Act now -- less than 5,000 entries available

Fleet-footed Frankie sent me a friendly email today saying that there are "less than 5000 entries available" for this year's Bank of America Chicago marathon. No additional words of encouragement to sign up, the subject line spoke for itself as a forwarded newsletter from the Chicago organizers. So I signed up; if I were to be honest, I was probably eventually going to register but wow, look at that,  30,000 others have already done so in less than two months? No harm to sign up, except that it'll cost me US$170 (thankfully, the Canadian dollar is at more than 3 year highs today. Where will it be in October? Hello, cross-border shopping on the MagMile). Training will seriously start after the snow goes away. Maybe I'll sign up for the Sporting Life 10K next to get me on track for the spring. 

If life events take over that prevent me from going to Chicago, that's cool, but I can at least give myself the option before registration fills up. I think I would have regretted it terribly if I was shut out of the option at least to participate in the five-year anniversary run with Frankie and Yumke through the beautiful city of Chicago. Also W, my BFF is going, and a bunch of Frankie's siblings.  It's going to be a great time. For now, Deep Dish Pizza: you and I have a date on Oct. 9. 

Return

Maybe it's time to revive this blog, just as I've revived running outside. I took my very clean (ie, little used) running shoes out for a 3-mile run today on the slushy sidewalks of this city. It also got me thinking about what my last blog entry was... and they were thoughts before the Around the Bay Race.... of  2010 (almost a year ago!). No follow-up entry. Short version: the race, as I recall, was a lot of fun and I achieved my goal to complete. Given that I hadn't trained that well for it, I still remember being in pretty good spirits the whole way through, even with the wet snow in the last couple of Ks, even with some guy dressed as the Grim Reaper taunting me, and even if my better trained friends had to wait more than an hour for me to cross the finish line. 

Over the last year, I haven't run very much except for a semi-consistent stretch in the summer when I was away for a few weeks on assignment. Alone in the city, running was something to do and nice way to see some neighbourhoods. Back at home, it's something to do as well but typically overtaken by no will. I even quit the gym that used to be such a regular part of the routine. 

So what's the inspiration to come back from the dead? Two friends are returning to Chicago this fall to run the marathon that the three of us each did as our first-ever marathon five years ago. The idea has some merit, although the US$170 entrance fee is quite the steep commitment. When I ran this marathon I was coming off a hacking cough and it definitely affected my performance. I've always wondered what I could do if I was healthy, having just stuck mainly to a handful of half-marathons and lesser-mileage races since. A couple of other friends have signed up for the race in the Windy City.... does peer pressure win? 

Thoughts before the ATB

Eighty seven days ago I decided to sign up for the Around the Bay 30K Race, a legendary road race that is "Older than Boston" (which is the slogan on the technical t-shirt in the goodies bag). It's about 6 hours before I take my place among more than 7,000 people who have trained through the winter. Which is kind of a funny thing to say because as far as training went in the last 87 days, it was a really poor effort on my part overall. I have run no more than 20K in preparation for this race. I have no doubt this is going to hurt me even as I plan to take it easy. Every time someone asks me what my goal time is for any race, the answer has always been "to complete." That's not changing today.

Positive temperatures, negative attitudes

It took me til about an hour ago to finally stop making excuses and go run this weekend. I went to the dentist, had lunch yesterday with my family, had dim sum today with the extended family, went grocery shopping, watched Sunday morning cartoons for a bit, I even played piano for the first time in years -- and for more than one sonata -- at my parents house yesterday afternoon so I wouldn't have to come home and put on my running shoes, despite the positive temperatures all weekend. I'm funny that way. All told, this plus 4C temps wasn't bad and in fact, probably somewhat ideal, come Race Day. Just 5K today, but given my mental struggles to get out the door this weekend, I'll take it.

For extra motivation, I wore my Chicago Marathon souvenir pullover today as I dragged my feet around my neighborhood. The pullover just reminds me that I can train myself to go this distance, and that so much of running is really a mental issue for me.  And Chicago always reminds me of the deep dish pizza that Yumke and Frankie and I inhaled after that race. Also Yumke has signed me up for a "recovery" run for the weekend after the Around the Bay. That's what friends are for.

