Archive for the ‘Running’ Category

I Heart Momma 5K Recap

Monday, May 13th, 2013

A few days ago, I awoke with this email in my inbox:

 

With an invitation like that, how could a girl refuse? And since none of my friends were around to run it with me, I forced Max into running it.  After explaining this to Art, I got another beautiful email from him:

Needless to say, I knew I was going to have a blast at this race.  And don’t worry, Max was super unhappy that he would have to pick-up his packet under the name PartyDog.  I love my life.

On Saturday morning, we drove out to the start and only got lost about 40 times.  Entirely my fault of course-but partially Max’s for even attempting to put me in charge of navigating us to get there. If you know me, that’s about the worst idea someone can have.  We started the race a few minutes late but the beauty of Muddy Monk races are that it doesn’t matter when you start, just get your butt on the trail and run. So we did just that.

When we lived back home, Max and I ran a few races together but since moving out to Chicago it has yet to happen.  I almost forgot why I don’t enjoy running races with PartyDog as much as my friends, but it all came back to me the second we got on the trail.

That is all I saw the entire race- Max’s back.  You see, Max thinks that running with someone means running IN FRONT of someone- the entire time.  Most of the race I spent looking for race photographers and yelling at Max to actually run with me for 2 seconds.  To which his reply would be I AM. And my reply to that being NO YOU’RE NOT.  Lovebirds we truly are.

After being pissed at Max for about a mile, I spotted the race photographers. Game on. Until I saw that the photographers were none other then my friendies Sarah and Meghan! I can’t even being to describe how excited I was to see them on the course AND the that they were the ones taking pictures!  After a lot of high-pitched screaming from the three  of us, I went back to yelling at Max.  Don’t worry though, they caught my excitement of seeing them on camera:

The course was interesting. It was very traily if that makes sense (it doesn’t) ?  It was way different than any other Muddy Monk race I’ve ever run. We went out and back, under trees, through some kind of secret garden and through  so much mud. The part I loved best was that the out and back was out and back to Meghan and Sarah! Naturally more screaming happened and more pictures. I love how unimpressed Max is by my antics in all these pictures. I mean the second I spotted my friends, I got super excited:

And continued to scream and wave my 60 feet arms in the air:

Max clearly did not listen when I told him at the start of the race that our main concern was taking great race pictures.

I mean the guy doesn’t even remotely act like he’s with me. Which is fine, who needs him anyway?

The last .5 mile or so, we were straight up wandering through the woods. It was SO much fun and we were walking so I even had a chance to stop and snap a picture even though Max was STILL trying to run as far away from me as he possibly could. I spy with my little eye PartyDog in the woods…

After taking this picture I face planted.  Not only did I face plant, but I somehow managed to slide about a foot in the mud.  Being the wonderful boyfriend he is, PartyDog didn’t even notice because he was so far ahead of me. Naturally I stayed on the ground for a minute and laughed hysterically until I realized people were standing behind me waiting to pass so I got up and resumed to yelling at Max to wait up for me.

We finally finished, very muddy.

And somehow still together.

Man, I love Muddy Monk races.  Thanks to Art and the volunteers for a SUPER FUN morning! OH! I almost forgot to mention I got my first ever race medal!!

Seems fitting my first race medal would be from a Muddy Monk race.

Oh and one more thing:

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

A Fantastic 5K

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Yesterday I ran a seriously fun 5K.   My fashionable friend Loop Looks and her running club organized The Race That’s Good For Life so Linds, Katie and I ventured out to Oak Park for a fun morning of running.

The weather was fantastic – 60′s and cloudy- perfect for running.  The packet pick-up was a breeze, there were tons of porta-potties (although I was unfortunate enough to get a freshly pre-race poop one that smelled like butt) and it started exactly on time.

The course itself was super fun! I’m not used to running through neighborhoods so it was a really different view for me.  Oak Park, IL is really pretty and SUPER flat so I can imagine a lot of PR’s happening on the course.  We ran through the neighborhood and a lot of people came out to cheer us on! There were a ton of volunteers and people out cheering (and dogs!) which was awesome. Of course running with my loves made this race so much more fun but I imagine I would have enjoyed it just as much had I of run it alone. Ok maybe not, but I still would have loved it…

It was a different kind of course, extremely organized  and just plain fun.  For $30.00, it really can’t be beat. When we finished, the first thing we talked about was how we couldn’t wait until next year to run it! There was a TON of food at the end including, Jimmy John’s, Smartfood Popcorn, Carribou Coffee and a few other local vendors. The end is also where we took quite possibly the worst picture ever that I’m sure my friends will be happy that I’m posting on the Internet:

How horrible do we all look in that picture? Cracks me up.

After some on-the-floor-stretching, chatting with our cutie preggers friend Kelly and her baby bump and eating some food, we hopped on the EL and made our way back to Chicago.

I love 5K’s and I think you should too! You can make them as hard as you want, run with your friends and just have a blast for 3.1 miles.  This race definitely goes in my top three races (it’s hard to beat my obsession with Muddy Monk races…) and I’m already looking forward to running it next year.

Thanks Loop Looks for helping to put on a fantastic event and for a super fun Sunday morning!

The Most Beautiful Run of My Life

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

I had to make a post about my run in Vancouver it’s very own post. I can honestly say, I’ve never been on a run quite that beautiful.  I love running on the Chicago Lakefront, but man it doesn’t even compare to running the Vancouver seawall. My horrible phone pictures do not even begin to do the view justice.

