Weekend Recap

I realized I didn't make one post this weekend. Perhaps because it was such a weird running week; rainy weather and what was kind of a short run of 12 miles. Kris, D and I ran a little bit of a different route on Saturday. We have only been as far south as Ohio St. Beach but when we hit that marker, we decided to keep going. I had my new Garmin watch on so we could afford to go off the plan (a biiiiig step for me) and still run the correct amount. So we ran to the "dirty south!" The stretch along Lake Shore Dr. was so dirty and dusty I felt like I would have to start yelling Marco Polo to find Kris and D. We turned around at the Museum Campus and figured out we could stay "low" on the path and run along the harbor. It basically felt like we were running through a war torn area with the potholes and cracks...this was no Foster Beach/Montrose cinder running trail. I guess we're North Siders until the end! It was nice to do a different route, but it was a little more "extreme running."

My feet and hips definitely felt better thanks to the little temporary insert the Doc put in my shoes...I'm kind of excited to get my orthotics! Does that sound kind of weird? I wonder if I'll be excited one day to get my knee replacement or the handle in the bath tub to make getting in and out a lot safer. Oh, the life of someone who used to be an athlete trying to claim this title again.

This should be one heck of a week. We have 4, 9, 5 and then....dunhdunhdunh 18! D said 18 is like how 15 was for me. I think I'm just in denial. I'm gonna throw this out there; we would LOVE to have people meet up with us on the trail and run some portions. We are nervous that we will run out of things to talk about! So, if you have some free time early this Saturday morning, we'd love to have you. Since I didn't post this weekend, I missed the shout out to our friend Jess M for her Birthday. Happy Birthday!

Old Feet

I finally broke down and went to a podiatrist this morning. I always had some problem with pronating which caused achilles and knee pain but I could manage in the teenage years. One of the reasons I took the hiatus from running was the achilles pain..too much to bare when I wasn't even competing for anything. I tried some Super Feet inserts from the running store and they were miracle workers on my achilles but i have had some arch pain and my hips and hamstrings were sore... a lot! A had quite a nice experience this morning. I was fitted for custom orthotics (yep, I have some bad feet) for running/sports, encouraged to stretch my calves more and to keep up my core exercises (I'm not sure I want to tell my trainer this because I fear I'll be doing even crazier things than balancing on a bosu ball with one leg while doing squats). The Doc already put little extra inserts in my shoes and I feel a thousand times better. I highly recommend the Running Institue! Orthotics should arrive in 2 weeks...Just in time for the Crystal Lake Half Marathon on Sept 13th. Woohooo.

We have 12 miles this weekend....nice to have a low key run. Hah! 12 miles and low key don't seem to match. It's still over a 2 hour run, but just doesn't sound the same as SIXTEEN. I'll get to try out my Garmin watch for a long run now that I tested it out last night...I think I'm gonna love it! Have a great Friday.

A Moment of Thanks

I just want to take a moment to recognize Senator "Ted Kennedy" whose legislative support of Title IX greatly impacted my life and many of my female friends. We are the generation of children that grew up reaping the benefits of his constant championing and development (and consequential push for reinstatement) of Title IX. I'm pretty certain my mom could have been a wicked basketball player, but she didn't have the opportunity that I did. Without Title IX, my high school basketball coach may not have won the fight to have equal gym time for our basketball team (yes, he had to fight for this in 1994). Or, our complaints might not have been heard in track to allow the girls to have more than 2 out of 8 lanes during track practice. When I was in college, I had the privilege of sitting on our intercollegiate athletic board for a semester where they were still struggling to meet a 40/60 female to male monetary support of sports.

Did you know women were not allowed to run the Boston Marathon until 1972? Funny to think about the need to keep people from running 26.2 miles, but they did. One of my favorite stories of a woman (helped by her male coach) staking a claim in sports is the one of Syracuse college student, Katherine Switzer, "illegally" running the Boston Course in 1967 with a number she obtained through just registering under her initials. A course manager was so mad about it he tried to rip her numbers off while she was running. Check out her site and look at the pictures at the bottom showing that cooky guy and his actions and her coach defending her.

I just want to say that I'm not for taking sports opportunities away from boys; I think athletics offer so much to both genders; just want to keep equal options for both!

I may never be faster than Kris or Darren, but I sure am happy that I can run beside them. While girls/women aren't currently as fast or as strong as their male counterparts, who knows what will happen in 50 years...We have a lot of missed time and catching up to do.

