Race Recap: Hustle Up the Hancock!

2 races down, 10 to go! Today was the Hustle Up the Hancock race, which, true to its name, requires you to get yourself from the ground level of the John Hancock building in downtown Chicago all the way up to the Observatory at the top of the building using just the stairs. That's 94 floors: a total of 1,632 steps.

It is a TALL Building.

And it looks even taller when you're right next to it.
Yes, I had to lie on the cold ground and hold my feet up in
the air to take this silly picture while the Michigan Ave
tourists stared at me strangely, but it was worth it. 

I arrived really early for my 1:30 pm wave start, so I headed over to the Post-Race Party & Expo to see if I score some free snacks and Gatorade-ish liquid, which I did - but the real treat was that the Athletico trainer people were offering free stretching sessions where you lay down on the massage table and they move your limbs around for you. This sounded like a great idea, so I signed up and enjoyed my 10 minutes of a nice cute lady stretching me out, despite the fact that it was intended to be a POST-race recovery activity.

Then I hung around the concourse level of the Hancock, with approximately 5 million other athletes who were all hanging around talking loudly to each other - for  a moment of quiet I headed into the Aveda store. Did you know they give you a tiny free cup of tea when you walk in? Check it out sometime. At 1:15 pm I was allowed in line, which snaked back and forth in the concourse before heading up the escalator, then around a few corners, and then all of a sudden, there you were at the bottom of the stairwell and someone said, "Go!"

When I started at 1:30 pm (in the very last wave) people had been starting to climb up the stairwell every 8 seconds since 7:00 am, so yes, the bannisters were perhaps a bit slimy and since hot air rises the climate of the last 10-15 floors was sort of like a stinky rain forest. But they had all these great motivational posters every few floors (that were sponsored by businesses - the one that motivated me the most was from Chipotle and simply had a giant picture of a burrito on it) as well as sweet middle school students with pompoms who were cheering all the climbers on. My lungs started to burn before my legs did - it is incredible how much air you have to suck in to climb! I started too fast, as everyone always does, and had to really slow down to keep going - but I never stopped, just kept putting one foot ahead and up from the other, and eventually I heard music and cheering and my name being announced on the loudspeaker and I had arrived at the Observatory!

Done!

I finished with a time of exactly 23:00 minutes, near the middle of my age group, and really enjoyed the views of the city - - - we have such a beautiful place to live.

There's Oak Street Beach, where I'll do my triathlon swim training! 

The funny thing is, it took me 30 minutes of waiting in line for the elevator to go back down to the bottom of the building, 7 minutes longer than it took to climb up.

It was a great race, one I'd consider doing again, especially if I had some buddies to do it with. Any takers? :)

Nonprofit Focus: the American Diabetes Association

This is the second in a series of 12 posts, each highlighting a nonprofit organization that I care about and want to raise awareness of and money for. The first can be found here. Enjoy!

Guess what percentage of the United States population has diabetes? Seriously, take a guess.

According to the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, created by the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association and a few other organizations, we're at 8.3%, which amounts to almost 26 million people. 90-95% of those cases are Type 2 diabetes, where the body's blood glucose levels are too high because of insulin resistance and a lack of insulin.

A few of those 26 million people are those most close to me including my mom, my dad, my grandmother - - - and of course also the person on whom my annual Super Bowl dreams rest, my quarterback, Jay Cutler. At first I thought that diabetes wasn't that big of a deal - but the list of complications are terrifying. If diabetes isn't well controlled with a special diet, exercise, and medication, then it can lead to limb amputation, blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, and stroke, all of which pretty much kill your quality of life, if they don't kill you outright. My family has struggled at times to control their blood sugar, and when it gets too low (because of mis-timed insulin injections, or not eating) it makes them feel truly awful, sick to their stomach and dizzy, and exhausted for the rest of the day. 

