After a brief stop in New York City, it was on to the city No. 5 of my three week tour. And I was thrilled to be ending it with Chicago!

What is the FIT Project? Glad you asked! I am attempting to run all 18 Rock n’ Roll Half Marathons in 2011. But that’s not the important part. I’m also trying to get 100 kids sponsored in Africa for World Vision. If you would like to make a life difference in a child, contact me for a child sponsorship packet or call World Vision directly!

Now, on to the race report .

Beautiful Chicago in the pre-dawn

August 14, 2011

Race morning came quickly. For the third race morning in three weeks. And for the third time, I woke up at 2 a.m. I had to catch the CTA bus at 4:30 a.m., so I just stayed awake. Much to my chagrin! Waiting for the bus, random stuff kept falling out of the sky – effects of late-night partying I assumed. I took cover in the bus shelter – didn’t want to start the day with a concussion! Upon boarding the bus, it was rather amusing to see people just going home as I was up and ready to run .

I always love seeing cities in the quietness of the dark. Something surreal about it. I love it! And this morning, the sky was absolutely beautiful.

Glorious Chicago!!

A hotel in the darkness

Chicago

Chicago start line

Full city view

And the sun is waking up!

Time to rise and shine and run!

So 2011 has had a few themes: unplanned 2 a.m. wake up calls and rain. As you can see from the photo above, the clouds were just waiting to open up and give us a nice shower. I wanted a dry-free race . I was still drying out from the Providence race six days ago!!

7 a.m., the start gun went off and we were on our way! I was really excited to be running here again. This was my fourth race in Chicago! Other than running on the concrete, I love running in this city .

Chicago skyline

Running along! (Looking behind me)

Love this shot as we are running over the bridges!

Sun shining down on us. Yes!

Running thru the city

In the Chicago skyline

More Chicago love

Chicago

Movie anyone?

Run along now!

Running underneath the train tracks

Greek town in Chicago (a blurry Greek town)

Getting ready to rain!

Dark clouds in the hood- it is 8am!

Parting shot before it rains

Okay, this is the last shot before it rained.

So besides the light rain toward the end of the race, it was a great race. My legs were definitely tired and I fought to keep my mind away from that! I knew that once I crossed the finish line I would have a two week break, so that was an AWESOME thought! Other highlights of the course was seeing Kate, Sean, Kevin and David along the way. It is always fun to see people you know!

I finished, made my way over to the tent where it promptly poured. I was really glad I was done .

Al Roker and Stephanie Abrams both ran the race as well and I was happy to get a photo with them both!

Me with Al Roker and his son

Me & Stephanie Abrams

All in all it was a great day – yes despite the rain! Afterwards I joined my other running buddies for brunch, then went back to take a much needed nap before scraping myself out of bed so I could go to church in the evening with Jessica. I love visiting good churches when traveling. It is the one thing that keeps me grounded. Soul City Church was awesome and I highly recommend it if you are in the town!

Next up: HOME & MY BED! Three weeks of traveling is a wrap!

Last day in Chicago. Sigh. I always have so much fun here with my best-est friends! Kate, Meaghan, Pete you all rock!

Got to run with Deon this morning. Another nice morning. I felt pretty sore the whole time, but it was great to run with a friend. Nice Lake Shore route. Lots of runners. Lots of cyclists. I again had bike envy!

Ran 6 miles in an hour. But I was able to run, so I am thankful!

Said goodbye to Kate. Then I had breakfast with Pete. More goodbyes. Quickly packed up and headed to airport via the bus & train.

I was a little fearful of flying back today given my flight in. But I am happy to report that my flight to Atlanta was good. Flight to Richmond was also uneventful! Thank god!

Nathan picked me up, went back to his & Meg’s place. Chatted for a bit, then I hit 95 North. It was already 9pm. Thankfully I had some friends to keep me awake on the drive home. Thanks Alex & Lewis! I also have to thank WaWa. For a gas station, they are a great place to stop at!

I got home just before midnight. Unpacked. Did a load of wash. Fell into bed. I get to cycle in the morning!!!!

Photo by mysza83

Good morning from Chicago! What a beautiful morning it is! Someone said it was humid, but trust me, it isn’t. They must not have been to DC!

My meetings didn’t start super early this morning so I was looking forward to getting in a 10 mile run. Running in Chicago is running on a concrete jungle. My legs+body really like trails, so I was apprehensive about the run this morning. Last time here, I was in major pain.

