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By kilax, September 18, 2012 6:45 am

It looks like Jeans Judgement Day* came at just about the same time as last year! And… dun dun dun… they fit! Phew!

It was so nice and cool during my run this am – in the mid 40s. I was chilly when I was done, so I stopped and got a chai latte then came home to a hot shower, and put on jeans, a long sleeved tee and socks after. SOCKS! I have only worn socks lately for running!

Tell me, what’s the most bundled up you’ve had to get lately?

And have you already had your Jeans Judgement Day*?

*This is the day I try my jeans on after not wearing them all summer and have to see if they still fit…

Comments (30)

By kilax, September 16, 2012 5:38 pm

No rest for the weary – I got up earlier today than I did yesterday so I could spectate at the Fox Valley Marathon, Fall Final 20 and Half Marathon in St Charles, Illinois. I really wanted to be there. It was Kelly‘s first marathon, Charlyn was going for a BQ, Bobbi was doing the 20 with her sister, and Lindy was doing the half. 

I was more nervous for this than I was for my 50K! I was up relatively late Saturday (somewhat) memorizing the course, plotting spectating points, and making a poster (I do not have my mom or sister’s artistic talent):

Wow, Data. You’re so helpful.

I tossed and turned all night, having on and off nightmares about missing my friends on course. Wow. Pretty lame. I was happy when it was finally time to get up and just get out there!

I easily met up with everyone pre-race, then Britt and I plotted our spectating plan of attack.

She was the driver and I was the navigator. We were looking for people at all distances (26.2, 20 and 13.1) and at different speeds, and I was nervous about seeing everyone.

Seriously! I was more nervous about this than races I have done! Spectating is stressful! You are running from spot to spot, making sure you see your peeps… hoping they are feeling good…

But! We were successful! We saw (most of) our group at the start, mile 5, mile 10ish, mile 17.5ish and at the finish. I am highly obnoxious and took a ton of photos, but I am just going to post one of each person below:

This course is so beautiful (from what we saw) and it looks like it has a ton of great spots for spectators! And it’s easy to find people – I saw someone from work, a running club friend and a friend from Erin‘s running club! This race will definitely have to be on the radar for future years for me!

The funny thing about spectating is that it usually makes you want to run a race. It totally made Britt feel that way. I just saw those people pounding the paved surfaces and all I could think about was how nice the trails felt yesterday… and how happy I was that I was not running at that moment. 

AND I HAVE TO TELL YOU GUYS SOMETHING SICK AND TWISTED. So I hope you are sitting down. There were people at this race wearing the marathon, 50K and 50M shirt from yesterday. RUNNING. They were RUNNING this race! What. The. Efff. One guy we talked to did the marathon yesterday and today. Crazy. The woman we saw running the race with the 50K (or was it M?) shirt on looked really, really sore. 

They made me feel lazy. 

I did wear my 50K race shirt and ran in to some spectators who did it as well and had a fun, quick chat. 

Spectating is a lot of fun. Especially with Britt. We chatted A LOT. The runners were probably annoyed with us. Just kidding. Our conversation was totally interesting and they probably wanted to stop and chat (<– sarcasm). 

Spectating is TIRING! I felt like I was falling asleep on the hour and 20 minute drive home. I feel asleep on the couch for a bit. Oops. I felt so tired and I was spectating quickies! Now I feel bad for the peeps who have spectated my slow arse marathons! Thanks, guys!!! 

Alright, enough blah blahing. I was just stoked to spectate my first big race!

Are you a pro spectator?

Comments (101)

By kilax, September 15, 2012 6:45 pm

What an amazing day!

Before I get in to what hopefully won’t be tooooo long of a race report, I have to say that this race would not have been as awesome and fun if I had not run with Kovas and Rachel the entire time.  I had already planned on running with Kovas, and we were hanging out at the start when Rachel approached me and asked if I was a blogger! After quick introductions, I remembered her and Kim (who was pacing a 50 miler, not doing the 50K) from the Wisconsin Half Marathon! What an awesome surprise to run in to them! They were both super pumped, and we talked about how race day snuck up on us so quickly. I don’t think the race felt real to any of us until we hit the trail. We didn’t all plan to stick together, but we did!

Kovas, me, Rachel and Kim before the start

So, start details – 4:00 am wake-up call, hour and 20 minute drive (through some freaky fog) to Kettle Moraine, WI with my running club, 7:00 am race start.  I wasn’t nervous. I knew I could cover the distance, because my plan was to walk the hills, and the hills were aplenty! And I can go far… I just have to go slow. 

