's schedule at the gym, or a friend/family member to watch her. It was during that time that I realized that I just wasn't going to be able to set aside time for the necessary bike training for my planned July event of riding 112 miles. As you all know, I do things SLOWLY, so when I did go out for a 40 mile training ride at the end of May, the whole thing with bathroom and snack breaks and such took me 4 hours. To be ready to do 112, I would have had to find time to do 45, 55, 65, 75 and 85 mile rides, at the minimum, plus some smaller rides as well, which would have required at least 32 hours of riding over the course of 6 weeks  - - - on top of all the time I'm spending running! And Savva is going back out of town for the next 10 days, which always makes scheduling trickier. SO. I feel conflicted about this, but I've decided to change my July event. Instead of a 112 mile bike ride (chosen to top my longest ride ever of 108 miles, plus it is the Ironman bike distance) I have signed up for Venus de Miles, a women's only 62 mile (that's a metric century) road ride on July 29th. Still a bike event, still a significant distance, but I do feel lame for not being able to make my original goal - I should have thought it through back in January I guess and realized that it wouldn't happen.

In July I'll be prepping for the marathon, triathlon, and metric century all at once. If all goes according to plan (which it won't; but I find that if I make big goals I accomplish more than if I make little goals), I will work out 26 days, run 108 miles, bike 317 miles, swim 264 laps in the pool and swim 1 mile IN THE LAKE. (The lake is scary, but it's gotta be done!)

Now since this is the last day of June, I am officially halfway done with my Year of Racing (Slowly!). So I'm also totaling up everything for the entire first half of the year:

• 94 days working out 
• 267.47 miles running
• 152 miles on the bike
• 68 laps in the pool
• 765 floors climbed
• 170 minutes on the elliptical
• 7 times up to the top of the climbing wall
• 5 strength training sessions

Wow. Cool! Way more, I'm sure, than I would have done if I didn't have this crazy project - but still less than I would have liked and less than I planned. That's the trouble with making big big big plans! Do you do this to yourself?

Nonprofit Focus: Friends of Lake View/AP Calculus Scholarship

How do you feel about math?

A dangerous question I know, but really, how do you feel about it? Now, think back to when those feelings began - and I'll tell you my math history. I did fine in math through grade school and the beginning of my time at Lincoln Park High School, but didn't particularly enjoy it. My passion was reading books and doing theatre, and math was just one of those classes you had to take. All that changed in my AP Calculus class in my senior year. And why? Well, part of it was the incredible feeling of finally understanding the point of learning all of the algebra, geometry and trigonometry of the first three years - it was so you could do calculus. And the beauty of the math itself made a big impression on me. But the main reason I began to love math back in 1999 was because I had an amazing teacher, Mr. Dave Goodrich. This motorcycle-riding man with a long ponytail and an incredibly caustic wit (that he rarely reined in) had a willingness to go above and beyond for students like me who had gotten inspired by math. He taught calculus in a way that I understood it, and underneath his daily sarcasm you could feel his respect and enthusiasm for math. Now, if you love math, is it because of one or more awesome teachers?

When I was thinking about which 12 nonprofits I wanted to support in this project, I immediately thought about how cool it would be to give a scholarship to one of the seniors in the AP Calculus program at Lake View High School. Lake View, one of our Chicago Public Schools, is fairly diverse - while just over 60% of the student body is Hispanic, the other 40% is split nearly evenly between black, white and Asian. About 80% of the student body is considered low-income, and from the relationships I've had with students over the years, I knew that even a small scholarship could make a big difference. I taught for 5 years at LV, but I never taught calculus - the Calculus program was the baby of our math department chairperson, Steve Starr. Steve was my mentor teacher back when I did my student teaching, and he just retired this year, so I need to give a shout out to this man who has nurtured, strengthened and challenged the math skills of hundreds and hundreds of students. Steve has a heart for public education and every day lives as a quintessential example of a self-sacrificing, hard-working teacher who honed each of the (nearly infinite number of) skills that are required to teach well.