November in August

Yick! What is with this weather? It is a gloomy rainy day here in Chicago and we didn't get our 8 in this morning as it was too rainy. All three of us have decided to do the 8 tomorrow morning and if it rains, we'll just have to deal. Of course, unless there is lightning. Maybe I'll have to do a search on google for some running ponchos! I really hate missing days of running. In my paranoid head, I think, "this could be the day I miss that causes me to not be able to finish the marathon." Not logical, I know, but I've never been much of a rule breaker. If the book says run 8 miles then I have to run 8 miles on this day, no matter what. I like my schedules and function much better in life when I know what's coming. That's not to say I'm not adaptable; I think I'm pretty level headed when things "come up," but I like to do what I can to prevent it. I think of my friend Stacy C who thrives on being flexible and I think would love a different schedule every day. Not me!

I just keep telling myself that an extra day of rest will help with my sore hamstring. The hot tub at the health club is calling my name.

Gadgets!

Today was a beautiful day for a morning run. All three of us were on the road at 6:15 for a very nice 4 miler. It was just about 70 degrees and not much humidity which is rare for an August morning in Chicago. I am having a little hamstring pain but I think it's due to the fact that Kris and I went to my mom's on Saturday after the 16 miler and had to take a long hike to the beach carrying a LOT of stuff and a big hairy dog. Or maybe it was the beach volleyball or perhaps the bike trip back from the beach where I rode behind the bumper of the pick up truck that was carrying my niece (she was loving that I could keep up). Take your pick!

Kris met me for lunch today and he had a big smile on his face! He let me know he bought "us" (really me) the garmin running watch. We had talked about this and said we could find some other things to spend that money on (ummmm, like the dog that was in my dream last night from the Caesar dog food commercial)but he found a great deal on ebay! I'm pretty excited because it tracks how far and how fast you have run using GPS; the same system Garmin uses for their car GPS. This will solve all of my problems about worrying if we have gone far enough. Also, I won't be asking Darren every half hour how far we've gone according to his Nike Plus. I had to lay off of this during the poop run for his benefit. Darren can now stop guilting Jeff T. into giving us his because he never uses it. Tomorrow morning is an 8 miler and it's usually the most difficult run of the week; D and I talked about taking the day off when we have our weekday 10 miler. I'm surprised nobody commented on the poop post. We would love to hear your thoughts! Oh, a big shout out to our friend Sam W. who is celebrating a Birthday today. Wooohhooo!

Conflicts of interest . . .

I'm using this first post of mine as a defense of my training habits. As you can tell from Starr and Kris' bevy of words, I tend to not take care of myself and would rather sacrifice a good night's sleep and a nice, hot meal for a Delirium Tremens (both liquid and physical), a basket of wings and two hours of sleep. And in an effort to be transparent, they are telling the truth.

Although my interests conflict with the training, I have, pretty much, kept up a consistent, and, cross your fingers, injury-free, running schedule. There is no way I would have been able to do as much running if it weren't for Starr and Kris, but I did start the training process a little earlier than them on my own (and on a track . . . yuck), and I haven't compromised the main goal at hand: to train for a marathon without giving up my habits. The reason for this goal is simple. If I can train and complete the marathon (without killing myself) and still enjoy the summer (and drink like a fish), then ANYONE can do it. For reals!

Just think of me doing all of this for YOU. My own little experiment for all to see. Hey, it was either run a marathon or practice all summer on perfecting a Strike Out.

So yeah, I did pretty much crap my pants last Saturday, and most of the time, I am still a little tipsy (sorry mom) on the super long runs, but I have finished all of them. I did have a self-intervention on Sunday though, where I decided to use September as the "month of cleansing."

It probably won't happen. Whatever.

Nature calls even at 16 miles

As much as I try to plan these runs, nobody can really predict how a long run will turn out. The run began with Kris and I knocking on Darren's door at 5:50 as he was nowhere in sight at "our spot" at 5:30. We jogged back home and texted him with no answer. There have been some muggings of men in our neighborhood so I was all worried! It turns out, D's alarm is set to his cd player and it was just skipping along. Phew! Once we started we were all loving how it felt almost cold outside. It felt great. About 5 minutes into our run, i had to make a quick pee break which, little did I know, set the tone for our run. Kris had to make a couple of stops the first part or our run as well and I happily took advantage. I think it was all related to us being very cognisant of staying hydrated but the cool weather greatly decreased our sweating.