The sun was just rising when we started the 50K, and the runners in front of us were in a beautiful cloud of fog. 

It was neat to see all of the 50Kers together at first, because that did not last very long! For some of the course, we were completely on our own, or getting passed by the fast marathoners who started two hours later and 6 miles in to the 50K course. 

After a short part on the street we were in the woods. I was waiting to see it. Everyone says how beautiful Kettle Moraine is, and it did not disappoint:

Even when we were busting our butts to hike up the hills, I was not upset. It was just so beautiful.

Attempt to take a picture of a small hill

The terrain varied quite a bit – grass, packed dirt, loose sand, rocks and roots… and it went from single track to 6+ feet wide (I preferred the wide part). The sandy parts of the trail were are for horses, and we saw a lot. Despite what people warned me about the sand, I liked it the best – it felt so nice and soft on my feet. Running on the rocks hurt (especially as the run went on). 

The only part of the course I did not care for was the open prairie.

Besides being in the open sun, it was a bit boring. So boring that I lost track of what I was doing and tripped over my own feet. 

Damn, that left knee just can’t catch a break!

And that was very interesting – you had to pay attention to your footing the entire time (not something I am used to). It was easy to stumble. Kovas, Rachel and I all fell! Ha ha. 

We were only in the open prairie part for maybe 6 total miles, and split between woods, for the entire course. We sped up on these parts. And these parts made me wish for the hills so I could have a walk break! Ha!

So, how was our pace? Hmm. Well, the garmin did die at 26.46 miles. Until it died we were on track for 13:00 minute miles, then starting to creep up closer to 13:45. My final time was 7:14:38, which is a 14:01 pace. I predicted 13:30 average, so I was a bit off, but not too bad!

I was surprised there were no mile markers – duh, Kim – I should have known this. Luckily, Rachel’s watch held through so we had an idea of how much further we had to go. There were great trail markers:

Just make sure you follow the ribbons that match your bib, and you’re good to go!

And the buffets aid stations were AWESOME:

I got potatoes with salt every time and that really helped with my swollen fingers. I also snacked on chips. And Skittles once, but they bothered my stomach a bit. I filled my Nathan vest at every station too. I was a little slow with that, but I’ll get better. 

Oops. This is getting a bit long. So, like a typical long distance race, I slowed down toward the end. But, I felt great the entire time, except for a sore right butt cheek and sore hips (from the hills, I think). I had energy (I was eating and drinking a ton), my stomach felt good and my legs felt good. Just getting a bit sore. 

We really picked it up at the end when we saw the finish line. We were stoked! I almost cried, I was so excited!!!

And I was so so happy to see Steven and my running club friends at the end!!! Steven drove up to see me finish (there were only a few spots for spectators on the course, mostly at road crossings). 

I asked for my flip flops right away and was surprised at what I saw:

Ha ha ha! What happened to my toes?! Man, I really had to scrub hard in the shower!

We chatted with my running club friends, grabbed the free food:

and took stalker pictures of Dean Karnazes:

I didn’t stay for the meet and greet with Dean, but after I changed clothes he was walking by me during the kids run and said to me out of the blue: “Looking good with those wounds – you earned them!” So… Dean thinks I am badass. Ha ha. Right?! That is what he meant, right?! RIGHT?!?!?!!

So, this was amazing, and I had a blast. Parts were hard, where we were all quiet on the trail, pushing our own mental game. I wore the pin Erin gave me for luck and would touch it often to think of its sentiment. But I felt really good. Like scary good, thinking of signing up for another one, before the race was even over, good. 

I think it was so fun because I was running with people though. It would have been lonely without Kovas and Rachel. So I have to thank them SO MUCH for running with me. And find out which one of you wants to do the next one with me. Just keep in mind how slow I run. And that I get schmelly (today was not too bad – 44° at the start and 74° at the finish, and mostly shaded).

Thanks for getting so far in this post. I am sure I have forgotten a lot of details and you’ll have to hear more over the course of the week!

Comments (18)

By kilax, September 14, 2012 8:10 am

What is your ideal day?

Molly wrote a beautiful ideal day post, and asked me if I wanted to participate in writing my own as part of the Ideal Day Campaign. The idea is that visualizing your ideal day will help you recognize it when you are having it – make it more likely to come true.

I felt a lot of pressure though! How could I imagine what an ideal day is like?! I have never had an ideal day.

