Pretend Like I Wrote This A Month Ago

Hey! So I realize this blog has said it's Christmas for over a month now. Also? I only have one day left in January and I still haven't done a 2010 recap or 2011 goals post. So now's time time to panic! Or just get it done already. Here it goes:

1. Fit Milwaukee Friends: I started 2010 with an inkling that we were onto something special with this group. The photo of us at the finish of the Run Into the New Year race only begins to tell the story. Little did I know that there were even bigger and better things to come throughout the year, including but not limited to the Icebreaker Indoor Marathon Relay, Wisconsin Marathon, The Great Milwaukee Race, Tyranena Half Marathon and Lakefront Marathon. Hey, that's a lot of marathons. Speaking of which:

2. The TWO full marathons I completed: Rockford and Milwaukee Lakefront. Both were special in different ways and I'd be hard pressed to pick which was my favorite because I keep going back and forth on it. In Rockford (my hometown), I had my family there at the finish as well as my running besties who had traveled to run the half and proceeded to stalk me on the second half of the course with bright-colored signs. The photo of me getting ready to high-five Krista at the finish while Amy looks on is still one of my favorite running photos of me ever. Coming around the corner at that finish line to see the lot of them jumping up and down like crazy people is one of my favorite memories of the year. Plus, I PRed that race by nearly 20 minutes......

Until I ran Lakefront. This was the race I trained hard for all summer. I ran six 20-mile training runs in prepraration to hopefully break the four hour mark. AND I DID IT. It was a much harder race than Rockford but it was well worth the pain seeing that 3:58 at the finish. Hard work pays off, people.

3. Chicago 50/50: About half way through the summer and in the middle of one of those six 20-milers I ran I started thinking about how a 50K race "would really only be 5 more miles than a marathon." I'm sure a lot of people think this when they sign up for one and in the middle of that extra hour of running they think again to themselves "what the effing eff was I thinking back then?" The summer of 2010 was the summer I fell in love with the super-ultra-mega long training run. I felt like I could knock out any distance I wanted if I relaxed and took my time. Turns out I can. (Well, at least up until 31 miles.) I'm so proud of the 50K I raced because I did it completely on my own. I extended my training a month past Lakefront marathon, drove by myself to Chicago on Halloween weekend, snarfed down a meatball sub in my hotel room the night before and showed up all by my lonesome on race morning. And you know what? It felt spectacular. Just little old me with my ipod shuffling along Lake Michigan for thirty one miles. I kind of felt invincible.

4. CALIFORNIA: I'd been to San Francisco before, but we brought the kids along on that trip. This time Jason and I blocked out a week long vacation to the west coast just for us. We didn't have any big plans (other than to eat really well, natch) so we meandered around the city for the week, napping in various parks, eating spectacular food, meeting up with old friends and daydreaming over buying a townhouse at the top of Nob Hill. (Als0: A 1AM stop outside the Full House house!) The weekend brought us up the coast to Napa Valley where we drank wine, had probably the best meal of our lives at Cyrus, and swung by the finish of the Napa to Sonoma half marathon to cheer on my Team Challenge buds. Which brings me to..

5. Team Challenge: Go Team Challenge! Go Team Wisconsin! I'm still dumbfounded that I managed to raise $2500 for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. I also have no idea how I got up early both Saturday AND Sunday for three months. The trip to Vegas with the team though was worth all the worrying over money, the early mornings, all the crazy event planning. The night of the pasta dinner when all the coaches and mentors cheered us into the convention hall I got kind of overwhelmed by the hugeness of it all. And then to go out and make my half marathon PR the next morning by ONE SECOND? How poetic is that? I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. To top it all off I got to sing along to Bret Michaels playing "Aint' Nothin But A Good Time" at the post-race party and then go drink cans of PBR out of a hotel room bathtub. Hey, what else would you expect from Team Wisconsin?

6. Mini-trips: Whether it was spending a couple of days in Chicago with Jason or a trip to Maker-Faire in Detroit with the girls, our mini trips this year made me feel like a jet-setter at times. It felt great to pop into the city for a night, get a hotel and go out on the town. And Detroit was the surprise trip of the year for me. It loomed on the calendar all summer. DETROIT. But then we had the greatest time watching the girls make crafts, learn to solder and come away inspired to create new wacky inventions. If you can't afford to go all out on a crazy expensive vacation, the weekend getaway is where it's at.