Ok, now comes to the subject that all of the sudden dominated much of the second part of our training run. Poop! Yes, I said it, poop. Come on, everyone does it and it is a part of our training so I will share with you. Kris, D and I have joked about it before as Kris's cousin, Stacy (who has run a half a dozen marathons), told us all about runners trots and how people get it (not her!). I won't go into it so you'll have to google it on your own.

Running the early morning long runs it's inevitable to come into play. I was the first person to have to find a creative place to go to the bathroom during a 9 miler in Door County. Last week, we were walking home from our 15 miler and all of the sudden Kris said, "umm, I gotta go" and he took off towards home. Well, yesterday, it was D's turn. I think his quick, fire drill to get out the door this morning had something to do with it. We were about 30 minutes from foster beach which has a full facility bathroom and all of the sudden D shared that it was his turn to "need the bathroom." We offered to stop somewhere at Montrose but he said he could wait. We came upon a long stretch and he said he was just going to go ahead 'cuz he had to go. He dramatically picked up the pace and as he was almost out of site, i realized, we were at the spot that feels like we are close to Foster, but really over half a mile away! Oh no! Darren would be sprinting for a long time and I was hoping he would make it. Good news! He made it. Bad news, I don't think he felt very well the rest of the run. Very proud of Darren though because he basically gutted out the last 5 miles of our run. Talking was limited and he looked very focused.

No matter how much we train and prepare, "stuff happens," literally. Nature is nature and it's these types of things that makes the marathon training always eventful. Sorry for the gross post, but I wanted to offer full transparency :). I'm off for brunch with the ladies this morning for some much needed, non poop talk. Have a great week!

A Happy Place

Well, I have to say, after running 16 miles yesterday, I am finally getting to a "Happy Place" with this marathon training. I felt really good during the run and my muscle soreness is minimal compared to the first couple of long runs I did. I vividly remember visiting my friend and her newborn baby the day of our 13 miler and Kris and I could barely get out of the car or stand in the hospital room. I was worried the hospital staff would see us hobbling from the parking lot and bring out the wheelchairs! Yesterday, we were playing beach volleyball and hiking to my mom's beach. Once we hit our 15 mile mark I had this overwhelming feeling of "holy S***, we are going to run 16 miles and I can almost picture actually finishing 26.2." I don't want to get too cocky as I know we have more than 1/3rd of our training left, but this little training marker gave me some optimism. I tend to constantly think of what could go wrong. I don't wallow in it, but I do obsess about how to prevent it vs. enjoying when things go well. This marathon training is gently reminding me to enjoy sports and not fear them.

Freaky Friday

So, I ran about 3 miles last night on the treadmill and understand now why people call it the "dreadmill." I started my training on the contraption back in May and now I don't think I can ever go back. I missed the great outdoors! You know, that fresh CTA exhaust, the stinky smelly alley my CVS on Fullerton that D and I always remind each other to hold our breaths when we run by (I gagged once), and the stop lights on the way to the lake! I think I'll resort to the indoor track during the next weather problem. Kris ran inside on the track at the gym and said it did the job. I haven't talked to D yet but we'll be speaking later to plot out the big 1-6. Yep, that's 16 miles tomorrow morning.

I'm not dreading this run as much as the 15 miler. I actually am feeling pretty confident. I think that I was focus sing on that 15 miler so much from day 1 of training (as in, "the day I try to run 15 miles could be the day I die") that I'm finally feeling like I can possibly doe this. Not that it's not on my mind! I'm just a little less freaked out on this Friday and maybe only think about it every other hour.

Has everyone seen the news about that "maybe not a woman" who won the women's 800 meters at the World Championship this week? I don't know what to think. She didn't break the record or anything so it's not like she ran a man's time, but she does look, well, manly. I feel so sorry for her! I think she and her family at least think she's a she and have raised her that way and now, who knows! How horrible would it be if they had to do these lab tests on everyone before you entered a sporting event? "Please remove your sports bra and proceed to the men's washroom." The news this morning said 1 out of every 2000 people have some differences in their genes that could lead to non traditional male/female biological sexes. Just something to think about on this Freaky Friday :). No running today!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Our run was cancelled this mornning due to rain. I kind of was looking forward to a run in the rain, however, I have to know how far I can push Kris and I don't think he would love being sopping wet at 6:00 on a Thursday. I run with a hat so the water wouldn't bother me too much, but I was picturing Kris and Darren running with their eyes barely open....hopefully the rain will hold off tonight and we can get our 4 in.