**quick sidebar** to all my friends in Chicago, I don’t know how you run here day after day! Kudos to you ALL!

Started out & soon enough my left knee/quad area starting feeling funny. I ran for a mile, then not wanting to jeopardize my awesome training I decided to walk & see if that helped. I moved from a jog to a walk, then gave up on the jog all together.

Let me say this. It was hard to walk when runners are FLYING past you. And cyclists are SPEEDING past you. I kept reminding myself that my goal is to remain injury free for the next 18 days. Very hard for this chickie to do, but 100 mile is my goal. Not a 10 mile training run. Not this close anyway!

4.5 miles in an hour. ARGH!

The rest of the day was spent walking from meeting to meeting. Another meeting in heaven (Whole Foods Lincoln Park). Got to catch up with Sarah Evans http://twitter.com/prsarahevans before the Hyatt 4 Good Mashable event in the evening. Great convo! Thanks Sarah!

It was a packed day full of fun. New topics to write about. Ready to encourage your & your life!

Photo by jordanfischer

Whoa. I have never had so many “off” days before except when injured! Now that I am 20 days out from race, I will start to take it easy (as much as I can that is).

I had another packed early day, so I enjoyed a nice morning of sleeping in. Chicago’s weather was a bit iffy today. A little rainy, sunny, and of course windy.

The highlight of my day was visiting Whole Foods Lincoln Park. Talk about a store! Wow. I could live here forever. Seriously. They have everything one could possibly need!

The store just opened about 2 months ago. Perfect time for a visit. They had a wine bar. A coffee bar. A beer bar. A “drive in diner” type theme area. More selections of pasta, olive oil, tomato sauce, cheese, chocolate and fresh produce then you can shake a stick at! I enjoyed my tasting tour immensely!

The Whole Body section was also fabulous. The kids+baby section was full of awesome products, not just to eat, but also to learn!

Eating was my “training” for the day. I did do a lot of walking, does that count? lol!

Great meetings. Great people. Great life. Its all about perspective.

Photo by Joe M500

Well, the last 24 hours were pretty much a nightmare. Only I was wide awake. Not very fun! I am sure you are dying to hear about it:)

As I mentioned yesterday I drove down to Richmond to attend the kickoff event for http://www.overtheedgeva.com/ & http://twitter.com/overtheedgerv. To do something fun (and a challenge) my friend Whitney and I decided to CLIMB the 30 flights of stairs up the Sun Trust building. It took us around 5 (fun & sweaty) minutes.

After that it was on to the Richmond airport. Well, the story gets really good from here on out! My flight was to leave at 4:30pm, layover in Atlanta, then onto Chicago. Piece of cake, right? Well, not really (maybe it was agreeing with my “no sweet” kick).

First, my flight was delayed. Fine, I can deal with that. Then it was delayed for the 2nd time. Still sitting in a cold airport. I always forget to bring a sweater with me! Finally we are called to board.

Nightmare #1) AirTran system went down so they took our boarding passes.

So I didn’t know the seat I was in. I boarded to the end, so I took the closest seat to me which happened to be business class. The only dream I had!

We taxi out to the tarmac.

Nightmare #2) Engines turn off. Pilot comes on & says we will be sitting for at least an hour. Make yourself comfortable.

Some guy apparently had already been drinking so riddles became our source of entertainment. It was rather funny. Thank god for Twitter. It helped to pass the time!

Then, we went back to the gate-cause, guess why, a passenger wanted to get off. He gets off.

Nightmare #3) We go back to the tarmac lot. Sit some more. Along with more riddles.

At 8pm, pilot said everything was shut down in ATL so we would go back to the gate. No word on when we would get to fly.

Nightmare #4) Stood in line to get our boarding passes. Remember they took them?

Nightmare #5) If we wanted to leave, that thought quickly vanished. The security check point closed at 8:15pm!  Whoa!

Finally around 9:30pm we got the clear to board. Woohoo!!

Got into ATL around 10:45 or so. It was a mad house. Beyond crazy to say the least! I got a little work done then went over to my gate. Helped a women find a hotel room (having a BlackBerry does pay off!). It was now 12:30am. Scanned my boarding pass. Heading down to the plane when…..

Nightmare #6) hm, ma’am, this isn’t your flight. YOUR flight has been cancelled. I walk back. I must have looked really tired or something. The people behind the conter somehow got me on the flights. Only I had to fly on to Chicago without my luggage. Since they didn’t know when the next flight was going to be going out, I just wanted to get to Chicago at this point!

So, on the flight. Feel asleep from sheer exhaustion. Landed at Midway at 2:30am. I did go to baggage claim just in case. You never know!

