Planetarium...halloween party

I won some tickets to the Alder Planetarium at a 5k so Jeff and I went to see "The Journey to the Stars." It was pretty neat. That evening we had a bunch of friends over for a haloween party. It was a blast!

The best house husband ever! : )

This week I was working as normal- but the difference was that Jeff came to visit. It was GREAT! Jeff fixed my bike, finished some wedding stuff for me, did some cleaning, grocery shoping, went to the post office. He was so helpful! It was really nice because then when I got home at 6 we could just have fun together...such as go to a good bye party for my friend Claudia who is moving to San Fran :(

Go Go Green 5k

This morning I did a 5k...and I won with a time of 17:55. It was very fun. I just biked from my house to the race start. It was no pressure. My mile splits were 5:40, 5:50, 5:40- So pretty consistent. There was a girl from Grand Valley who was gaining on me the last mile but I knew I had to hold her off because the prize for first was REI gear and both Jeff and I LOVE that store. Anyway, ends up that vitamin water was another one of the sponsors so I also won a case of vitamin water. This was cool until I realized that I had biked to the race and now had a case of vitamin water to carry (along with a tent from REI). I took all the waters out of the case and put them in my back pack - all 24 of them! I then had one of the hardest bike rides of my life :)

Later that day I went with my roommate and her mom to go look at wedding dresses. We walked to the car and the window of her mom's car had been smashed! Fortunately there was nothing of value in the car but it did take us awhile to find a place to get a new window put into the car. We did make it to the bridal stores...and I am starting to get an idea of what I like..but still no purchase :)

New Job

It has been awhile since I have posted! I started doing some consulting work for a company in Lisle. I have enjoyed the new job but it has been tiring...an hour+ commute in both directions and lot's of work when I am there. I actually have been enjoying the train ride. I take my breakfast and mail onto the train in the morning and in the evening I usually talk to Jeff. It's a nice ride. Another thing I just discovered is that my new work is right by the Morton Arboretum...I ran here during lunch yesterday and I just LOVED it!

Pumpkins in the Park - 5k

It was the perfect fall day for a 5k. I placed second overall but definitely didn't feel very smooth or good during the race. Oh well- it was fun. I had forgotten how much I liked these shorter distances.

After the race I went over to Beth's for dinner with a few other people that had volunteered or ran the race.

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for being supportive about my decision to drop out of the marathon. I really appreciated the emails and comments I received. I will keep you posted on when I will race next. I was planning on doing a marathon soon after Chicago but although I didn't complete the race, the day left me feeling physically not tired but emotionally very drained. Since running the marathon really does take so much desire and "umph" to do your best I really need to feel excited to compete. Right now, I feel burnt out. I feel like I would be going into the race with a "let's get this over with" attitude. That's just not normal for me. This is my hobby and I am a competitive person- I need to feel that joy and drive before I step on the line. I will keep you posted. I start a new engineering job on Monday. I'm pretty nervous about that so right now so I am just focusing on running as a way to stay grounded and put things in perspective. I always feel at ease when I get back from a run :)

10-10-10

I woke up at 4AM to eat a bagel with peanut butter (it's best to eat 3-4 hours before the marathon so you don't have digestive issues). My friend Beth picked Kelly and I up at 6AM. I was in the elite development tent which made for a less stressful pre-race because you are in the tent with your teammates and they take good care of you and lead you to the start when it is time to go. I felt good on the warm-up. We only went for 10 minutes because it was warm out so there wasn't much need to "warm-up". When the gun went off everyone was flying by me. I thought I was starting conservative but my first mile was 6:07 oops! I tried to settle in but the crowd support was so amazing that I couldn't seem to run slow enough. Every 2 seconds someone would yell my name and I would be so excited and start to speed up! Well after a bit the heat started to creep up and my times started to slow...until instead of hitting 6:20's I was running 6:40. After the half way mark it just wasn't looking like I was going to get the standard of 2:46. I had to make a decision- do I want to run a slower marathon and have that be the end of the season or do I want to be able to give it another try. I decided around mile 15 that I didn't want to just finish- I wanted a chance to reach the goal that I was going for. At that point I stopped but I was pretty far west so I had to cut over a street in order to get back (this cut about a mile off)..therefore when people saw me next I looked like I was doing amazing! Jeff hopped in and started running with me and I said I was going to stop at mile 18 where I knew I had some friends. Jeff was so confused saying- what? You are running so well! I explained that I had stopped and hopped back in the race. Anyway- it was a terrible feeling to drop out. I haven't ever done that and I had no idea it would feel so bad to stop before the finish line. I know that I did the right thing though and my Coach was very happy with me. It still doesn't feel so great though. It was fun to hang out with a LOT of Calvin people after the race. Many of my friends had a great first marathon experience!