7. Kauai, Hawaii Ok, so this was a crazy expensive vacation. But it was soooooo worth it. This was the relaxation trip to end all relaxation trips. The first full day there, I parked myself at the resort pool with a book and a mai tai and didn't leave for over five hours. We lazed about at multiple beaches, took long drives all around the island, and ate at 22 North- a farm-to-table restaurant that not only had fantastic food, but mixed some of the best cocktails I've ever tasted. We rang in the New Year toasting and tweeting (what else?) from our hotel balcony. I also got to be part of the wedding day of an old, dear friend who I haven't seen in years but whose family welcomed us into what was such a special, intimate ceremony that I won't forget.

8. Girlfriends: After #bestiesxmas the five of us stood outside of the Harley Davidson restaurant in the freezing cold and before having a spazzy Christmas hug attack we all talked about how none of us had every really had a core group of girlfriends before now. Somewhere along the past year I have become part of a tight circle of women who are so different, but inspire me in so many ways. Most days I feel like such an awkward dork that I'm surprised to have found myself a part of such an awesome group of ladies. Fish face!

I feel like I'm the luckiest girl alive. 2011 better not kick me in the butt.



Stay tuned for what I hope to achieve in the coming year (minus Janurary because I'm slow.)

Ava Year 7

Happy Birthday Miss Ava!






December 2003


February, 2005

Vegas Race Recap!

I am a little overwhelmed. How do I begin to put into words the events of this past weekend? I had the honor of traveling with Team Challenge Wisconsin to run in the Las Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon on Sunday. Not only was it a race with over 30,000 participants. but there were 1700 members of Team Challenge present from chapters all across the country who had collectively raised over 3.3 million dollars for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. It was kind of a big deal.

I joined Team Challenge this cycle for a number of reasons. As I wrote in a previous post, I was inspired by the group I saw run the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon in July. I had never fundraised on this scale before. I do a considerable amount of racing though so I figured it was about time that made that leap. Last, and quite honestly, I thought it would be a really fun trip to take with my friends. My running buddies who had been a part of Team Challenge during the previous cycle all told me that it wouldn't hit me the magnitude of what I was a part of until I was actually there.

I don't have a personal story involving IBD. But every time I would read about other participants experiences in our weekly team emails I would think to myself, "Whoa. This is the right cause to be involved with." I can't imagine having to endure what some of my fellow team members have had to endure and the fact that they were training to run a half marathon in spite of it made be proud to be a part of such an amazing group of people. I've run half marathons and marathons before but because everyone around me was pushing themselves to new limits I felt that it was important to do the same. I set a very aggressive time goal for myself because I wanted to prove to everyone who had donated their hard earned money that this was not something I was doing "just for fun". As it said on my fundraising page: "I AM COMMITTED! I WILL DO IT!" My previous half marathon record was 1:51:07 so I told everyone I was shooting for not only a new PR but also to get under an hour and fifty minutes. Even if it was 1:49:59.

I have to say I have never been in a race quite like this one. Just wrapping my brain around the fact that I was running with thirty thousand other people was the first step. But when a Cher impersonator began to sing the national anthem and the Blues Brothers starting playing after the starting gun went off I knew this was not going to be your typical race. Plus with 1700 other Team Challenge members out on the course if felt like you had an instant friend whenever you came across another runner in a bright orange singlet. And all those running Elvises! (Elvi?)

I'm not gonna lie. I had a tough time out there. I paced myself poorly and had to work with every inch of my being to eek out those last few miles. I could sense my PR slipping away and it made me sad. But then I remembered a part of one of the speeches form the pasta dinner the night before that had really stuck in my head. He said something like "They don't' get to quit Crohn's. And you are not going to quit this race." So I sucked it up. Put all I had into those last miles and dove for the finish line.

1:49:59!!

Needless to say I was beyond elated but I couldn't rest yet because I now had the job of cheering my other team members to the finish line. A few of us parked ourselves about a quarter mile from the finish and proceeded not only to cheer on our Team Wisconsin-ers, but every. single. person we could find sporting that orange tank top. As each runner or walker completed the race they joined our Team Wisconin pack and we brought home every last participant. And if you think that running for nearly two hours is difficult, try following that up with two hours of nonstop screeching and yelling. I confess I even got lightheaded at one point and needed to sit down and take a breather. Race cheerleading is hard!

Aaaaannd then we partied to Bret Michaels at the post-race concert. Hello 1987!
I would encourage anyone who's considering joining Team Challenge for the next cycle (in Napa!) to stop hesitating and throw their hat in the ring. You won't regret it. Even if you don't have a connection to Crohn's or colitis now, you'll soon realize what an important cause it is and how many awesome, inspiring people there are out there living with IBD every day. For me, Team Challenge was worth giving up sleeping in on Sunday mornings for a few months. It was worth all the worrying over meeting my fundraising goal. (I did.) And it was worth almost puking at the finish line. Because they don't get to quit Crohn's. And I was not going to quit either.
If Team Challenge sounds like it's right up your alley, check out their website here or email Becky Burris for more information.