Stephanie & Kate picked me up! Awesome. Thank you ladies!! Arrived at Kate’s. Practically fell into bed. It was now 4am. Its been a long day! Just happy to be here!

Woke up at 8am to call the airport about re: suitcase. After over an hour on hold (I put it on speakerphone and fell sleep, lol!) I woke back up & contacted some friends & with in 2 hours I had located my bags. YAY!!

After getting my act together (hello Chicago!) Deon took Kate & I to the race expo. I love race expo’s! Then back to Midway to retrive my suitcase. Glad to have clothes again:) Thanks to Kate for letting me borrow hers for today!

Dinner with friends. Now time to crash. 10pm and I am tired. 4am is coming way to soon!

Oh, HAPPY AUGUST!!

Photo by Alex-s

May 23, 2009

Chicago, Ill.

So, today, I ran the Soldier Field 10 mile race. I haven’t run this short of a distance in quite sometime, so while I was fully trained, racing hard+fast for 10 miles was going to be a nice little challenge! I was also just coming off of 100 mile training weeks. But I had a goal….

4:45am. UP! Had my usual breakfast of Kashi with soy milk. Got dressed, prayed that the weather would be a little warmer then last night. It was pretty chilly!

5:45am. Bright sun welcomed Kate & I as we walked outside. It was a beautiful morning! We left via a cab to pick up Amy who was also running the race.

6:30am. Arrived at Soldier Field. Lots of people, pre race stretching, warm up laps, gear check, excitement in the air & the sun was up and shinning brightly on us all!

6:55am. Kevin met up with me to help pace me. Said good bye to Kate & Amy and away we went to warm up. Kevin was a former pro hockey player and 58min 10miler PR, so I knew I was in good hands. Ran for about 12min, then he had me do some FAST (6min) strides. Felt great. Ready to rock, roll and run.

7:15am. Time to get in corral. Stretched while in line. Itching to run. Wanting to finish fast. Praying the wind keeps calm in the WINDY city.

7:33am. Music over, gun off, away we go! Kevin met me just after the start line. Feet+legs noticing the surface, concrete. Cringing. Going to hurt. Going to be really, really sore when this is all over. Kevin to me: my coach told me this & I advise you to do the same: “shut up & run”. I replied, “do you know me’? But knew he was right, so I focused on breathing & using my engery to run. Run fast. Run hard.

Mile 1. Legs already feeling the concrete. Only 9 more. I can do this. 7:36 for first mile.

Mile 2. Ran under the Soldier Field bridge. Sun is out. Eying my competition around me. Concrete STILL NOT liking me.

Mile 3. If I had been running a 5k, would have PR’d. Could have run 19min 5k. Feeling like I was floating, wait am? No, my feet quickly reminded me, you are pounding some pretty HARD ground. Run faster so we can get done, please they replied. Noted legs, run on.

Mile 4. Kevin was awesome. He asked me how I was feeling. “Great” I responded. Thinking that I only had 6 miles left. Feeling like I was not running, but hitting really hard cinder blocks with rubber soles. Yeah, concrete was really fun….

Mile 5. Halfway! 38min! Turn around point….right into a head wind. A fairly strong head wind. Fun. Kevin helped by letting me draft. SWEET!

Mile 6. Brett joined in. I said “hello” & kept on running. 65 min goal was going to be tough.

Mile 7. Wind still alive & kicking. Picking up pace, going for negitive split.

Mile 8. Brett let us battle it out with the wind, concrete and other runners. Kevin kept me motivated by saying, ” you see that girl/guy in blue/gray shirt? We are going to get them. And get them we did. We started picking up the pace. Took down a few women & a few men. Some started to walk. I was still running.

Mile 9. No water stop, picked up my pace, Kevin told me to sprint & not to let the women behind get me. I could hear the crowd in the stadium. Cheering. Yelling. Screaming. I could smell (yes smell) the finish line. Running down in the cave of  Solider Field. Dark. Concrete almost over. I could see the finish line & clock. Had to round a corner as I entered the field onto the track. I didn’t  look behind me, but I could FEEL that women right on my tail. I sprinted towards the clock. Every second counts!! Crossed the line. Time: 1:12:58. Not my goal of 65min, but good job none the less.

Here are the stats of my performance!

Age group #30/1000

Overall #488/10k

Top 3% for women

Top 6% overall

Pace 7:18

Race done! Glad to be done with the concrete. Happy with time, PR’d by 4min. Chicago you haven’t seen the last of me. I will be back. 10miles, a girl, a goal, a run well done!

Photo by Robert R Gigliotti