Dress Rehearsal

Aug14

My bib number and finisher's medal from the rock 'n roll half marathon

The Chicago Marathon is just weeks away and I am starting to panic about it. This is a good thing. It allows me to get my crazy about the race out of the way early and not panic race day and fall flat on my face.

This morning was the Rock ‘N Roll Chicago half marathon. It used to the Chicago Distance classic run by John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield. For me, it was a perfect race to throw in to see where I was at in my marathon training as well as re-acquaint myself with gear check, etc. With shorter races, I tend not to use gear check. It just is a hassle for me, particularly when it is a race with a ton of people. For halves and full marathons, I use it. The last time I had to use gear check was when I was in Atlanta in 2007 for the half marathon there in March.

Despite my race today (which I will get to), I am glad I had this “dress rehearsal” to see what marathon race morning was going to potentially be like. I had a plan. I put my plan into action. The plan worked for the most part. Then crap happened.

In days leading up to long races, I try to get enough rest. I know the night before I am going to be anxious and getting a good night’s sleep will pretty much be impossible. This happened this week leading up to the RnR Chicago half. In some ways, not sleeping the night before is good for me because it ensures I will be up and ready to go when the alarm goes off for the beginning of the day.  Continue reading →

Perspective

Jul22

The NFL lockout is about to end, once the players vote to accept the new deal. Our long national nightmare can finally end. As a sports-loving person, I can understand how fans have been clamoring about when this will end so that they can get back to obsessing about their favorite sport. If my favorites were headed for a work-stoppage, I am sure I’d be just as annoyed.

At the same time though the way people are keeping tabs on the lockout is a bit puzzling to me when I consider some of the other issues going on in the world today. In Oslo, Norway, there was a bombing and it took a long time before major news organizations in the US picked up on the story. Well, MSNBC was talking about it fairly quickly. It was only later that CNN or the other networks picked up on the story. That kind of stuff infuriates me. Then again, when I am looking for relevant news, I am usually forced to look at news sources not based in the US.

This kind of stuff really makes me think about what we value in society. For me, the biggest indicator of what we think is valuable is pay for work. I’m usually thinking of this when it comes to what we pay teachers to educate society’s children. Many people I talk to think that teachers are overpaid. They also believe they are paid a salary based upon 12 months out of a year, even though the teachers only work nine months. I’ve even met one person who was incredulous that he knew a teacher made the same amount of money that he made, despite the fact that he felt he was clearly more educated, having a law degree. Continue reading →

When Birds Attack

Jul18

After way too long of a break, I am finally back to running. The break was due to being sick with a cold. Colds in general are bad, but the ones you get in the summertime suck the worst. At first, I thought it was allergies, but sadly it was a cold.

In any event, officially I was back this past weekend when I ran in the Fleet Feet Chicago Women’s 5K and 10K race. Originally, I signed up to do the 10K, but given the high temps and my lack of running, I went down to the 5K race.

All was looking pretty good as I was warming up. Until the bird. I was minding my own business by the area where everyone would be lining up to start the race when this thing came flying into me, was buzzing around, and flitting at me. It was a bird. At first, I wasn’t sure what the hell it was that had started to attack me.

Needless to say, I was sufficiently freaked out. Not knowing what it was, I tried not to swat at it, in case it was something that might kill me. (And in case you are wondering, I consider myself a closeted hypochondriac. Any ache, pain, etc. I immediately think is due to some horrible life-threatening illness.) I managed to turn slightly and the bird went off of me and over to the side of the road. Continue reading →

That Person

Jun14

We all know this person. The one we might call a friend. We call everyone friends. We can’t help it. We just do. But we probably don’t really treat this person like we do people we really count as our friends.

That person is the one you call upon when you have no one else to talk to or hang out with. This happens when our plans with everyone else we regularly socialize with fall through, or maybe they are busy, but we want to do something. We never want to talk to this person otherwise.

That person is undeniably reliable. When we have problems, we can call upon that person and tell them what we need to get off our chests. Continue reading →

Bottom

May28

Just my luck that panic would set in the day before a long run and I wake up with a terrible headache. So much so that moving my head was nearly impossible. Lucky me, as it prevented me from running the race today.

Not intentional. I ate sensibly, got sufficient rest and while the headache was starting to rear it’s head last night, I thought it would be gone. No such luck as it was worse when the alarm went off. Or more precisely, when I woke up before the alarm. I tried to maybe wait it out, but my head started to hurt worse as the minutes passed. My head didn’t start to stop hurting until way too late.

This really kills me. I really needed to do these miles to get myself in a mental spot where injury wasn’t going to continue holding me back. Or at least fear of injury wouldn’t hold me back. I did sign up for another race to “make up” for my headache today. That long race will be perfect for the scheduled long run on the marathon road.

Now to go figure out what caused the stupid headache and prevent it in the future. 

Full on Panic

May27

That is how I woke up on a crisp, yet sunny Friday morning. In less than 24 hours, I will be running in my biggest race of the year. The Soldier Field 10 mile.

Why the panic? Mostly because I feel so unprepared for the race. I’ve also been scattered with writing stuff and busy with work related things. All stuff that is making me miss out on precious sleep.

The good news for the day is that I only have to put in a few hours at the office. Then I can spend my afternoon relaxing. Maybe take in a yoga class later to calm myself down.

Work better fly by and the weather better stay nice. Tomorrow will be go because I say it will be. Hopefully I find out that I’m actually over prepared for the run.

Backhanded Compliments

May19

Was that a compliment? Should I take it as a compliment.

Random guy fan at Orioles game: Take him out of the Game! Can’t you see he sucks. Ozzie he just is killing us and has been bad all year long. He’s got no wins!

Me: Well, the offense hasn’t done anything and you can’t really blame Danks too much right now.

RG: Yeah, I guess so.

Me: Um, hum, especially since he’s pitched far superior than that. Wins aren’t everything you know.

RG: Huh. So you seem to really know a lot about baseball. That’s cool.

Continue reading →

Accomplishment

May7

2nd most important piece of running equipment

Today I ran a five-mile race along the lakefront on the south side in Chicago. It was a good day. It was also my birthday, so it was great way to start out a new year of my life (ugh). I actually have done two races this week, with a neighborhood 5K this past sunday and then today’s five-miler.

The massive positives. In April, I ran an 8K (4.97 miles) race. It was the official start of the race season. My time wasn’t great for that race, but I was ok with that. It was my first time at the distance in a race. This despite having run 5Ks, 1/2 marathons and attempting a full marathon. It was also a bit warmer than I prefer for running in general. Though, making excuses shouldn’t be allowed. Anyway, today I shaved almost 2:30 off my five-mile finish time. That right there is huge. I went a slightly farther distance and I ran it faster. Continue reading →

A Profound Sadness

Apr20

Lately, I have been feeling restless and a bit lost in what I want to do with myself. Work is not exactly what I want to be doing, though it pays the bills and keeps me off the dole. Fortunately, baseball season has beginning so I have that to look forward to as well as perk me up. Speaking of sports, recently there have been some things happening that are making a lot of female sports fans and women in general feel lesser and marginalized by our society.

Earlier in the year, MLB sponsored a contest to find the ultimate fan. This person would be in a decked out place and watch all 2,000+ games this baseball season. As part of this, the winner would write a blog about the experience as well as use social media to talk and promote it. The winner was announced and it turns out to be two guys who have on-stage and acting experience. This is all fine and dandy. At first I thought, ok cool for them. Then as more details emerged, it started to make me sad. Continue reading →