Grumpy Pants

I think everyone was a little grumpy for this mornings 8 miler. Maybe grumpy isn't the right word, perhaps more like, "lets get this fricking hour and a half run over with because I have to get to work and get through another Wednesday." Not a lot of chatting going on and I almost took Kris's head off when he questioned how far we should go on our route. I told him later I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other because I felt like I had cement blocks on my feet. I think I started feeling ok around mile 6. I also have this fear that I'm going to get home and check our run and realize we ran only half as far as we thought. Then I'll have to tell Kris and D, "rememember that sucky run we did this morning but we thought we were so fast, well, we acutally have to fit in another sucky run this afternoon." You see, I map out our runs using a combo of the lakeshore path map, google maps and map my run. Usually everything is ok once I come back and re-check. Only had one bad occurrence of running too far vs. not enough.
Darren sported a new shaved "do" during our run this morning; he looks very sporty! Last night we all went to bed around 10:00. I didn't know D was planning on this as well but my goal was to try and get a good 7 hours of sleep so I wasn't falling asleep at the 3:00 hour. I did get in my 7 hours and I'mm hoping it makes a big difference. No Blanche Button sightings today....D says he's finally going to make a post on this blog and maybe he'll share the back story for Blanche that he came up with in his head.
I just want to give a shout out to the Minnesota Vikings and thank them for drafting Old Man Favre. Nathan Vasher is counting down the days for the Vikings Bears game. If anybody has a grand idea of getting my husband a Vikings Favre jersey, I strongly discourage this idea; it will never make it past the doorway of our house. Although D and I might like one, to poop on!

Day of Rest

Another Monday, another day of rest. It's also another day to prepare for the week ahead and try to plan out our runs. Darren was planning on running today as he has an early day at work tomorrow and social plans in the evening so Kris and I will be on our own Tuesday. We have a week of a 4 miler, 8 miler, 4 miler and then the big 16. Whoooo.

I think I'll take this time to share two things that have become super important to my marathon training. The first is the foam roller recommended by my life long friend, Beth N, who is also a physical therapist. It's basically a tool you use for self massage that works amazingly well to loosen up muscles and prevent soreness. I try to do it every night and bring it everywhere with me. My family members have witnessed many nights of me "foam rolling" Sometimes the roller turns into a weapon amongst my nephews if I leave it unattended. You Tube has great videos on demonstrating how to use the foam rollers and you can purchase one online and even at Target. I suggest a medium firmness roller for a beginner and then upgrade to a firm roller once you can roll out your quads without dropping f-bombs (it can be painful at first).

The other must have that I use, much to the demise of my husband, is icy hot! I love it. I use it almost every night on my legs and sometimes my back. Kris says I smell like and old man but I think it smells great. I think I might have a slight addiction. And just so you know, generic brands don't work the same. Also, stay away from the gel or easy applicator. The balm really works the best. I have tried them all! Ok, now I'm all excited for my icy hot.

15 There's Still Time For You

Woohoo! We finished our 15 miler on Saturday morning all feeling pretty good. We me at our spot at 5:30 am (it was set to be a HOT day) and we had the pleasure of crossing paths with a couple of groups on their way home from Friday night activities. We had to give props to our mirror image foriegners who were about 50 feet in front of us and when we looked up they were stretching and doing lunges and pretending to run. 2 guys and a girl from either England or Ireland. We had to laugh! We made it to the lakefront and saw all of the people who were already gathering their spots for the air and water show; crazy! There was a beautiful red sun rising over the lake for the first 1/2 hour of the run. I was on the look out for Blanche on her bike and sure enough, she drove right by us right by oak st. beach; full makeup on. Our new guess is maybe she's like Benjamin Button and just wants a bike to reflect her true age.
Blanche Button!

By the time we finished our run around 8:30 Fullerton was jammed with cars and angry people who couldn't find parking for the air and water show. I frequently question suburbanites who constantly complain about traffic in the city and then drive their oversize SUV's to Chicago especially on a Cubs game day and the Air and Water Show.

