Posts Tagged ‘running’

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!

Why Marathon Training Wasn’t for Me

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

This post has taken me a while to put into words.  I’ve been thinking about this for some time now and have had a few conversations with my runner friends about it….it’s gonna be a long one and I hope this post doesn’t offend anyone because that is totes not my intention here. (xoxo, LYLAS!)

Last year I signed up for the Chicago Marathon. I remember being nervous just hitting that ‘submit’ button during registration. Then training started and I  picked a training program I found online, began training immediately and followed that thing to a T. After making it a little more than half-way through the program I found out about my freakish injury and had to call it quits.

Little did I know that would be a blessing in disguise for me.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love running with every ounce of my soul. There’s no better feeling then heading outside after a long day at work and pounding my feet to the pavement. It’s magical how an amazing run can turn your entire day around.  What I don’t like is feeling like I have to run.  If you know me (or have read my blog a while), you know I’m a free spirit. I don’t like feeling like I have to do something and I don’t really like having things planned out. Which essentially is what training for a marathon is.

What I’ve realized from reflecting back on the almost year (I KNOW) since I found out about my injury, is that I didn’t like marathon training. I hated it in fact. I hated knowing I had to run X amount of miles everyday, that Tuesday was my rest day and Friday was a cross-training day. I hated the fact that I woke up on Friday already nervous for my long run on Saturday and that I spent all day Friday worrying about my long run the next day. I hated being sore and hungry 24/7 and most of all I hated feeling like I wasn’t running because I loved it but because I had to.

When you’re in the midst of marathon training and you find out you have an injury that requires surgery to allow you to run more than a couple miles  one time a week, it feels like the world is going to end. All that time, effort and hours spent basically felt a waste.  So yes, I was pissed. What I came to find out though is that I don’t like running long distances. And that’s OK.

What I do like is running  based on my own free-will and  running distances between 3-10 miles.  Just because I’m not training for a marathon doesn’t mean I’m not a runner.  Just because I don’t love running long distances doesn’t make me any less of a blogger either.  I love to run, therefore I am a runner. Who decides what distance accounts to someone being a runner?

It drives me insane when I hear runners say “oh it’s only three miles, I don’t think that even counts.” Uh I’m here to tell you it does. Any amount counts. If you run 13 miles vs 13.1, you didn’t finish that half-marathon.  Say you stop at 26 miles vs 26.2 in that marathon-you clearly did not finish it. So whether I run .1 miles or 16 miles, it all counts.  For people who are just getting into working out or running would you discount their progress just because they can only run .25 without stopping? No you would’t  because you know how awesome it is that anyone ever can run any distance at all.

So that is why I am choosing not to get my surgery.  The thought of being in a boot, in physical therapy and out of working out for 6+ months just so I can run a few miles more than I can now is just not worth it to me at this moment in my life. Do I wish I could run whatever distance I want, however often I want? Absolutely, no doubt in my mind about that.  But for right now, running a few miles 1-2 times a week combined with fitness classes and other machines at the gym is making me immensely happy.

I may not run often and I may not run too far but I still love running and I’m still a runner. Don’t make me feel bad about that and please don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I don’t love distance running and that is more than OK. Again, you do you, I’ll do me. Not every runner and/or blogger has to be a marathoner or half-marathoner.   I’m both and I don’t run either. And I’m awesome, and so are you.

That’s all the nonsense I have for now!