Wordless Wednesday

Elise won 1,000 tickets on a game at Skate Night.

She used all these tickets on things for her friends, a candy necklace, and pixie sticks.

New pickleball racket!

We came across the free range goats and their guardian dog during a trail run at Turkey Mountain!

Zach Bryan at the Route 66 Marathon.

Tesla ate 4 chicken wing bones out of the trash so we gave her some bread which was supposed to help the bones pass through.

Ice cream to celebrate Jeremy's new job!

Route 66 Marathon Relay- Team Bonnie

Thomas planned to run the Route 66 Half Marathon and I was tempted to join him because I absolutely love the race, but I didn't think I would have enough recovery time after the Chicago Marathon. I did a half marathon about a month after Boston and it was a bit rough, so I wanted to give myself more time to recover. I've actually recovered really well from Chicago. I think it's a combination of a flatter course and running a more conservative race, but I do think it was the right call to not run the half. About a week out from the race I saw Ainsley's Angels were looking for some runners to fill in gaps with some marathon relay teams and I offered to help out with up to 2 legs of a relay. I found out pretty quickly that I would be filling in for 2 relay legs and was super excited. I wasn't sure what to expect with one of the Ainsley's Angels chairs because Sean has a special chair that is easier to steer. To make sure my arms were ready to push I skipped my strength training on Friday because I didn't want my arms to be sore for the race.

Thomas came on Saturday and we went to the expo all together. Elise was thrilled they were giving away Goodles samples which were a different brand of easy mac. We got quite a few containers. Dad ended up getting an entire box of them the following day at the race. Since Ty was dropping us off at the race start and we didn't need time to park and walk to the start, we left the house at 7:30 for the 8:00 start. It worked out great. I walked with Thomas to his corral and then headed further up to spectate. I ate an almond butter biscuit and drank coffee on the way there. I was estimating I wouldn't be running until around 10:00 so I packed a Gu to eat during my run because I figured I would get hungry. We saw Thomas take off and then we drove to Utica Square in time to see him go through at around 2 miles. From there we headed to Peoria so we could cheer for him at Runner's World which was around the 7 mile mark. We popped into Reasor's to use the restroom and were over at Runner's World ready to cheer in the first runners. When I saw what a huge gap the top man in the half-marathon had, I figured he was running a course record time and sure enough he did! We saw my friend, CJ, go through in first place in the marathon. There were so many people I knew out running and it was a blast to cheer for them. 

Selfie with the Blue Whale at the race start.

Thomas taking off in the half marathon.

Around mile 2 of the race.

Ready to cheer around mile 7 of the race.

Once Thomas came through, we hustled over to the corner of Southwest Boulevard and Riverside for around mile 11 of the race. I was tracking Thomas so I was able to watch him moving on the course map which was a lot of fun! We got to see the runners come up Riverside and turn onto Southwest Boulevard. They did an out and back on Southwest Boulevard so we saw them again before the headed toward the finish. There was a guy there playing the saxophone and he was incredible. It was so much fun spectating there. After Thomas went through mom, dad, and Ty headed to the finish line to see him and pick him up. I gave them my sweatshirt and switched to using a warming blanket we had in the car from the Chicago Marathon. I left my sweatpants on and just left them to donate. The temperature was in the 40's but was overcast so it felt a bit chillier. I wore my Runner's World singlet, shorts, headband, and gloves. I wanted to run with my phone so I had a way to communicate with Ty, if needed. Thomas finished in 1:37:20, 129th out of 3,281 overall and 16th out of 170 in his age group!

Mile 7 on Peoria

Mile 11 on Riverside

After the out and back on Southwest Boulevard.

Our team's bib wasn't working on the tracker and I think it may have been because the wheelchairs got a 2 minute head start so the start line wasn't activated yet when they crossed the start line. That made it hard to know when my team would arrive at the relay hand off. I got excited every time I saw a wheelchair coming and even took my sweat pants off for one of the teams which ended up being the team that came through right before mine. I was running with another runner named Jillian and we found each other a little bit before our team came through. We planned to run pretty comfortably and took off uphill and took that turn around which was pretty tricky with the chair. The easiest way to turn with the chair is to use your forearms to stabilize the hands and lift the front when off the ground to adjust. We figured it out and got going. The legs before us had run a bit slower pace than we did so we were passing people the whole time. The section on the Riverside trails was the trickiest portion of the race for us because we were having to pass a lot and there are a lot of slight turns on the trail you don't notice when you are just running. Bonnie's chair had a slight left lean tendency, so we were having to correct pretty often to stay on the trail and out of the grass. That wasn't an issue on the roads where we had more room. I was not a fan of the marathon going down the Riverside paved trail system. It was a bit congested and difficult to maneuver, but at least it was pretty flat! We ran our miles on the trail in 9:56, 9:26, 9:15, 9:15, 9:08, and 9:05. We stopped for a restroom break at 41st and Riverside so we could use actual bathrooms, not porta potties. I texted Ty and told him where we were so he'd have an idea how much longer we'd be running.