Psst.

1. I reached my fundraising goal for Team Challenge!

2. I'm going to Vegas tomorrow with my running besties!

3. Neener.

What I Am

I am a stay at home mom. You know what I rarely do though? Stay at home. I know, it's probably better than the outdated term housewife but still, it bugs me. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and what seems to be me issues with being unemployed in the "normal" sense and what I've noticed is that there is a big BUT in the room when I describe my life. For example:

Random Person: "So what do you do?"

Me: "I'm a stay at home mom BUT... I do a lot of volunteering."

or

"I'm a stay at home mom BUT... I run marathons and write for a fitness website."

or

"I'm a stay at home mom BUT (fill in the blank with whatever makes me seem more interesting.)"

I feel the need to add a "but" to what my number one job is because for some reason I feel like it's not enough. You want to kill a conversation? Tell someone you just met that you stay at home with your kids. You've got to give them something else to work with otherwise you'll get something like, "Oh….that's nice..." as they scan the room searching for someone cooler to talk to. I admit, it's not that exciting on paper but I think I'm pretty darn good at what I do. My job is to make sure my kids grow up to be as awesome as possible and right now they seem to be right on track.

Some people will tell you that they could never be a stay at home parent because it would drive them crazy not having contact with the outside world. If you know me, then you probably already know I don't have this problem. Yes, when the kids were babies and I we lived out in the 'burbs (and before the invention of Twitter!) I did get lonely at times. But now that they are older I find with each passing year more and more things to get involved with for ME. So much that I rarely have enough time in the day to accomplish everything I want (or need) to do. Yes, I run a lot. I write. I'm a Girl Scout Leader, PTO mom and food pantry volunteer. I organize races and run groups. Soon I'll be coaching. This is on top of the usual day-to-day responsibilities of carting the kids around to their various after school activities, homework, housework, and making sure everyone has clean socks in their dresser drawers and their favorite juice boxes for lunch.

I'm a lucky lady. I realize most moms do all this stuff on top of working nine to five every day. And if you ask me, I frankly have no idea how some of you do it. We've been fortunate enough to be able to live comfortably on one income for years now and we have found a system that works for us. I hold down the fort, tie up all the loose ends and try my best to make everyone happy when they're tucked in at the end of the day. It's not glamorous but I honestly and truly love my life.

So why do I hem and haw and make excuses for it? I don't know. Some part of me will always feel like because I don't bring home a paycheck that what I do doesn't have the same value as a person who does bring one home (even if we don't *need* another paycheck.) I feel like I'm always trying to justify myself and needing to prove to people that I don't just sit on the couch all day eating ice cream and watching reality tv. Because of this I tend to overcompensate, over-extend myself and overcommit. It's enough to make me want to sit on the couch all day eating ice cream and watch reality tv.

But I don't.

*Thanks to Stacy Snook for the lovely photos of my girls!

FIFTYK!

Chicago Lakefront 50K Race Report (recap from Dailymile)

I had kind of a strange attitude leading up to this race. Even a year ago I don't think I ever would have imagined approaching an ultra-marathon with such nonchalance. But here I was, the night before the race, sitting on the bed in my Chicago hotel room eating a meatball sub and thinking something I had been saying to people for weeks, "Eh, it's only 5 more miles. I'll go slow." Before I left that afternoon I said to Jason "There's really no reason I can think of that I shouldn't be able to finish." He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "There's no reason why you wouldn't be able to run THIRTY-ONE MILES?"

Ye, of little faith.

I parked at he 63rd street beach house the morning of the race and I could see the 50-mile runners who had started already plodding along the lakefront. It was cold and windy! I don't know why I had never considered the wind factor, seeing that I had lived in Chicago for five years, but for some reason it hadn't crossed my mind. I hoped the weather would be better once the sun came up. It wasn't until checked in and got my t-shirt and number that I started to think OHMIGOSH I'M REALLY DOING THIS CRAZY THING. I took a photo of my race bib and stared at it in disbelief for a minute. I waited in my car and caught up on Twitter a bit while I waited for the race to start.