Now for Sarks in the Park. It was nice to get a table right outside and right by the stairs (less walking :)). We sat down and ordered chocolate milk. For those of you that don't know, chocolate milk is one of the ideal recovery drinks/foods to have after a hard workout. Darren loves this fact. We instantly fell in love with this place when the waitress brought us giant glasses of super cold Dean's chocolate milk. We ordered breakfast (sad to say, they had no fruit) and chugged our milk. It was delicious, however, when they brought me my scrambled egg whites and wheat toast, i was nauseous at the thought of one bite! One thing I've learned is I'm famished after these long runs but have a hard time eating for a while afterwards. I tried to take a bite of the toast and i couldn't even swallow. Ugh! I think the guys felt the same (wait for their review) but were able to finish theirs. This place is a greasy spoon but nice service and great location. Our waitress said they could give us chocolate milk to go and we might go that route next time!

To mustache or not to mustache?

In every movie I've ever seen about running, the good runners always have a mustache. So what if Prefontaine is the only movie about running and it took place in the 1970's. When in Rome...

Day off and Preparation

Friday is always a day of rest for our Marathon training. It's also the day that I think about Saturdays' long run about 5 times an hour. I think about whether or not I'll be able to finish and hope that I don't get injured or pass out. It's also when I plan what I'm going to eat on the run and when I should stop to drink. This Saturday we are going to run 15 miles. I can't believe it even as I type this. The plan is to meet at our spot at 5:30 am because tomorrow is going to be a hot one. We also don't want to get caught up with the Air and Water Show. When we have long runs I usually get up about 1 hour and 15 minutes before the run so I have time to eat something (right now a packet of oatmeal and a banana) and have a cup of coffee. I wake Kris up and he eats and goes back to bed. I'm usually on the couch relegated to watching a P90X infomercial. I don't think Darren eats before he runs? I'm just going to keep my eye on our plan to eat breakfast at Sarks in the Park .We walk by it on our way home after every long run and it has a sign saying "world's best breakfast." I always crave pancakes after we run and Darren starts listing some gross junk food and I have read that they have both!

Margaritaville

Darren was not in attendance this morning for our 4 miler. He is oh so polite and sent a text at 6:00 to let us know he would not be joining us. We ran our standard 4 miler: Fullerton and Racine, to the lakefront path, down to Diversey, up to Racine and back to "our spot."

On another note, DQ in Chicago is donating money to Children's Memorial Hospital for every blizzard purchased today; I think ice cream is a necesity in marathon training.

Meet me at Fullerton and Racine

For every run, Kris and I meet Darren at the corner of Racine and Fullerton. Usually, Darren is there first, I get there shortly after and Kris straggles behind ( I frequently call him "Gramma Mary" who was my frequenly extremely tardy grandmother). We are following Hal Higdon's Novice 1 running program: http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/novices.html and tomorrow morning we are supposed to meet at our spot at 6:15 to run our 4 miles (we are in week 10). As I write this, Darren is enjoying Margaritas with his brother at El Tapatio. Here's to hoping Darren is ready at 6:15 but he did let us know if he wasn't there to just run without him! It's really a 50/50 chance that D will be dressed in his running best...he's showed up for earlier runs with much more than margaritas fueling him.

On another note, I keep thinking about the 50+ year old lady zooming by us on the bike path this morning wearing a helmet and riding some little girls bike. It was pink, purple and just hovered over the ground. Her knees were touching her shoulders but she blew right by us. Perhaps her grandaughter stole her bike. She looked a little like Blanche from the Golden Girls.

Welcome

Welcome to the great adventure of Darren, Kris and Starrin's attempt to run the Chicago Marathon. It's August 12th (Happy Birthday Jeff) and the Marathon is October 11th. Don't be alarmed! We have been training for over 9 weeks and have 9 weeks left to go. I just started this blog now because at this point there is no turning back. We are in it to win it! Or, errr, finish. Our training thus far has been quite an adventure and I (Starrin) want to share it with our friends and family as we continue to have less and less time to spend with you all; you'll know why. And for those who know me, I usually have a lot to say about most things so why not this new huge thing in my life.

I'm kind of the group appointed leader/coach for the team (man, we need a team name). Not because I've done a marathon before or because I'm in the best shape (that award probably goes to Darren) but because I read the most and participate in numerous running forums. I love research and need to know all I can about what I'm doing. Plus it's like Survivor, I have to be the one to provide the fish, otherwise, the guys could leave me back at mile 3.

So this blog will cover our weekly runs, thoughts, perhaps some product reviews and hopefully some comments from our readers. I'm hoping D and Kris will contribute too!