Running with Glee

I wanted to stay in bed this morning. But last night I convinced myself that I need to start getting used to running outside again. A treadmill will only take me so far, but if I'm running a race in March, I'm going to have to face the elements. As I was laying in bed last night, all I could hear was the howling wind and I wanted to cry a little. I also thought about how I should run with people because people keep people honest with friendly competition and I know me, I can just as easily talk myself into not leaving the house. So my plan was to go down to the Beach and join the Sunday Running Room clinic. Only CMan wasn't yet home from work when I woke up and I was clearly not going to make this clinic. Already dressed though, I decided I'd have to do this alone after all around the neighborhood.

The streets were empty. No one was walking their dog, going to brunch, or even driving anywhere. It was -10C, but felt like -21C with the wind. Snow was blowing off roofs and smacking me in the face. Very strong winds made me feel like I was running in the same spot and I kept thinking to myself, WHY, OH WHY?

But the Glee soundtrack has been inspiring all my running lately, and this one was no different. I stepped out of the house to "Walking on Sunshine" and ended with "Don't Stop Believing". Five kilometres is a good start to the year, I say. Once I reach the 10K I think I will start believing.

Two bad decisions to end 2009

Not entirely sure what drove me to do any of the following yesterday, but it's done and 2010 starts with me feeling actually somewhat good about running again. Since my last post about the buddy system, I've convinced myself to run increasingly longer amounts, by five or 10 minutes each session. Slow, but steady. Average pace of about 5 miles per hour with walking breaks. I pushed myself to run a full hour the other day after a particularly harrowing work day. To top it off, I have finally hung the plaque commemorating the Chicago marathon. It only took three years.

So this is exactly what I emailed to Frankie yesterday after my "two bad decisions":

1. am confirmed for the 30K race

2. i tweeted about it

I'm just now trying to see what the fuss is about this Twitter thing. Still not on FaceBook though:

kyngca

last bad decision of '09, decade: just signed up for 30K around the bay race. oh, peer pressure! the other bad decision: signing up for thisabout 21 hours ago from web

Guess I'll be seeing my cousin, Yumke, and Frankie around the bay in just under three months. Brrrrr. Someone please have hot chocolate at the finish line. Or bring a spatula to scrape me off the sidewalk for the moment that reality hits me in my frozen face that 30K is frakin far.

The buddy system

Tis the holiday season and time to get together and celebrate some good cheer with old friends. And so last week I found myself reconnecting with a girl I grew up with. We'd been through the Girl Guides system, softball teams, and swimming lessons together ... lost touch through university but found out years later we belonged to the same gym. And so we'd end up having baked brie and beer on occasion. Last week was one such occasion. Of course, we talked about the gym: how she goes, even after she had knee surgery a few months ago, while I talk about how I've been avoiding it because in truth, I've turned pretty lazy about exercising (I keep blaming my bad shoulders but guess what I have a doctor's appointment next week to finally get it seriously checked out.) My friend and I came to a buddy system agreement where we will meet each other at the gym every Monday so that we can each get a good start to the week (though we started on Thursday this week because of previous engagements). She convinced me to join her because she's in the early stages of learning to run. She's at a 15-minute walk/run level right now. I thought to myself, I should be able to handle that. Just ease back in...

And so I showed up today and we found two treadmills together. Started with walking, then eased into a jog. It was about 3 min run, then 1 min walk pace. By around the 10th minute, I was feeling pretty good about myself: unexpectedly, my breathing was not particularly labored, nor were my running mechanics totally off kilter. I was not in as rough shape as I thought. I decided to push it and run harder for the last five minutes. It was hard to maintain the 6 mph pace, but I did it. I am pretty sure I will actually feel it in my legs tomorrow. But it was fun and I might just do this again tomorrow.

And this is how we build towards the Around the Bay 30K race. Peer pressure might just get me to sign up (like everyone is doing it! Yumke, Fleetfooted, Cousin...!!!) but let's see how I handle a little more distance in the next week or two before I really commit. I'm pretty good at talking a big game sometimes and then "forgetting" about it, when it comes to these races and stuff.

Oh ya, speaking of buddies: Yumke has devilishly decided to revive the 2006 Chicago team of himself, me and Fleetfooted to run another race together and has generously decided to pay for our choice of Toronto spring races next year. Ah, the gift of running.