First meet Paul, my Vancouver running partner.  Paul is a very interesting person and I very much like his approach to running. Paul has a marathon next weekend and his longest run has been 8 miles but he’s not concerned at all. I love that. Needless to say, he was a blast to run with and kept me cracking up the entire time.

We didn’t realize the Sun Run (Vancouver’s largest 10K with 40,000 people) would block our passage to the path so we ended up just joining the run for about a half mile until we reached the path and left the race.  So I can sorta say I ran in it right?  We veered off into Stanley Park which was so beautiful. We ran through redwoods and I was almost speechless at this point (which is rare, trust me).

About a mile or so in, we left Stanley Park and made our way onto the seawall. Words cannot express how absolutely breathtaking this was. I had no idea that it would be quite that incredible. I forced Paul to stop a few times so I could snap some pictures.

We got off the path around 4.5 miles and ended up BACK in the Sun Run.  Paul was thirsty so he grabbed a water from the aid station and then proceeded to find 20 dollars that had fallen out of someone’s pocket.  We asked around a bit and nobody knew who’s money it was so  Paul just held it out, the rest of the run.  I can’t even tell you how hard I laughed at all of this…I mean this is what happened:

• We crashed Vancouver’s largest race-twice.
• We took water from the race’s aide station.
• We took 20 dollars from someone.

After cracking up for a good 5 minutes that all this happened, we decided to call it quits around 5.6 miles.  Our plan was to give the 20 dollars to a homeless person on the way back to the cafe to meet PartyDog and Paul’s wife Lisa but we didn’t see any….and we were starving so instead we used it for breakfast. Running to food always wins in my book.

My ankle miraculously did not hurt at all! I think Vancouver has some sort of magical air that prevented my ankle from hurting. I haven’t run that far without pain in SO long.  It felt absolutely amazing.  I can say  however, that the one reason I’m happy I don’t live in Vancouver is I would have major running envy. I’m fairly certain if I lived there I would not be at peace with my busted ankle and not being able to run on that gorgeous seawall daily. So thank you Vancouver and Paul for this fantastic run I will remember the rest of my LYFE.

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!

PS. I demand that everyone wish Paul good luck in his marathon!

Tell me about your favorite run ever!

Punk the Monk 5K!

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Saturday morning I was woken up nice and early with this text message from Katie:

You guys know I don’t run outside in anything but perfect weather so the idea of running in freezing rain in 3 inches of snow was not appealing to me. Naturally, this was my response that I sent out to all my friends running it with me:

Translation for those of you who are not trained in reading my awful texting or typing (I am seriously the worst at both in case you can’t tell from that picture): there was no way I was going to run in the cold and snow in awful weather.  After whining about it for an hour, I got my butt ready, put on my rain boots (practical to wear to a race right?) and went to Lind’s to catch my ride.

And that’s when the fun began.

Meet Ian, Lind’s boyfriend, my running partner and new BFF:

Ian and I are a match made in running partners heaven-we both could care less about our time and are more concerned about making it to the finish line for the post-run beer. Also, neither of us were too keen on running 3.25 miles in straight up snow:

That’s right people, no path.  We were on our own, in the woods, running through snow. And it was amazing.

The first half of the race FLEW by. I was so surprised we were half-way done and even MORE surprised to see my beautiful friend Alyssa working the aid station! AKA: time for a picture break.

And one with my running partner who hadn’t yet yelled at me for being too excited or for constantly taking pictures.

Picture break over, back to the race.  At this point Ian and reevaluated our goals. We started out with the sole goal of not dying and we were doing much better than expected so we upped that goal.  Muddy Monk races are very dog friendly which means 40% of people bring their dogs to run.  I’m telling you this because our new goal was to beat as many dogs as possible.  Anytime a dog passed us, I would yell at Ian that we weren’t doing so well.  I mean, I’m not bitter or anything but these dogs totally saved up till the very end and smoked us at the finish line.

Whatever, I’ll get them at the next race…

At this point, we also passed Art (the Monk) who yelled out to everyone “Hey at least I beat Kelsey!” which was much appreciated considering we were already devastated enough about those 2 cheating dogs beating us.

Whatever Art, I let you beat me since it was almost your birthday and all…ugh.

We managed to finish the race without falling once (and beat 5 dogs)! If you know me and how often I fall, that is a miracle.  I found the Monk himself not far from the finish line and forced him to take a picture with me which I can assure, he was less than happy about.

We grabbed some beers, danced to some Third Eye Blind and took an obnoxious amount of pictures.

And threatened our new blogger friend Meghan into taking some pics with us too!

This race was seriously A BLAST and I can’t wait till the next one.  Sadly my doppelganger was not to be seen (I spent a lot of time searching in the race photos for him…), BUT I did manage to take another amazing race picture:

That could honestly be my favorite race picture of all time.  I think I love it so much because I just look so happy to be out there running.  Which is why I love Muddy Monk races so much-cheap registration fees, fun trails, good beer and friends all wrapped into one event.  Have you ever seen two happier people at the end of a freezing cold run in the snow?

Though that smile on Ian’s face was most likely due to the fact that he no longer was forced to be in my company, we were smiling the entire race because it was that fun.

So in conclusion, I’m glad I didn’t bail and I love Muddy Monk.

Thank you Muddy Monk for another awesome race! And thank you to my fabulous readers who came over to say hey! You guys are the best and totes made my day!

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!