Our next 5 miles were all decently hilly. I knew that from running the marathon before, but the hills sure hit differently when you are pushing! The hills slowed us down, but we were still trucking along. Our hilly miles were 9:31, 10:26, 10:15, 10:14. Our two relay legs ended up being a combined total of 10.4 miles and we averaged 9:40 pace for them. I preferred the roads to the trail so much that I would take the hills over the flats just to not have to turn and maneuver the chair as much. Mom, dad, and Ty picked up a friend who ran the half marathon and drove her to relay exchange 5 because she was running the last leg of an Ainsley's Angels team's relay. They got there early enough that they drove out to see us at a couple spots which was a lot of fun. I had an absolute blast! Bonnie asked us to take a shot of Fireball when we finished our leg of the relay so we did. Then we headed back to the finish area so we could run in to the finish with our team. We went to get our free beers and ducked into a restaurant with Ty while he ate so we could warm up. We misjudged and made it back out to the finish area after our team had already finished so we waited for the the last Ainsley's Angels team and ran in with Andrew. He was thrilled and kept asking for hugs. Each time I hugged him, he gave me a kiss on the cheek. It really made his day to have so many people run in with him, so I was glad we decided to stay for that. It was an incredible day and so much fun!

Ready for our shot of Fireball.

Prepping for the next leg of the relay to finish the race.

Ready to run to the finish with Andrew.

Wordless Wednesday

 

T1D Walk

Pub Run Guinness Challenge

Thomas and I have both always wanted to run the Pub Run Guinness Challenge, but it has never worked into our fall race schedule. This fall with Chicago so early in the season, I was pondering running the race. After how well the Backyard Bonanza went and how recovered I felt in that race, I decided it was worth giving it a go. Thomas had told me if I ever decided to run the race, to let him know because he would like to run it with me. I figured I'd check with him and if he wanted to run, I'd sign up. If he didn't want to run it, I wouldn't sign up. He was in so we went for it. The race is 4 miles of running. I thought it was 4 pints of Guinness during the race, but found out when looking at course details the day before the race its actually only 3 pints. It was a bit difficult to read the course map so I wasn't sure where the beer stations would be. They ended up being at around 1.5 miles, 3 miles, and right at the finish line at 4 miles. You finished your beer and ran maybe 25-50 meters to the finish. The pints were Guinness, hence the name, Guinness Challenge.

I wasn't really sure what to expect. Based on my Strava data for the last beer mile I ran, I averaged 6:10 pace for running, but finished in 8:30 which would mean around 30 seconds per chug. That was with cans. This race is with cups which are a bit faster to chug. For the beer miles I ran with cups, I only added about 50 seconds over what Strava showed was my moving time. That would be about 12 seconds per chug. Those cups were 12 ounces and this race was 16 ounces. So I decided to assume each chug would be around 30 seconds, rounding up. I ran some tempos during my Chicago build in around 7:20 pace so I thought I could probably run around 7:30 pace for the race and then add the chugs on for an average of under 8:00 pace. That was my goal, to average sub-8:00 pace for this race with the chugs included. This is a really competitive race so that would put me top 3 in my age group.

You have to get to the race early to get your beer wristband, that way the volunteers on the course know you are of age and can take a cup at the Guinness stations. We talked all about what we were going to do with our IDs and who we would pass them off to and then when we arrived, I realized I forgot my ID at home. Ty was dropping us off and planned to come pick us up later so he turned around to go get my ID. I knew he didn't have time to get my ID and get back before the race started. I had a picture of my ID on my phone and figured I would see if they would accept that. One of my friends who was there to spectate told me to just use hers so I did and was able to get my wristband. I would have felt more guilty about it if it weren't for that fact that I'm 39 years old!

Pre-race with April!