So, last Wednesday, thanks to so many of your generous donations, I had the amazing opportunity to present a $1,000 check to a very cool, newly minted Lake View High School graduate named Olena.

Olena is planning on attending DePaul University in the fall; she's thinking about doing medicine or maybe computer science. Through her years at Lake View, she participated on the math team and was president of the Slavic Club. She told me that she had a great experience in math at LV, and that she always appreciated Mr. Starr's silly stuff - for example, if he ever forgets to put π in front of his integral when doing the volume of a solid of revolution, he brings pie to class for everyone the next day. It's the little things. :)

Thank you all for making this possible! I know it means a lot to Olena and her family to have these funds as she begins her first year of college.

If you'd like to see my (extremely ad hoc) presentation of the award, it is right here! By the way, that's the esteemed Mr. Starr in the pink shirt next to Olena.

Hey, where's the April & May non-profit focus posts?

Perhaps you are wondering if you missed my April and May non-profit focus posts - - - because of course the training and racing are only half of this yearlong project. The other, more important half is raising awareness of and money for 12 great nonprofits! Nope, you didn't miss them - I'm just behind on writing up stuff about the LaSalle Senior Center (for May) and the Friends of Lake View AP Calculus Scholarship (for April). But I'm excited to say that the logistics have been worked out, and Wednesday afternoon I will have the honor of presenting a $1,000 scholarship to a very deserving Lake View High School senior who will attend DePaul University in the fall - more about her later this week! And then NEXT week Wednesday morning Eliana & I are going to go hang out at the senior program and find out more specifically about what the LaSalle Senior Center does - and we'll report back for sure. Stay tuned! :)

Race Recap: SheROX Naperville Women's Sprint Triathlon!

My first of two triathlons this year is done! Yesterday morning I got up at 4:15 am (after sleeping on the couch so my dear mother could use my bed, given that she was kind enough to sleep over and babysit Eliana all morning) and dashed out the door to pick up my favorite athletic event friend, Lisa Wallace. Lisa & I are tight, when it comes to these sorts of things - not only have we done two triathlons together, but we also spent an entire week bicycling across Iowa. This required sleeping next to each other in a TINY, TINY tent, with no wriggle room - and I'll be honest, I do snore. Thankfully the experience only made our friendship stronger. :) Lisa surprised me by making me the MOST AWESOME CHEERING SIGN. You'll see it again at future Year of Racing Slowly events!

We then drove all the way to Naperville, and while Lisa stopped in the Starbucks and schlepped our stuff from the car to the race start, I rode my bike to the transition area and got set up. For those not so familiar with sprint triathlons, first you swim 1/2 mile, then run a short distance to transition and grab your bike, then bike 14.2 miles, head back into transition and rack your bike, then head out on the 3.1 mile run. There's always a wonderful nervous energy in the early morning as everyone lays out their gear. Here's me around 6:30 am.

The triathlon started at 7:00 am, and they start small groups, called waves, every 4 minutes - my wave started at 8:36 am, so Lisa & I had plenty of time to sit and chat. The swim is at Centennial Beach, which is a beautiful place with lots of green grass and trees. Here's the race start:

I am proud to say that I did the entire swim front stroke, rather than backstroke (as I've done every other triathlon). I'm sure I had the worst form ever, and I was breathing so hard from the excitement and exertion that I had to lift my head out of the water way more frequently than I do just training in the pool, but I did it! The swim is always the hardest part for me, so that's why I look so happy running with my wetsuit on my way to transition:

The bike part was fun, as always, and I made sure to drink my entire water bottle, because it was HOT. The run went well too, though the first half mile or so is always so hard because your legs are used to pedaling, and when you switch to running they feel like wood. But I pressed on, and lots of spectators in the neighborhoods we ran through had set up their lawn sprinklers to go over the run course, and at the water stations they also had ice that I rubbed on my neck as I ran. I forgot to take a picture after the finish (I was very eager to get back to my little Elly) but just imagine me sweaty, sunburnt, and happy with a finishers medal around my neck. I finished in 1 hour, 39 minutes and 18 seconds - which is 25 seconds faster than my time in 2009 (1:39:43) and 81 seconds faster than my time in 2010 (1:40:39). Yay!