Then the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had. My ideal days are when I go to the river with my family/friends and have not a care in the world. So for now, work is left out of my ideal day.

My ideal day:

I wake up early, naturally. I’ve gone to bed early the night before and feel well rested. I have nothing to do – the day is mine, with no obligations. So I start it with a long run. I run all over town and people are friendly when I pass them. The weather is nice and overcast for my run. 

After my run I eat a bagel with peanut butter, and despite it still being early in the morning, miraculously, everyone is ready to go to the beach! So we all head out on one of Dad’s boats, which is running perfectly and hasn’t had an issue in years. We find a great spot to park on the beach and set up camp. The clouds have left and the sun is shining!

We spend the day eating, playing games and hanging out. There may even be a nap on the beach involved.

We take the long way back home to enjoy a nice boat ride. 

We go back, quickly clean up and make a simple dinner that does not take much time to prepare. We eat dinner and spend the rest of the night playing games and hanging out. 

Then repeat the next day!

Comments (19)

By kilax, September 13, 2012 6:19 am

• I was really surprised to get this in the mail yesterday. Good thing I did. Data was being a whiny little biznatch about not having “all three medals like he should.” All joking aside, I casually mentioned not receiving one to the PR contact, Jessica, and she said she would work on it and asked for my address. Then it showed up!

• Did anyone register for the Chicago Half Marathon during the blitz on Tuesday? I got in and saw that pricing was at $35 and told myself NO. I have learned my lesson in signing up for races too far in advance. Pricing is 20% off through tomorrow!
• Steven came up with a schweet new logo for FakeMeats.com and is debuting it at the end of the month!  I am really excited about the new logo, and inspired that he thought it up on his own. Steven is MUCH MORE creative than me. Anyway, I’m not showing you the logo today (muahahaha) but wanted to show you our new “about us” flier… because I think the picture of us with our little big friend is hilarious. What is even more funny is that we don’t know if that’s a llama or alpaca.

• I broke my super bright headlamp with a million LEDs (on the left). We ordered a new one (on the right) and it is not as bright. Any recommendations for an ultra bright headlamp?

• I have been doing a lot of photo editing on my phone lately. I am not sure whether it is exciting that I can do this on my phone, or sad that I have been using it instead of Photoshop.

• I cannot wait for the workday to be over so I can start thinking about Saturday’s 50K. I am going to packet pickup tomorrow with a running club friend. I sometimes skip pickup if I can, but I am hoping that seeing some race info in person will make it stick better. Also, Kovas and I are going to start the race together! I told him he can ditch me when I get too slow or too schmelly, whichever happens first.

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: XXI, XX, XIX, XVIII, XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Comments (7)

By kilax, September 12, 2012 4:59 pm

Even though I am not running the Chicago Marathon this year, I am still excited to see the banners up:

When I did run it in 2010, I worked downtown a lot, and walked by the street with the banners up several times a week.  It really pumped me up for the race. 

I love seeing race banners and other promotional items out for races. It just reminds me of how much the community comes out to support runners. When I ran NYC last year, I didn’t walk by all the banners/signs in person, but Gina would text or email them to me so I could still enjoy them!

Does your city have a race where they put up banners/signs/whatever and come out to support the runners?

And just for fun, another photo from my afternoon walk to the train station:

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By kilax, September 11, 2012 7:41 am

I was completely surprised this past weekend when Erin gave me this beautiful pin to wear during my 50K on Saturday:

What a caring, thoughtful gesture! Thank you, Erin! I will definitely put it on my vest for the race.

I was also surprised this past weekend by how much support and encouragement I got for my 50K when it came up with friends I’ve met before and people I was just meeting for the first time. Everyone was so kind, telling me they know I’ll do great, have fun, and so on. It’s not as surprising that people who’ve been following my training schedule online would think I’m going to do well, but strangers? That is an awesome vote of confidence in someone you’ve just met and know nothing about!

And don’t get me wrong – I am not complaining about this! It made me feel quite good. It made me think “Yeah, I will do well! They’re right!”

And then I thought about it some more.

When Erin gave me this pin I jokingly (sort of) said I should wear it to work, because that is where I need to believe in me the most. I’ve been given a lot of projects lately where I am in unfamiliar ground. And I struggle with the unknown. I have a hard time planning for and leading a meeting when I don’t know what the outcome will be, because it’s a creative brainstorming meeting. That is not where I thrive, and I feel really anxious and uncomfortable. Most of the time.