I found April before the race and we went to the start line together. She was running the non-drinking race. We took off and I realized I started too far back from the start line. There were a lot of people ahead of me who started pretty slowly and I almost ran into them as we crossed the start line. I went to the side and was passing a lot of people once we got going. When we turned out of the main downtown area and had fewer tall buildings, I was shocked by how windy it was! It was pretty crazy. My watch beeped for the first mile in 7:12. I was really surprised by that, I definitely didn't expect to be running that fast. April passed me right after the mile mark. That was the toughest portion of the race because we were running directly into the wind. I stopped at the first beer stop and took a second to catch my breath as I chugged my first beer. When I took off running after my chug, I realized I forgot to pull my beer tag off and turn it in so I pulled it and stuck it in the pocket of my shorts. April had gapped me a bit as I was drinking, but I caught back up to her and we ran together. Mile 2 was surprisingly faster than my first mile, even with a chug in there, with a time of 7:10.

Taking off at the start.

We had quite a few long straight aways so I could see who was ahead of me. The top female in the Guinness Challenge and the top female in the non-drinking race were running together. Then the woman in 2nd in the Guinness Challenge had a decent lead on me, but I was gaining on the 3rd female in the Guinness Challenge. April was running in 2nd place for the non-drinking race and I was in 4th for the challenge. I arrived at the 2nd beer stop while the 3rd place female was still there. I grabbed my beer and started drinking. There was a guy there with a bull horn and he yelled, "These ladies are duking it out, but one of them is better at drinking beer!" Then I tossed my cup in the trash and took off as she was still drinking her beer. I was pretty proud of that. Thomas said the guy with a bull horn was taunting guys around him because he passed 10 people who got to the beer station before him. Mile 3 was 7:31. I caught back up to April and we were running together. She really helped push me the last mile. She kept telling me, "Lock it in! The lady behind you is fast!" I kept dropping the pace as much as I could. As we neared the 4 mile mark and the last beer stop, April was yelling at me again to "Lock it in!" I figured it meant she could see the lady behind me was closing but I didn't get too worried because I knew as long as I went into the last beer stop before her, I would be fine because I could chug faster than her. April kept going as I stopped and I took more time at the last beer station because I had a harder time catching my breath. I walked sipping it and then saw I was almost to the end of the table so I chugged it down and took off sprinting to the finish. My last mile was my fastest at 7:05. I finished in 29:19, an average of 7:16 pace! I was so surprised, I definitely didn't expect to run that fast, especially while stopping to chug beer! My stomach felt a little sick after the race but once I drank some water, it felt fine.

Last beer stop of the race.

Running to the finish.

I was 3rd female, 2nd in my age group, and 47th overall. Thomas finished in 28:07 which put him 32nd overall and 7th in his age group. We stayed to pick up my overall award which was a $50 gift card to McNellie's! I didn't pick up my age group award or my award for being a top 25 female finisher because Thomas and Michaela needed to get back to Pittsburg to take care of my parents' dogs. They were in Texas for a wedding. The race was an absolute blast and I'm still thrilled with how well it went. Thomas and I both want to do it again next year and make sure we have time to hang out for longer after the race. I had so many friends there and it was so much fun to see them. I even made plans for a long trail run the next morning before leaving. I've gotten so used to going into races and them going worse than I expected, that it was a wonderful surprise to exceed my expectations for the race by so much! I was just hoping to place in my age group and finished 3rd overall female! My average mile pace was also so much faster than I expected. I'm so excited to run shorter races in the spring and see how they go! Next up is a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. I feel much more confident that I can pull something speedy off after this race. I would love to run low-7:00 pace and be close to my time from last year so we shall see!

Thomas finishing the race.

Post-race with April and Alicia.

Backyard Bonanza Trail 12.5k

The Backyard Bonanza was always run at Turkey Mountain and I ran it in 2021 and 2023. Last year they moved it to the trails right by my house and I was really excited for it, but we had really bad storms and ended up with too many trees down and damage to the trail so the race was canceled. This year I knew I wasn't fully recovered from the Chicago Marathon, but was super excited to run this race. I went with the 12.5k distance because I didn't want to have to run 5k fast and I wasn't ready for the 25k distance yet. I found out 2 of the other women on our Runners World race team were also running the 12.5k so it would be the most competitive distance of the 3. I ended up feeling really sick the day before the race and went to bed at 7pm, waking to get the kids taken care of, and going back to sleep at 11. The nice thing about this race is it falls on the day the time changes for Daylight Savings. So even though I got up at 7am for the race, it was really like sleeping in until 8. The race started at 8 which meant it was really like 9am. I would normally have given myself more time before the race, but I didn't plan on running a warm up so I didn't need as much time. I woke up still feeling nauseous and drank a little bit of vanilla latte to at least get some calories in my system pre-race. I figured for just 7 miles, I'd be okay running fasted. I left my house at 7:40 for the 8:00 race, picked up my packet, and had some time to kill before the race.