A big shout out to Lisa for being with me the whole morning and cheering me on with that very sparkly sign - you all should save the date for August 26th, because that's the (international distance: double everything I did yesterday!) Chicago Triathlon downtown. Come cheer me on! :)

May Training Recap

May 2012 Stats:

• 22 days working out 
• 69 miles running
• 118 miles on the bike
• 44 laps in the pool

Rock & roll!!! I was successful in reaching all of my May goals: to get in the pool and on the bike at least a bit in preparation for my upcoming sprint distance triathlon, and to find the right balance of milage to run the Soldier Field 10 mile comfortably without re-injuring my knee. Check, check and check! 

But the best part of my training this month was the major breakthrough I had in my swimming! See, I've been doing triathlons for the past 7 years, and each and every time I end up doing all my swimming backstroke. The very short video below, of me in the Chicago Triathlon in 2008, exhibits one of the drawbacks: swimming into other athletes that you can't see!  

Other drawbacks include less efficient movement through the water, being able to see stronger/faster swimmers bearing down on you, and going off course towards the middle of the lake instead of towards the finish line because you can't see where you're going. 

There are some positives, though - you can see and hear the people on the shore cheering you on, breathing is a heck of a lot easier, and you can't see the gross seaweed from the bottom of the harbor that is reaching up to drag you down to a watery grave. That being said, I've always wanted to swim front crawl, but can never seem to breathe right. Even in the pool, after maybe one lap of front stroke I feel like I'm gasping for air and I have to stop. Except, somehow, magically and mystically, when I got in the pool 3 days ago, all of a sudden I was able to do it! I did 22 laps (that's a half mile, which is the sprint triathlon distance swim) front crawl with no problems. I have no idea why it worked this year and not any of the past 7 years, but I'm really excited. 

As soon as the Soldier Field 10 mile race was over, I sat down and made my training plan for the next 4 and a half months, and it was a bit overwhelming. I need to get ready for a 112 mile bike ride (July 15th), an international distance triathlon (August 26th) and the marathon (October 7th) and the training for all of those events needs to overlap. So my goal for June is simply to stick as close as possible to my training plan!

My work-in-progress training schedule!

Race Recap: Soldier Field 10 Mile and Bike the Drive!

And the 2012 Soldier Field 10 mile race is in the books! This race has the most awesome finish of any I've ever run - first, you get to sprint onto the Chicago Bears' field through the same tunnel that the players do. Then, the finish is on the 50 yard line, and they've got a camera pointed so that you can WATCH YOURSELF RUN IN ON THE JUMBOTRON. How cool is that?!?!? I always wear my Chicago Bears gear for this race.

Before and After!

That's my friend Sunhee next to me - the pic on the left is before we started and the one on the right is after the 10 miles. We look a bit redder in the face, but none the worse for the wear! I was so glad that we met up for this event, along with some of her other friends from the Fleet Feet Women's Half Marathon training team. With something like 17,000 runners registered, there is a staggered start. We were in Start Corral 14, we had to wait a full hour (from 6:45 am to 7:45 am) to actually cross the start line and begin running, so I really enjoyed just chatting as we waited. At 7:15 am the sky looked incredibly ominous, and we were sure we were about to get soaked.

One corral's group of waiting runners - and the scary looking sky

Luckily, we just got barely drizzled on, and the cloud cover kept everything cool so running conditions were perfect! We got into a comfortable 11 minute mile pace and kept it steady for just about the entire race - I do believe that our last 2-3 miles were actually faster than our first 7-8, mostly because Sunhee got a sugar high from one of those energy gel pack things and sped up, forcing me to dig deep and keep up! Again, thanks Sunhee, for keeping me going - I would have definitely been slower if I hadn't been with you! I finished in 1:48:05. This is my fourth time running this race - in 2008, I finished in 1:56:01; in 2009, I finished in 1:39:30; and in 2010, I finished in 1:47:19.