The really sucky and depressing part is that Type 2 diabetes does not have to be this prevalent: it is often preventable and at least delay-able - while it is party caused by genetic factors (that we have no control over, of course), lifestyle plays a significant part in the development of the disease. Too many of us keep our blood sugar on a roller coaster ride all day long when we drink sugary drinks and eat simple carbs like white bread or doughnuts or pasta - and then have ice cream for dessert. Then we gain weight, and if we're not being physically active, the door is wide open for Type 2 diabetes to develop. I've been in that lifestyle and some days I'm still in that lifestyle - I mean, just today I drank a Coke, ate a box of candy, had non-whole wheat pasta for dinner, and enjoyed a huge Epic burger and fries for lunch - if I don't weigh more tomorrow than today, it will only be for the fluid loss from the Hustle Up the Hancock race. The one thing I get right most of the time is fitness, rather than food. But the real asset I have is knowledge about diabetes - I am aware of my risk factors, and I know lots of specifics on how to live the best lifestyle to delay or prevent the disease. I got this knowledge from educating myself about diabetes, and for that, the American Diabetes Association has been a great resource.

The American Diabetes Association focuses their work on educating people about diabetes. For healthy folks, they have information on prevention, they're a resource about delay of onset for people with pre-diabetes, and for those already diagnosed they have a wealth of knowledge on living well with diabetes in order to minimize occurrence of the awful complications. The Association does advocacy work related to access to healthcare and the greater incidence of the disease in minority populations. They also have a research foundation that funds scientific and medical inquiry about diabetes: you can read about some of the most recent studies here.

If you'd like to donate to the American Diabetes Association, just click on the Donate tab above and follow the directions!

Eat healthy and keep active, folks, so you can have your best shot at a long, healthy and happy life!

The Little Things

And the first few donations have come in! Thanks so much to Emily, my best friend from way back in 3rd grade, currently an awesome nurse in North Carolina, for being the first, and a big shout out to my in-laws, Mark & Marina Amusin and to Bob Paras, one of my great co-workers at Lake View High School for donating. I'm so excited whenever I go to check the mail or when my iPhone beeps to tell me that I have a new email, as I'm hoping hoping hoping that more money has been given to one of my 12 favorite nonprofits. Click on the "Donate!" tab above if you'd like to participate- it would totally make my day, just make sure to email me to let me know. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for an updated fundraising total!

I'm happy to report that I actually met my mini-goal of working out 6 days in a row! Making the goal public really helped me stick to it - otherwise there is NO WAY I would have headed to the gym at 9 pm on Saturday after a busy day and night of very interrupted sleep (thanks, little Eliana), especially to get in the pool which always seems like a chore because of having to change, and being chilly after getting out of the pool, and then having wet hair. But relaxing in the hot tub helped with the chilly-ness, and after returning to the locker room, on a whim I stepped into the sauna room. I'd never done this before because I had this idea in my head that they were stinky - I'm pretty sure that this idea came from the one at the Irving Park YMCA that I went to when I was little. But this one! It was SO WARM (and I loooooooooove being warm) and smelled like cedar or some other wood, so nice. I got excited and started opening the other doors heading off of the locker room, first finding a not-so-exciting utility closet. But then, the next was a really nice steam room that smelled like eucalyptus, which I stared at with my mouth hanging open until I realized that there was someone in there, understandably looking at me strangely. Oops! How have I been paying for this nice expensive gym without knowing about these nice smelling warm places? So, great discoveries were made on Saturday night, as well as one tiny discovery of a quarter on the bottom of the pool, which I dove down to get just so I could add the 25 cents to my fundraising total. :)

Random Bits Day!

I made it to the top of climbing wall at the gym today! Woo-hoo! Maybe next week, I'll try for twice!

Also, I bought new Smartwool running socks - and turned the treadmill up to six point ONE mph rather than my usual 6.0 in honor of that. Research shows that new socks make you faster. :)

The Happy New Sock!

