Week 13

16 weeks until the marathon and I decided to take the week off of running before the crazy training started. Since I'm in shape to run a 1/2 it seems reasonable. The only running I did was the 5k on the Runway which was a fantastic race with a new PR!

Here's the rundown...

9/21: 3.1 miles - Athens Sister City 5k on the Runway (8:08 pace)
Total: 3.1 (goal 0)

Week 12

So I ended up not running the Chicago 1/2 last weekend. We just had 10" of rain in the city, roads were flooded, and the remnants of hurricane ike were coming through that day with 22 MPH winds and heavy rain. The taper was nice, as was the weekend off of running before hard-core marathon training starts.

Here's the rundown...

9/9: 4.0 miles - palatine trail (library), track*1, and back (9:21 pace)
9/10: 3.0 miles - track*5 and back (9:03 pace)
9/11: 2.0 miles - track and back (9:13 pace)
Total: 9 (goal 22)

5k on the runway

I think I should keep running 5k races. Everytime I've done one this year, I've shaved about 45 seconds off of my time on the previous one!

Today was the Athens Sister City 5k on the Runway at O'Hare. Yes, like the airport. O'Hare just finished a giant new runway so that they can have 3 simultaneous takeoffs/landings going on at the same time instead of 2. It's set to open soon and mayor Daley is having this all day celebration there today, beginning with the run.

I arrived about an hour early and all was amazingly well set up. Free parking in lot G, clearly marked packet pickup and t-shirt tables, D-tags (disposable RFID timing chips) taped to the bibs, no line at gear check. These are the same people who put on the horror that was the Bastille Day 5k, so I was expecting the worst :) No one had an idea what the course would be, since they told us that for security reasons they couldn't tell us and to just follow the course officials. It started about 15 minutes late due to other unnamed "security issues" but other than that, it was all pretty fantastic.

As I feel a cold coming on, I wasn't expecting to go very fast. I planned for just a nice little fun run along the runway. But I ended up lining up a bit towards the front of the pack and decided to just go for it, and if I felt tired, I could just slow down. It was about 3/4 of a mile out to the end of the runway and as I turned the corner, the clock showed I was going a bit faster than planned. I hit mile 1 at about 8:10. The race continued as an out-and-back on the runway and as I turned to come back I was still feeling great. I ran past the aid station and hit mile 2 at about 16:25, still on a great pace. Coming off the runway there was a bit of a downhill to get back to the parking lot and I stepped it up a little, figuring why not? As I made it to the 3 mile mark, they announced that it was coming up on 25 minutes. It was a good thing he repeated it twice because I was sure he had to be wrong. Putting it in high gear, I crossed the finish line to end at 25:30 clock time (25:18 chip time).

Water, gatorade, and bananas were to be had after the race and gear check had no line. All in all, a very wonderful race and fun to have another PR as the race running season comes to a close. Of course for me, the personal running season is just getting going as it's 16 weeks to the Disney Marathon!

Week 11

It's just one week now until the 1/2 marathon. The cooler weather this week was greatly appreciated after that crazy upper-80 degrees run for the Nike Human Race! It was a very busy week and hard to fit my runs in, but I did...even doing one on the treadmill because it was pouring rain outside.

Here's the rundown...

9/3: 5.0 miles - palatine trail (library), track*5, and back (9:31 pace)
9/4: 5.0 miles - treadmill at MOT (9:33 pace)
9/6: 10.0 miles - lakefront train from Grand to Montrose and back (9:28 pace)
9/7: 3.0 miles - track*5 and back (9:25 pace)
Total: 23 (goal 23)

Nike Plus Human Race Chicago

Last night I ran the Nike Plus Human Race in Chicago. It's a worldwide event that was going for setting a record on the number of runners in a one-day event. They had about 500,000 which is pretty amazing, 15,000 of which were in Chicago.

I took the train/el down there and got to the stadium about an hour before the race. Gatorade and Ice Mountain were sponsors, so there was plenty of water to hydrate with which is good since it was still about 87 degrees outside. Gear Check was inside soldier field and super-organized. Nike really knows how to put on a race!

The start corrals were a bit packed while we were all waiting for the race to start. There were a lot of last minute sign ups and they didn't quite realize how many people would be there. After Wayne Messmer sang the anthem, and the US top finisher in the olympic marathon wished us good luck, we were off!

The course followed LSD down to Oakwood (about 40th st) st and then came back on the lake front path. I went out a bit fast, but really wanted to try to set a PR on the race which I knew would be hard after my awesome napa-sonoma 10k time. I hit the first few miles at 8:30 pace which I knew I couldn't sustain, but also knew that I only needed a 9:00 pace to hit my goal. Around the halfway point I was just so hot and not feeling extremely well but kept going on. My last few miles were around a 9:30 pace, so all averaged out well in the end. As I turned the final corner, I knew I could make it and set a new PR with a time of 56:08, 9 seconds better than my old PR.


After the race there was the usual gatorade, water, etc. but following that was a Fall Out Boy concert in Soldier Field. They put plastic mats on the grass and all 15,000 of us made our way onto the field for a great concert! So much fun!

Week 10

It's just two weeks until the 1/2 marathon. I definitely learned that I'll have to slow down a bit from my crazy 10k pace...or at least hope it will be cooler out that day! I ran the Nike Human Race yesterday (more on that soon!) and had a wonderful time despite the crazy heat yesterday. A new PR by 9 seconds!!

Here's the rundown...

8/26: 5.0 miles - palatine trail (library), track*5, and back (9:27 pace)
8/29: 5.0 miles - palatine trail (library), track*5, and back (9:37 pace)
8/30: 3.0 miles - hills by the reservoir, 2.5 laps (9:46 pace)
8/31: 6.2 miles - Nike Plus Human Race Chicago (9:02 pace)
Total: 19.2 (goal 19.2)