But one event wasn't enough for me for a weekend - I had also registered for Bike the Drive. So Sunday morning, Savva & I headed out nice and early for a leisurely ride along the lakefront with something like 20,000 other riders. We decided not to bring Eliana after all - we just didn't want to get 10 miles from home and have her freak out and not want to get back in the bike trailer. Thanks, Grandma Ilene, for coming over at 6:00 am and watching her!

Early in the morning - a beautiful day for a ride!

Now, I was really excited, because the Active Transportation Alliance had invited me to their VIP Tent since they are one of the 12 non-profits that I'm promoting through this project - oh yes, now the perks are coming in! :) Seriously, it was cool to have a nice bagel, COFFEE, and orange juice and just sit and chat with some cool folks from ATA, including their ever bubbly Rebecca Resman, Director of Membership and Development.

V - I - P !!!

A great weekend! And today I'm happy to just sit on the couch. :)

Family Bike Day and 9 miles in 90 degrees :)

Let's just start off with the cutest thing I have to offer you in this blog post:

That's my baby girl! Those of you who have had toddlers understand why this picture is blurry - once they start walking, they're in constant motion. Check out that ladybug helmet! So, next weekend is Bike the Drive, Chicago's awesomest bike event of the year, and that's saying a lot as Chicago has a great bike culture. 30 miles of car-free Lake Shore Drive, from Bryn Mawr to 57th street, and the funds raised support the Active Transportation Alliance, one of the 12 nonprofits I'm promoting this year. You can still register! In preparation, Savva figured out how to assemble the bike trailer that Dad & Kathy got us before Eliana was even born. Then this morning we managed to attach it to the bike, get Elly strapped safely in, and ride about 3 miles north along the lakefront. I was afraid that Eliana wouldn't like wearing the helmet, but she loved it and cried when I tried to take it off. Yes!

I think I've been at Bike the Drive either as a rider or as a volunteer every year for at least the past 9 years, but maybe more. Here's pics from 2011, when little two month old Eliana stayed home with Grandma while Savva & I went out on our early morning biking date. It was eerily foggy the whole time, and nice and cool.

And here's from May 2006, near the end of my first year of teaching. I volunteered at the north rest stop with some of the many awesome Lake View students. (I'm the photographer, so I'm not in the picture. But I did indeed look young enough that first year that you might have had trouble picking me out of the group.)

Amra Durmic, Jaime Torres, Miguel Ayala, Enes Mehmedovic,
David Castro, Jonathan Blanco, Diana Hernandez and Tina Bruce

And here's the 2004 Bike the Drive, with my Dad and my brother Daniel. These two guys are my biking partners from way way way back when. Dad used to take us out on the lakefront path for "Quality Time With Your Father," when we were quite little. We called it the Trail of Death, because unfortunately Daniel, being 2 years younger than I, hadn't quite mastered the art of keeping a bike steady and ended up with lots of scraped and bruised parts - plus then Dad got a flat tire when we were about a million miles from the car and we had to walk FOREVER, or so it seemed to us kids. But we probably got ice cream (or Susie's fries) at the end, which makes everything okay.

After hearing on the news that we hit 90 degrees today, the highest of the year so far, I sighed, drank some extra water, and headed out for my planned 9 mile run. (Actually, it wasn't 90 degrees for me, because I was on the lakefront. Still. Warm.)

I didn't want to stray too far from home in case my knee really started giving me trouble, so I ran 3 miles north, then 2 miles south, then 1 1/2 miles back north and finally 2 1/2 miles south, back to my starting point. And my knee felt great! A really nice run, I feel totally ready for the Soldier Field 10 mile race one week from today. Bear down!