ZOOMA Great Lakes Half Marathon: The Neverending Hill

The most well-deserved after-race medal/award I’ve ever earned.

Truth.

This last weekend, us ZOOMA ambassadors reunited, along with a few more awesome Chicago bloggers/runners in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Our weekend had finally come- The ZOOMA Great Lakes Half Marathon.

We rented a lake house, officially dubbed the party house, and had ourselves a good time.The house was amazing and we easily fit 14 ladies comfortably for the night.

All we had to do was supply the food.

ssshhh… don’t tell the rest of the healthy living bloggers we may have had more candy than vegetables on site…

If only we didn’t have such a rude 5:00 wakeup call.

Twinsies! Or at least until I became a total baby and decided I was too cold to not dress in layers…

I hope you like bagels and peanut butter… because that’s what you’re eating…

Luckily for me, our breakfast was what I normally eat for prerace. Sometimes it’s awesome us bloggers can be so cliché with our peanut butter.

Because it was a point-to-point race, we met up at the Abbey Resort to get shuttled out to the start line.

Kelly was super pumped we were the cool kids on the back of the bus. Or at least we were self-proclaimed to be. Still counts.

Two hours after waking up, the sun finally starts to rise. So many things wrong with that sentence…

The view was lovely, but the temps were not as nice. We all shivered and shuddered until the start. I opted to keep my long sleeves on- something to be thankful for every time there was a brisk breeze.

So how was the race you ask?

Well.

We were warned about the hills. But even the warnings were not enough to prepare me for what was about to happen.

Turn the first corner, oh hey- a hill.
Congrats, you’ve hit mile marker 2.  Go run up a hill.
You’ve been running on a flat surface for a quarter mile. This is too long, so go run up a hill.
You just finished a subtle incline for a mile. Go run a steep hill.

I truthfully believe I was running uphill for 75% of the race.

The worst was near the end- mile 11. At that point, I was just keeping my head down to avoid the soul crushing inclines ahead of me. But at that particular spot, I looked up. Not one person was running up the hill. It was THAT steep. I attempted my arm-pumping, look like I’m running but in all actuality am barely moving, run. For about 20 feet. Screw this, I’m walking.

I would have cried, but it’s dangerous to dehydrate yourself like that in a race.

So after the half mile from hell (I don’t think it was this long, but that’s what it felt like), we ran a little longer and turned around. To go back down it.

Now, I’ll go ahead and say my love of the stair machine at the gym probably saved my life going up those hills (because we all know I wasn’t training for them on the treadmill). But the downhill? It was so steep. And it took so much energy to slow myself down as I was barreling down, that every time my foot hit the road, my body got a shock to the system. Everything vibrated. With every step.

“This is going to hurt sooooo bad tomorrow.”

But that was about the end of it. Which was good. I was taking a beating. My endurance somehow held up. But my joints weren’t going to take much more.

2:00:04.

10th in my age group. A small race, but I feel it important to throw that out there, anyway.

Some of the ambassadors post race. Smiling. Because it was over. Whew!

And with that, I finished my 5th half marathon.

Check out the sweet compression socks. It’s how a lot of us ambassadors were able to see each other in the distance. And they kept us warm. Duh.

Thank goodness there was wine at the post race. That’s all I have to say about that.

And thank goodness my parents were there to take me to lunch afterwards.

Because I wanted to eat EVERYTHING.

A local brew called Spotted Cow to go with my turkey burger. Because I like diversity.

Oh and more food…

Why yes, the tree of broccoli was quite delicious with my mahi mahi. Thanks for asking.

So yeah. That was my ZOOMA experience. Not my best race time. But not my worst. And with all the hills? I’ll take it.

Plus, I got to see my parents and hang with a bunch of pretty awesome girls for the weekend.

Wine. Jewelry. And a solid girls weekend.

Worth it.

Now excuse me as me and my sore thighs limp on out the door to work…

Laters.

Firefly 5k Chicago

I’ve ran races in the evening before. Not a problem.