Yet, just like with the running, someone who didn’t know much about me, believed that I could do it. So why does that make me feel comfort when it’s related to running, but not at work? I am going to try to channel some of that running confidence in to work confidence. Try.

In what aspect of life do you most need to “believe in you”?

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By kilax, September 10, 2012 6:20 am

I was very excited to receive a free entry to the Chicago Half Marathon this year. It’s a race I was registered for in 2010 but unable to run. It was great to finally get to race on Lake Shore Drive yesterday, and use this 13.1 as a last “easy” long run in training for my 50K this Saturday!

The Chicago Half Marathon starts near the Museum of Science and Industry at 7:00 am. I live forever away from Chicago, so Erin was kind enough to let me crash at her place Saturday night. As it is, we still had to get up at 5:00 am to make it to the race on time! Maggie met us at Erin’s place and we walked over to Emily‘s, who was brave enough to offer to drive us to the start! Thanks, Emily!

The race highly discourages driving to the start (as opposed to taking public transit or paying for their shuttle). Parking is limited, and they are already starting to shut down lanes on Lake Shore Drive for the race itself, so navigation is a bit tricky. But Emily navigated like a pro. And I was happy I was not driving. And really, not stressing about anything at all. This was just a long training run for me, that happened to be a race with a medal at the end! Okay, and really… just a chance to hang out with my blogging buddies.

And blogging buddies I did see! Before the race:

Photo credit to Maggie! From L to R: Sara, Lauren, Amanda, Maggie, me, Erin and Emily.

We also ran across Kayla in the porta pottie line, and were lucky enough to see Britt in the out and back portion of the race! Okay, I don’t need to add “lucky” in there. Britt is speedy, and easy to pick out because she runs so fast there usually are not that many people around her. Emily was impressed that I spotted Britt, but I told Emily Britt was easy to find because of her chiseled abs and stylish sunglasses.

Oops, off track.

Back to the porta pottie lines. I was really surprised by how large this race felt. It has nearly 20,000 runners, and you could feel it. Crowds of people everywhere, long-arse porta pottie lines, very congested until we got on to Lake Shore Drive (first three miles, and Erin had warned us about it). I think there would have been a lot of weaving on course if I had been trying to PR. But! I was not! I was there for fun, so I didn’t care that the gun went off when I was in the porta pottie line (I would have started 10 minutes late whether I was in the corrals then or not).

I tried really hard not to care when the first water stop was a disaster because of how crowded it was. It all eased up when we got on to Lake Shore Drive.

And how cool is it to have traffic on a major road in your town shut down just for you and thousands of your closest friends to run?

The first few miles of the course have you winding around until you get on to Lake Shore Drive, then the rest is an out and back with a turn at the end to the finish. There is no shade on the out and back part of the course, unless you are running under an overpass. I was happy it only got in to the mid 60s. I was hot as it was and cannot imagine running this race with it any hotter!

Emily and I ran the entire race together. My goal was to not get amped and run too fast and she wanted to finish between 2:20-2:25. We did a 9/1 run/walk method, and also walked through some of the water stops. We picked it up for the last few miles and actually had a faster second half of the race! I felt good when I finished, not sore at all, and ready to run some more. All good signs for the 50K this Saturday, I hope.

And I had a lot of fun running with Emily. We chatted most of the time, until the end, when we were really pushing it to finish strong!

Our final time was 2:22:52! Right on goal.

If you run this race along with the Chicago 13.1 Marathon, you get a “Windy City Challenge” medal. Emily and I ran both races for free, and did not have the special bib to get the extra medal. We asked about it at the medal tent, and were denied, since we did not “check off” that we were running both races when we registered. There actually was not an opportunity to do so when I registered (I think since we were registering under a promo account), but I did not want to argue with the woman at the medal tent anymore. I am happy that I got to experience both races (and for free!) and only thought I would just ask about the medal. I do feel bad for the guy in line who also ran both, and paid for them, but did not get a medal either. I probably don’t deserve one, but he does!

After asking about our medals, it was time to meet the rest of the group and head back to Erin’s for brunch! Of course, I had to make one last idiot move. I wanted to check out the Smucker’s tent at the race. I went to do so and could not find my group when I left the tent 10 seconds later (it was still pretty crowded). And no ones phones were working – texting and trying to call was a nightmare*. So I continued walking to the car, trying to tell the group where I was. We finally connected and I was able to tell them that, but I am sure they were annoyed. I am sorry about that.

