Chicago (270.14)

With this blog I here by declare my intent to run the 2015 Chicago marathon. With that sarcastically dramatic opening statement out of the way, Iets talk about the marathon and what it means to me. 

Over the last few years, I cannot count how many times my running and non running friends have asked me: "Have you ran a marathon?" or "do you want to run a marathon?".

The answer is no and yes, respectively.  After roughly 5 years of off and on running (mostly on except for the months leading up to and after the birth of my first child and also an injury that sidelined me for about 6 months), I think I am ready to take on the race distance. Do I think I could have run one before now?  Absolutely, probably 3 years ago. But I didn't want to run my first marathon with the goal of just finishing it (an admirable goal by the way), but I wanted to be confident I could not only finish but also tackle a goal I set for myself. 

With the race not until October and entry not guaranteed, I'm honestly not sure right now what that goal will be. My knee jerk reaction is less than 4 hours and I would be thrilled, but maybe that is too open ended. I will have to decide on what that goal will be when it gets closer to the actual training program to begin.  In the meantime I will just keep my training simple and try and increase my level of fitness between now and then. 

Right now I have no answers. I don't know my target pace, I don't know what my training plan will be, how I should change my current nutritional habits (pretty clean now, but not great), I've never been to Chicago and I don't even know if I will get picked in the lottery. But there is one thing I do know; if there is a chance I only run one marathon, Chicago is the one I want it to be. That and I know I'm ready. 

As the year and my training progress, I look forward to all of the tips and comments from you runners out there. I particularly look forward to nutritional pointers and travel tips from those who have made the trip to the race before. 

Happy running everyone. 

265.14

Last week and weekend was amazing. My boy turned 2. We had a awesome playground delivered for him to grow in to. We had a great party for him that was a smashing success. And I almost ran a marathon (kind of.. not really). Let me explain. 

I knew that with the long holiday weekend came parties, NFL Championship games, and questionable eating habits. So I set a goal going in to this weekend to do all of that stuff, and all the work to get ready, plus run a marathon. Now mind you not all at once, just log the distance between the beginning and end of the 3 day weekend. Well, I didn't quite make it. I ONLY ran 23.12 miles this weekend. To be honest I'm quite ok with that. There is no defeat in that. My only goal was really to stay very active during a very busy weekend and I managed to do both quite well. If another 2.98 miles meant that much to me if would go get them tonight (the holiday isn't over yet). But I can sit back and be content with the accomplishment. I'm running great right now. My knees and feet feel great, my legs feel light and I feel ready to take that next step toward a new level. But I know slow progress is the best (and safest) progress. I think 2015 is going to be a great running year.

214.85

Just like not getting the Christmas tree discarded before New Years, my running blogs are getting published a little behind schedule as well. At just over 200 miles in to this blog, we have found ourselves in the midst of Christmas season. The eve of Christmas to be exact. I came up with the idea to dress up like (slim) Santa and and run my usual short route around our small town. It was a real hit!  Definitely a Christmas Eve tradition going forward. While never missing a good opportunity to make a complete idiot of myself, I donned the fake beard, put on my ugly running Christmas sweater (free gift from Brooks this holiday season) and hit the town. 

It was a huge hit!  Running down the main road I must have gotten 20 honks. On smaller streets kids stuck there heads out rolled down windows to wave and cheer me on. People at local businesses that were open that day laughed and gave me waves, thumbs up and cheer. There were a few people that looked at me like I was a lunatic, but they must have been a Scrooges. 

All in all it was one of the most fun runs I had all year. It wasn't particularly fast or scenic and I could hardly breath under that beard but it was so nice to see strangers in the Christmas spirit. Afterward, my neighbors who spotted me leaving brought over some homemade tamales wrapped in banana leaves to share with us. It was so nice to try someone's traditional food and those are the true things that make Christmas so special!