But in the dark?

Considering my track record of being the biggest klutz of all time, I must have been concussed when signing up for this thing. It’s the only explanation.

Actually, there’s another one.

It was my roommate’s first 5k. And what better race to start out with than one that requires glow sticks?

Totally brings me back to high school. My friends and I thought they were so cool to wear on road trips (because there are SO MANY PEOPLE to see you while driving on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere). Or thrown in a Bacardi bottle because it was preeeetttttyyyy.

Now that I think about it, that was really dangerous. What if the glow stick leaked? I’m sure there’s something on the package about not digesting the contents inside the tube.

I was living on the edge and didn’t even realize it.

Wait… something shiny… what?

Oh yes… So the Firefly 5k…

I absolutely love how creative organizations are getting with theme races. Undie Dash… Elvis is Alive… and now this?

It makes the race a little more fun. Plus, I really like wearing obnoxious colors.

Bailey’s reasoning behind wanting to try a 5k was basically “there’s no reason why I can’t” and I’m so proud of her because she rocked it!

Especially since it was a rough course. Definitely not an “in it to win it” kind of race. Because you will hurt yourself.

Word to the wise? This would be a good street race. The random holes or loose gravel in the trail were seriously dangerous. Because the only warning you got was if the person in front of you said something as they almost sprain their ankle or bite it.

Plus, my legs still are kind of angry at me for last weekend’s half marathon.

And I really just wanted to see Bailey finish. So we ran it together. The whole way. No stopping. I felt like such a proud lil’ mama.

I don’t know my official time. Because, for some reason, it’s not in the results. Which is weird and mildly annoying. My chip must have been defective? However, since Bailey and I were together, I’ll assume it would have also been just over 31 minutes.

Yeah. Her first 5k in 31 minutes. Nailed it!

(Oh and we still have the blinking arm bands. Who wants to go rage?!?!)

Clearly we had to go out and celebrate afterwards.

You’d think we’d be tired. But you’d be thinking wrong.

Our victory outting lasted until the wee hours of the morning and ended with a lil’ party at our pad at 3:30 in the morning.

So you can understand why I’m a wee bit tired still on this Monday morning. The marking of a good weekend.

Carry on…

800th

Do you know what today is?

No? Well. It’s a big day for my lil’ blog. I don’t celebrate “blogversaries” and such because, well, I don’t really have one. Sure, there’s the first post ever. But the focus changed. I took a hiatus or two. The focus changed yet again. Another hiatus.

My point is I don’t have an exact “date” as to when the Second City Randomness you know (and love- obvi) came to be.

HOWEVER…

I’m all about celebrating milestones and such. And today is my 800th post. Which seems like a SUPER big number.

It’s a good time to say thank you. Thank you for coming back on a regular basis. Thank you for understanding my crazy. Thank you for every comment, email, tweet, and even to a few of you who have stopped me in the streets. It’s awesome and I am so happy to have this outlet to share and discuss things with every one of you.

But because I break out in hives when things get overly emotional, I should probably stop now. I just want you to know I mean it- THANK YOU.

Anyway, how ironic that today’s celebratory post will include what I did on a Tuesday.

I still hate Tuesdays. And it turns out I’m not alone. Look at the top search terms for my blog yesterday:

Not sure what that 6-inch difference thing is all about (and maybe I don’t want to know?), but when I see the top terms are about Tuesdays, I know you guys totally understand me.

Anyway, this Tuesday I found myself out in the ‘burbs dealing with some car maintenance. No biggie, but it left me with some time to kill afterwards to avoid the evening rush hour traffic back IN to the city.

Rush hour is no joke, guys.

Luckily, I have friends who also occasionally have time to kill.

Mon and I took to a path along the lake near our old apartment complex and went on a run that lasted about 1.5 miles before we succumbed to slowing down to a quick walk and gossiping for the rest of the 4-mile adventure.

Funny thing- this wass the first time we’ve ever ran together. Sure, we’ve been friends for almost three years now. And yes, we both like to workout. And we both really like running. We just never have together. Strange.