It was a beautiful day for a run, with a starting temperature of 37 degrees. I wore shorts, a long sleeved shirt under my racing singlet, gloves, and a headband. I also carried a small water bottle in the pocket of my shorts because I figured with feeling sick, it was best to stay hydrated. The day after the race Elise stayed home sick and went to the doctor. She had a double ear infection and they were both really bad. He said it probably originated from a virus which caused the ear infections, so I'm guessing she and I both had a virus on Saturday. I dillied a bit back from the race start because I wasn't planning to go out fast. I expected to struggle a bit since I was feeling sick and had already been planning to run more of a tempo effort than race effort. When we got into the trails I had to pass a few people who had gone out fast to get in position, but it wasn't too bad. When I started running I felt a lot better than I had before the race and my nausea dissipated throughout the race. I was feeling really strong and went with a pace that felt like the right effort. My first mile was 8:36. I was surprised to be in the 8:30's and went with it. We headed downhill into Mooser and I knew that mile would be faster. It was with a split of 8:30. We went Woodview first out to Bales. There were some people behind me I would see on some switchbacks and I cheered for April when we crossed that way, but I couldn't see anyone ahead of me. I was staying nice and steady in the 8:30's with my 3rd mile split of 8:31.

We crossed the street to Bales and went to the right. We ran uphill first so I knew that mile would be a little slower. It was at 8:53. Over on Bales I caught and passed a guy ahead of me. I little while after I passed him, I heard him fall. I yelled back to check on him, but he was wearing headphones and couldn't hear me. I looked back and saw him getting up so I knew he was okay. My goal was to keep the rest of the miles in the 8:30's. I knew we would finish uphill going up Mooser toward the end of the race and I knew with a strong finish, I could maintain 8:30ish pace. Mile 5 was 8:38 and mile 6 was 8:24. Then we started the last mile with a decent amount of uphill. As I came off Bale Out onto Chinkapin, I could see a guy with a dog running ahead of me. He didn't look like he was running fast enough to have been ahead of me the whole race and I didn't remember anyone at the start line with a dog. After wondering about it for a bit, I realized I was coming up on 5k runners who started 30 minutes after us so they were finishing their race. I passed him a few other 5k runners in Mooser before coming back out to finish on Lubell. 

Running on Lubell back behind the school I passed a couple of teenage boy 5k runners. I could see a woman in the 5k ahead of me. When I started up the hill coming out of the woods to the field where we would finish I saw the woman working her way up the hill and right in front of her was the woman I knew was winning the 12.5k. I was shocked to see her because I hadn't seen her the whole race and I expected her to be way ahead of me. I was feeling great and kicking it in really nicely. As I pulled up behind her I said her name and told her it was time to go. The moment she heard my voice she kicked it into a new gear. When I pulled up beside her she took off again and I didn't let her go. I told myself if she wanted to win, I was going to make her work for it. She's 20 and just came off a college cross country season where she was running 19 minute 5ks so I knew her high end speed was faster than mine and I wouldn't be able to outkick her, but I was going to give her a run for her money! After she initially put on a burst of energy, she tapered off and I started to catch her again. When we could see the finish line, I felt really strong and thought for a second I was going to have her, but she held me off. My chip time was 2 seconds faster than hers, but our gun times were the same with her just barely edging me out. Ty really enjoyed watching us duke it out at the end of the race. I ran through the finish line and Carter was there passing out the finisher's bottle openers which was fun for me. She went over to the side and collapsed on the ground. I was proud I had made her work that hard! I went through mile 7 in 8:33 and I was really proud of that because that mile was mostly uphill. My Garmin shows I averaged 5:59 pace for my finishing kick of the race. I definitely wouldn't have thought I had that in 3 weeks after a marathon, especially considering it was on grass and I was coming off a marathon training cycle with not much emphasis on speed work.

I finished in 1:00:56 chip time and 1:00:58 gun time. I was 4th overall and 2nd female. I stayed around to hang out for a while and helped Carter finish out his volunteer slot. They had pancakes which I was able to eat. I was so happy with my race and super pleased to be feeling so much better than I had that morning. I noticed some cute animals on one side of the bottle opener and found out Kathy from Runner's World had drawn it and it was the animals that each trail course looks like. I adore it! After feeling as strong in this race as I did, I decided to go ahead and run the Pub Run the following weekend. It's a 4 mile Guiness Challenge where you drink a pint of Guiness each mile. I've always wanted to do it, but it's never worked into my training schedule. I wasn't sure about doing it this year because I wasn't sure if I'd be recovered enough from the marathon. With how well this race went, I think I'll be fine!

One side has the course map.

The other side has the animal drawings.