Elite Athlete Press Conference

Post to come- it was SWEET talked to Deena Kastor, Ryan Hall...watched the interview of the top three finisher in the marathon.

(Deena Kastor is on far right of picture)

runner tracking

Hi friends and family. My race number is 484 (if I was superstitious I would be really excited date:10-10-10, qualifying time 2-4-6, bib number 4-8-4, age 2-4 : ) Bank of America has a runners tracking system so you can sign up to get text messages with my time at certain locations. You can sign up here:
http://www.textinterface.com/pls/text/TF_BACM_DT

interviewed for WGN- 9

The little kiddo that I was going to watch was sick today so I had the day off. I met for a run with my friend Beth for a run in the morning. Then in the afternoon I went to a high school / middle school cross country race. The kids were so great. I loved watching the expressions on there faces. It also put thing in perspective. I have come along way in my running! The winner of the junior high 2 mile race ran the pace I will attempt to run for 26.2 on Sunday : ) (The Olympic Trails qualifying time is 6:20/mile)

After that race I biked over to Nike Town where I met Joan Benoit Samuelson and was interviewed with Heather. We will be on Channel 9. I am not sure what time yet though. Joan was awesome. She was such a running pioneer. She is 53 years old and when she first started running, women weren’t allowed to run the marathon! It was said that it would do bodily harm and you wouldn’t be able to have children : )

After that Heather and I headed to a restaurant to meet Coach Leach and Matt to talk over race strategy.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news%2Fsports&id=7714808

interviewed for ABC news

The little kiddo that I was going to watch was sick today so I had the day off. I met for a run with my friend Beth for a run in the morning. Then in the afternoon I went to a high school / middle school cross country race. The kids were so great. I loved watching the expressions on there faces. It also put thing in perspective. I have come along way in my running! The winner of the junior high 2 mile race ran the pace I will attempt to run for 26.2 on Sunday : ) (The Olympic Trails qualifying time is 6:20/mile)

After that race I biked over to Nike Town where I met Joan Benoit Samuelson and was interviewed with Heather. We will be on Channel 6. I am not sure what time yet though. Joan was awesome. She was such a running pioneer. She is 53 years old and when she first started running, women weren’t allowed to run the marathon! It was said that it would do bodily harm and you wouldn’t be able to have children : )

After that Heather and I headed to a restaurant to meet Coach Leach and Matt to talk over race strategy.

Breakfast Club

Today I met at the track in the early morning along with a whole bunch of other crazy people. It was still dark out. The workout was an all out mile, 1200, and 800. It was quite a shock to the system! I ran 5:30 for the mile. This was not as good as I hoped- it was nearly the same time that I ran last year. It will have to do. Coach said I looked amazing so that was good to hear. I have decided to run the marathon. I am going to do my best and hope that everything goes well. I am excited. I have predetermined that I am going to have a great race all the way to the very end! The mind can do amazing things! :)

Iris

I watched my favorite 2.5 year old. I hadn't seen her in awhile and I was greeted with "eennaa!" and little arms around my legs. She was so fun. We collected pine cones for awhile, collected yellow leaves, took a ton of drinks from the drinking fountain (she has a fascination with pushing the button :)...everything we did her doll had to do as well. We practiced walking backwards and hoping. Then we ran! Yep. She loves to run! She ran 6 blocks without stopping! So cute!

Makin' Tracks 5k

After a poor night of sleep I headed out to the Makin' Tracks 5k. It was a cool crisp morning. The weather totally reminded me of Cross Country season which put me in a good mood. The race went off and I soon found myself alone running through the tree lined streets of River Forest. I felt smooth and fast. I was totally in the moment and enjoying running. It was quite a windy day but I enjoyed the feel of pushing into the wind and how the wind was blowing my short hair back out of my face. As I approached the third mile the High School Marching band was playing, I had a sharp turn into the stadium where the High School Cheer team was lining the track. The race ended on the start line of the track so you got to finish by running 100 meters on the track. It was a blast! I hadn't raced since August and I had missed it! I ended up fist female with a time of 18:04. This was a confidence builder for me. Just what I needed.

After the race I went to Alona's for breakfast and then we went shopping for wedding ideas in Oak Park. After that I went to a friends barbecue. It was a busy day- but a good one :)

Life's been throwing me curve balls!

I've been nannying full time for the cutest little boys ever. The two boys are 4 months and 5 months. I really love them! However, Friday I got an engineering job offer to do some consulting work. The offer is really tough to turn down. I told my friend and employer on Friday because I thought she should know that I was considering this offer. As you can imagine she was quite upset...which me, having this terrible characteristic of feeling other peoples feelings and wanting everyone to be happy, felt even more terrible. This made for a teary and restless night.