Chicago Marathon...

On Friday, our group left for Chicago so we could all run the marathon on Sunday. There was a large group of friends and co-workers from Wellmark (where I used to work) that I've stayed in touch with. The drive there wasn't so great as it rained the entire time and driving around downtown Chicago can be a little stressful but Mollie did a great job! Once we checked in to our hotel we took a cab to the Expo. This is the place where you go and pick up your bib number and your chip (to wear on your shoe and it times your race as opposed to going with just the gun time...this is your true race time). At these Expos, there are tons of running/fitness/wellness related vendors that hand out free samples, etc and have all the latest gadgets to test out. After hitting the Expo we went to Timothy O'Toole's for some dinner as we were all starving. Then on Saturday we got up and did lots of shopping! Yay! The walking around helps to keep our legs loose. We hit up Nike Town first and it was really cool that on the outside of the store they had 2 big areas with all 45,000 runner's names posted on there. We all found our names and tried taking pictures of it. Well since my last name starts with a C I was really close to the top so we tried our best to get pics of it...(I'll post later). Later that afternoon we met at a great Italian restaurant to 'carb up'...the food was awesome---really authentic. We were all waiting for some mafia fellas to walk in! ha ha! After our late lunch we headed back to the hotel to relax and give our legs some time to repair for the big day. We watched most of the Iowa game--go Hawks! and then went to bed. Sunday was an early morning (4:30 a.m.) and we got all ready (and nervous) and headed out to the frozen tundra (it was in like the 30's) to wait for the race to start around 6 a.m. The guns went off at 7:30 and the race began.......Mollie and I ran together for the 1st 16 miles and then she needed a potty break so I kept forging ahead. The route was great and there were lots of spectators and then I realized that I was on pace to have my best race ever! I may have started out a little too fast and so I slowed down a bit to ensure that I wouldn't have to walk or drag myself across the finish line...I felt really good for the most part but my legs started killing me around mile 22...my feet burned with every step I took, my right calf felt like it was going to explode and both hips ached with every step but I refused to stop. I figured the faster I ran (which wasn't fast at this point), the sooner I'd finish...thank goodness for everyone cheering on the sidelines as when you're running with only your thoughts, it's easy to give up. So I just plugged away and finished in 3:44.36---my best time ever! This was my 4th marathon and I can safely say, my last!!!! Today I feel like I was hit by a bus and I'm sooooo sore....why do I do these things to myself? Ha!

While I was in Chicago, it was boys weekend at our house. Andy and Brady spent some quality time together. On Saturday they had a birthday party to go to and on Sunday they met Nels and Cindy, Brad, Jaxson and Nel's sister for lunch. I know that Andy was very happy to get to see them. Since they've moved to North Carolina we don't get to see them as much. I'm sad that I wasn't able to go but I know they enjoyed their time.

All in all it was a great weekend! We had a fun time in Chicago and it was a nice little get-a-way, but I did miss my boys A LOT! :-)

Our group (Mollie, Marie, Mat, Kelli, Joe, Karmel, Mindee, Tammy, Julie, Cindy, Julie N and me)

This was the wall with the names of all the participants for the run (can you find my name?? ha ha! I couldn't get high enough to my name so I thought I would just show the bigger picture