I have to say that for being a race that would be LONGER THAN A FREAKING MARATHON the vibe at the starting line was incredibly low key. There were some small groups of people who obviously knew each other from local running clubs and I noticed one guy with an awesome shirt that read, "I know, I know, I said I'd never do this again." But overall, everything was very understated. First of all, it was a very small group of runners to begin with , and although there were a few people setting lawn chairs ready to support their family members and friends, absent where the throngs of people cheering runners on with cowbells and neon colored signs. It was kind of cool -almost like the people who run this distance are so dedicated (or insane) that they don't even need all the extra stuff. They do it because they love it.

The race consisted of three out-and-backs along the lakefront. Starting at the beach house on 63rd street we ran along Lake Shore Drive past the Museum of Science and Industry about 5 miles and change to the turnaround near McCormick Place. My strategy was to run at about a 10:20-10:30 pace for the first 26 miles. This would put my "marathon" at around 4 1/2 hours. After that I anticipated needing to ease up and I figured even if I ran almost 12 minute miles for the last 5 I would still finish around 5 1/2 hours. This was more of an estimate of what my finish would be rather than a real "goal" since can't say I was actively trying to get a specific time. My thinking was that if my recent marathon finish was 3:58, then slowing that pace down by more than 30 minutes would help fend off fatigue and prevent me from hitting any wall during the first 26 miles. Of course, this was only a guess and i really had no idea how my body would respond, but it sounds like good logic right?

So there were three aid stations on the course as well as the one at the start/finish so we had four places to refuel. I decided that even going at a relaxed pace I was going to stop at them ALL. (Especially because I had opted not to carry my own water bottle this time.) Oh, and the things they have at aid stations in an ultra are crazy! I grabbed what I thought was purple gatorade at the second stop and as I chugged it down I realized it was Coke! At first I was a little grossed out but the sugar hit me pretty fast and I decided that it was genius. As the race went on the stations kept bringing out more stuff- nuts, pretzels, red vines and at one point mini-candy bars. At first I didn't think I was going to go for that stuff but for the first time ever I was having a really hard time eating gels so ended of ditching them and forced myself to eat a small handful of cashews at mile 20.

How hard was it? Ok, so obviously the first 10-mile loop was easy peasy. And when I got to the turnaround at mile 15 I was really excited because I still felt great. I even took a couple of photos on my phone and posted them to Twitter and Facebook. I had my music blasting and my strategy of going slow stopping at every station was paying off. (The only snafu I had so far was that my Garmin started beeping because it was FULL at between mile 4 and 5 so I had to shut it off, clear everything and then reset it- making the mileage on my watch totally off and forcing me to do math. Grrrr.) When I finished the second loop and had one more to go I approached the race as just getting to the next aid station. In my mind I broke it up into 2 or 3 mile chunks and just focused on one at a time. This was a lot less overwhelming to me and it made it exciting when I would see one of the tents come into view.

I made it to mile 26 without hitting any wall, high-fived the girl at the turnaround and began the home stretch. The Final Five! Now, when I say I didn't hit the wall, it doesn't mean that I wasn't tired. My legs were definitely fatigued and my feet were sore but I didn't have that completely wasted feeling where you can hardly move forward. When I've run marathons there comes a point where my quads start to burn because they are picking up the slack for my completely shot hamstrings that are supposed to be doing the brunt of the work. I was really afraid of this happening early so when I got to 26 without that feeling I knew I would be ok.

On the way back I noticed my pace slowing more to around 11 minutes per mile. It's funny because on a regular run this would feel incredibly uncomfortable running at this speed but at this point I felt like there was no way I could have gone any faster. I also began lingering a little longer at the aid stations. At one I gulped two cups of water before continuing on! On the actual course though, I didn't do any walking. I stayed all the way to the right of the bike path, running along one of the white lines. I just stared at the white paint, putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that it would take me to the finish. During the final two miles I saw some of the 50-mile runners heading out again for what I knew would be another out and back and I was so happy it wasn't me! I had been running for over five hours now and though I was so completely spent I knew I was going to finish.

I saw the beach house come back into view and I was listening to (don't laugh) Bon Jovi on my ipod. I put "It's My Life" on there at the last minute because it was one of my mom's favorite songs and it came on during the last half mile. If you were driving north on Lake Shore Drive at that moment you would have seen a little blonde bun-headed runner having a weepy blubbery moment. I approached the finish area and there was a small group of people clapping for me I can't even tell you from where I pulled the energy to pick up my speed and sprint to the finish. One of the volunteers pointed to the clock which said 5:28 and he said, "That's a GREAT time!"

It really was. :)


P.S. If you are looking to run your first 50K and you live in the Wisconsin/Illinois area, this one is perfect for beginners. For the most part it was flat and it was all on asphalt/concrete. I'm definitely planning on doing it again!

http://www.chicagoultra.org