The Sad Old Sock, worn through in the
ball of the foot from years of running.
Now living its 2nd life in my house
as a cleaning rag.

Looking forward to a high temp of 48 degrees tomorrow - I think I will finally take Elly out in the jogging stroller for an actual JOG; in the past, I've only ever walked with it.

In my Facebook feed this morning there was this link to a blog by one of the Doctors Without Borders docs who is working in the Congo - it is incredible to read about the conditions that these folks are working and living in, both doctors and patients. My heart breaks to think about a mother not being able to feed her toddler; now that I have a little one of my own, it's so much more real to imagine the pain and fear of losing a child, even as day to day I'm infinitely far away from those experiences with Eliana. I'm glad to be a supporter of the organization, and humbled by the example of strength and sacrifice exhibited by the field staff around the world.

The Motivating Power of a Mini-Goal

I've been so focused the past two weeks on some of the couch potato aspects of this project: yes, there are some! I've been spending Elly's naptimes researching marathon training schedules and getting my fundraising letters written, edited, printed, folded, stamped, and addressed, almost all of which can be done while sitting on the couch in my bathrobe. But, uh, the bad part is that I've only been to the gym 3 times so far this month, and the month is almost halfway over. D'oh. I've just kept saying to myself, "Well, I'll definitely go tomorrow." Unfortunately, that trick always works on my mind. Time for.....The Motivating Power of a Very-Specific-Mini-Goal!

I love goal setting - - - it gives me a sense of accomplishment...before I've actually done anything! This is a bit of an issue. I also have a really hard time if I give myself too much wiggle room. For example, I might say to myself "I'll work out at least 10 times this month" at the beginning of February, and then the pressure isn't really on until February 19th (oh, actually February 20th this year since it is a leap year!) to really start - I'm a champion procrastinator.

So I've learned that for goal-setting to actually result in some action in MY life, I have to make my goals very specific, and very short-term. So I resolve to work out today and the next 5 days in a row, and for at least one of those workouts to be a swim in the pool (with a soak in the hot tub afterwards as a reward, of course) and one of those workouts to be on the climbing wall at the gym. I've been getting a little tired of just rotating between the treadmill, the elliptical and the stairmaster.

Hey, if you'd like to follow my training a little more closely and also keep track of your own exercise in a technologically cool, social network-y (is that a word? probably will be soon) kind of way, check out www.endomondo.com. It's free and they have an app for your smartphone that actually tracks your outdoor workouts on a map. Here's the direct link to my profile: http://www.endomondo.com/profile/3363464. Friend me on the site if you decide to join and I'll be sure to leave you some encouraging comments on your workouts!

Do you like setting goals for yourself? Are they effective in motivating you to make progress towards the goal? What's your biggest goal-setting success story? Comment below!

January Training Recap

January 2012 Stats:

• 9 days working out 
• 20 miles on the bike
• 22.85 miles running
• 256 floors on the stairclimber
• 30 minutes on the elliptical

Well, not bad for a winter month! Thank goodness that Elly really likes playing with the staff in the Kids Club at Evanston Athletic Club, because it is so nice to be able to leave her there for an hour while I get my workout in. My best workout was the bike ride, which was pure joy - 59 degrees on January 31st, can you believe it? I rode from home to Ohio Street Beach and back - a ride full of memories for me, as each year I've done my triathlon swim training at Ohio Street Beach. The water was nice and calm - would have been great for a lake swim if it hadn't been just above freezing!

My total mileage will definitely have to go up for me to reach my goal of a 112 mile bike ride in July and a marathon in October - but my first focus now is the Hustle Up the Hancock on February 26th! 94 floors, which is 1,632 steps. In 2010, the fastest climber in my age group did it in 13 min and 57 sec - the slowest was 1 hr, 9 min and 52 sec and the median time was 22 min and 23 sec. Soon we'll see where I fall! (But not literally. Definitely not planning on falling during the race.)