The ride back was less crazy than I thought it would be with post-race traffic, Bears traffic, and regular traffic, and we arrived at Erin’s to wonderful aromas:

I was so hungry during the race. I had oatmeal and a GU for breakfast and it was not enough! I was so happy to arrive back and have a lot of fabulous brunch items to eat at Erin’s!

And also, to get to chat with a lot of bloggers, and even meet some that I had never met before! We ate and chatted about running, living in Chicago, work, crazy roommates… but mostly running! What a fun time!

Photo credit to Erin! From L to R: Christina, Emily, Erin, Maggie, Kelsey, me, Emily and Chris (from my running club).

After brunch, I caught a ride home with my running club friend Chris, who just happened to be downtown. I was originally going to take the train home, so that was a nice surprise! I got home late Sunday afternoon.

It’s funny how running races in Chicago kind of turns in to a full day event for me. I took the 2:55 pm train to Erin’s on Saturday and got home at 4:00 on Sunday. Of course, there were some extra activities thrown in there, but it just reminds me how far I actually do live from the city, ha ha! I am lucky to be able to crash at Erin’s and not have to get up super duper early.

How far will you drive to a race in the morning, without getting a hotel (or crashing somewhere!) the night before?

*I couldn’t even test that app because I could never connect to the internet.

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By kilax, September 9, 2012 6:31 pm

Highlight of the Week: Definitely friends getting me through these last (I hope?) humid runs of the year. I kind of decided Monday morning that I was not going to do any more runs in the humidity alone, and luckily, I had people to run with five times this week. 

Monday | September 3, 2012: 14 m run (w/Bobbi and GRCers) + 26 m ride
Loc: Around Grayslake, Temp: 66°/74°, Time: 2:36:27, Pace: 11:11 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great – wanted to keep going!
Loc: Prairie Trail/Hebron Trail, Temp: 87°/84°, Time: 1:57:23, Pace: 13.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy-ish, Felt: excited
Tuesday | September 4, 2012: 7.15 m ride
Loc: Around Round Lake, Temp: 86°, Time: 37:28, Pace: 11.4 mph avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: ok until I crashed
Wednesday | September 5, 2012: strength + 5 m run (w/Bobbi)
Strength: Kettlebells and Step, Difficulty: Medium, Felt: sore from crashing on Tuesday
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 76°/73°, Time: 52:57, Pace: 10:35 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Thursday | September 6, 2012: rest
Friday | September 7, 2012: 4 m run (w/Kate) + strength + 6 m run/+walk (w/Kelly)
Loc: Rollins Savanna, Temp: 68°/66°, Time: 37:46, Pace: 9:26, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Strength: Resistance Bands and Weighted Bars, Difficulty: hard, Felt: weak
Loc: Grant Woods FP, Temp: 62°/58°, Time: 1:00:04, Pace: 10:00 (mile 6 @ 12:29), Difficulty: medium, Felt: fast
Saturday | September 8, 2012: rest
Sunday | September 9, 2012: Chicago Half Marathon (w/Emily)
Loc: Chicago, Temp: 56°/64°, Time: 2:22:55, Pace: 10:50 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: strong

Lessons learned:

• Slow down for those sharp turns on the bike. 
• More time at home = more workouts (really… more time commuting = less workouts). I knew this, but it was nice to only commute two days this week and have some fun workouts. 
• Be really careful when running on sidewalks in the dark/transitioning from trail to sidewalk/running by a house with a scary giant skull in the yard. 

Comments (12)

By kilax, September 8, 2012 3:24 pm

The battery on this guy is not going to last my entire 50K next Saturday:

When I registered I had to estimate by average pace and finish time. I hope I wasn’t being too cocky:

Gah… that’s a long time to be on my feet.

Unrelated, but I must ask this. When you register for a race in advance do you ask for a shirt in your current size? Or in the size you think you will be on race day?

By the time I get to packet pickup I can almost never remember what I asked for. So sometimes I am in for a surprise (unless they let me choose the size there! score!). Especially when I assumed it was men’s sizing, and it turns out to be women’s, and much too small…

I think we get a shirt and arm warmers for the 50K, so that’s cool. Moving along…

So. Since my watch is not going to last the duration of the race, I am going to use an app on my phone to at least have my splits as a record. Right now I am trying RunKeeper. I plan to use it, along with the Garmin tomorrow during the race, and see how they compare.

Does anyone have a preference for a certain pace/distance tracking app? Does anyone know which ones have data you can push to your computer?