Afterwards, I insisted on going to Jason’s Deli. It’s quick. It’s delicious. And there’s not a location near my new place, so I really miss it.

It’s like the salad I make at home. But better because croutons are involved. And a lil’ pasta salad on the side… and hummus… So really, it’s just better.

Some of the reason I miss it may be because there’s free soft serve with the salad bar. If you so choose…

My car got a spa treatment. I got a gossip fest with a side of exercise. My stomach was happily fed. And, most importantly, I missed rush hour traffic when heading back into the city.

It may have not been a super exciting Tuesday, but hey- it wasn’t completely awful, either.

Success.

Strike Out ALS 5k

“Oh hey… still feel like running a race next week?”

“Ok, yeah, let’s do it.”

That’s pretty much what went down when deciding to sign up last-minute for the Strike Out ALS 5k at US Cellular.

One great thing about being in the city is that you can find 5k’s/races during the week ALL the time. Neat.

One bad thing is you sign up without thinking and don’t think about traffic/logistics/etc until after.Luckily, traffic was randomly fast. As in, we got there 30 minutes earlier than planned. Say whaaaat? That never happens.

I didn’t mind- this was my first trip to see where the Sox play at U.S. Cellular Field. I liked the park. It was definitely different from that old northside park… (Even if I DO like Wrigley better… shhhh…)

My guy friend and I hung out the rest of the time chatting and stretching. It was his first official race ever and we were both pretty excited about it.

He was nervous about having to walk, but I knew he’d be fine. Better than fine- he started out telling me how he doesn’t ever run and yada yada yada.  Turns out, the boy’s a liar and is pretty damn fast. Sure, he may not be able to run much more than a 5k when it comes to endurance, but this race was in the bag.

I also knew he’d smoke me. And told him to not hold back at all and just go. Because even if we have a similar overall pace, he always starts quicker because I’ve never been one to sprint fresh out of the gate. Because of the narrow course, we stopped running together within the first half mile.

The draw I had on this race was that we got to run in the stadium and onto the field. Very cool. Awesome selling point. Almost makes you overlook the fact that the rest is pretty much doing huge mile laps around the parking lot. Seriously. That part was boring.

While running that second mile, I looked at the stadium and realized something not considered before. We were going to have to run up. Up the ramps. Up up and up. Then run down stairs. Down down down. Then, after running around the field, we’d go back up those stairs and back down the ramps.

Gross.

Ironic- while approaching the stadium to start my ramp run, New Found Glory came over the iPod with “All Downhill From Here.”

I couldn’t make that up if I tried.

Luckily, all that work over the winter and spring on the dreaded stairmill really paid off. The uphill wasn’t bad and I was actually passing people. A thank you goes to the Hustle Up the Hancock for all the stair training I was forced to do…

At this point, I would also like to make a shout out to the mom running with a stroller. She was killin’ it up those ramps. Unfortunately, the portion of running down the steps probably took away her awesome time. Sad. Because she was flyin’. Daaaaaang.

I also lost time going down the stairs. Mostly because I’m clumsy and know myself enough to slow it down to avoid seriously injuring myself and the runners around me.

As I rounded the third base line, I saw my friend sprinting back up them like a pro. What a booger.

We both ended up with respectable times. I came in at about 25:40 (still waiting for the official time) and he was about 45 seconds before me. SO proud of him. A little jealous. But SO proud!Not a personal best by any means. But my first 5k in almost a year? It was fun!

D was pretty winded at the end. But one of the first things he said?

“That was fun. I want to do that again.”

Yep. It’s an addiction.

Another selling point of this race? The post-race party was basically hanging out in the stadium and getting to watch the All-Star game on the Jumbotron.One last complaint? Don’t charge stadium prices to a bunch of people who just ran a race and are starving/parched. And already paid a little more than average to do the race.

When contemplating a second drink, it started to rain. So we relocated to a bar with beers that were half the price of what we had paid while in the park.

Holla’.