The big day is upon me. I reviewed the rules and looked closely at the time requirements for the 10 mile run, they specifically state that you have to be able to complete the full run in 2 ½ hours.  When K and I started training for this, we were optimistic that out times would decrease as our fitness levels improved.  We have been training since February for goodness sake.  K and I did 8 miles a couple of weeks ago and realized that we would be unable to do the full 10 miles in the allotted time.  Apparently they close the doors to Soldier Field if you don’t get there in time.  With my luck I’d be standing on the outside of the stadium banging on the doors trying to get in–like something out of Monty Python.  So, K and I decided that we’d do this.  We’ll NOT use timing chips and start our own 10 miler early.  Certainly we don’t want the competitive racers thinking that we are trying to cheat the system and get a much better time, but we have trained a long time to do this race.  I personally, could be just as happy drinking mimosas, but I guess I’ll follow my leader.  The crazy thing is that I’ll be waking up at 5:00 Sunday to do Bike the Drive.

We had a seven mile run to do this weekend.  I had weekend commitments that made a run on Saturday or Sunday virtually impossible, or at lease uncomfortable.  Since running alone is uncomfortable, I simply didn’t want to do it.  We decided to do an early 5:30 a.m. run.  Well, at 3:30 the rain was pouring down and the lightning was flashing.  The text I got from K, was essentially, I can run in the rain, but not in the lightning.  So, we bailed.  As I sat at work I worried about whether or not I was going to be able to do this run this weekend or not.  So, I decided to take a couple of hours off, mid afternoon to push through the run.  I started in the loop and headed down to the aquarium, to Northerly Island and back.  Even though it rained, I managed to get some shots from the phone.  I was happy to be back to the office and even happier that I was able to have as much wine as I wanted this weekend.

This week I have really tried to get back in the groove.  I am so worried about this 10 mile run coming up.  My breathing is still not where I need it to be and my legs, body and head just hasn’t been completely in it.  Despite my lack of desire, I did a pretty good job this week.  I did a short run on Wednesday, about a 5K.  The shots from the car early in the morning will tell all in terms of just how gorgeous it was. So after the 5 k on Wednesday there was early morning swimming with K.  She and I hadn’t been in the pool for ages.  How nice it was to see some of our old friends and fellow athletes.  It is amazing how quickly the strength and skill leaves when you aren’t practicing swimming.  I have a lot of work to do since I’ll be doing this CES triathlon training.

I couldn’t stand the idea of the 6 mile run hanging over my head all weekend.  Despite the fact that there was 3/4 of a bottle of wine missing from the night before, I woke up this morning and decided to get the 6 miles behind me.  There were….errors along the way.  Here they are not in any order of importance:

1. Don’t be an idiot and drink anything but water the night before a long run.
2. Dont wear running sweatpants the hottest day of the year.   There is a fire warning out there for goodness sake.
3. Don’t eat two pancakes and drink a cup of coffee before you run.
4. Don’t stay up till 3 am the night before.
5. Don’t forget your inhaler.
6. Don’t forget sunscreen, cause by 9:00 your skin will be burnin’.

I did finish, my slowest run yet, but I missed K and P horribly.  Even though I have a policy to not talk during my runs, their company is welcome and was missed. 

Now on to an afternoon of hiking at Spring Mill.  There are friends who are clamoring for some mill ground corn meal. 

Beautiful southern Indiana.   Yay.

Leonard Springs, Photo by Bob Ostermeier

 Can’t wait to hit Upland Brewery later!!

I am here to tell you that nine miles is a long way.  The run started out like all of the others except that my ipod was doing this strange skipping thing which made me half insane.  The only thing I could think of during the whole run was how happy I was going to be to get back home and have a bloody, beer, coffee, and or mimosa.  Maybe one or two of each.  We started at our normal spot and headed up north on through the park and over to the lakefront path.  The morning wasn’t that bad really, a little windy with a bit of  a chill, but not too bad.  I think we were all a little nervous about how long it was going to take and how FAR it really is.  I kept my bus pass in my water bottle holder just in case.  You just never know when you are going to finally have enough.  We went at a 4:2 pace.  That worked very well for me in the youthful miles, but as they started to creep up, just after Cricket Hill past Montrose I about died  I was thrilled when K said we’d bring the pace back to a 3:2.  By mile 8.5 I was struggling.  I was doing anything to avoid running.  I took some shots of the cloudy morning just north of downtown.  I was nearly dead at this point, but, we made it.  After stretching we drank, ate and laughed our butts off for the rest of the day.  So fun. 

Strange how distance perception has changed since the beginning of this training, the 6 mile run scheduled for this coming Saturday is considered a short one…what am I thinking???