Yesterday I went to Fleet Feet in Lincoln Square to buy a much overdue pair of running shoes. I went for a little run in the afternoon to take advantage of the 60-degree weather we were having.

Heading north from my apartment, I ran along the beach to Loyola park and then cut over to Sheridan. I kept running northward until I hit Sherwin, and then I headed back towards my apartment staying on Sheridan the rest of the way back.

I didn't feel great--but it was nice to get out there, get moving and enjoy the beautiful weather! Looking forward to starting a structured program tomorrow with you.

< 1.5 miles >

Today marked one of my favorite days of the year in Chicago--the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. After playing in the Loyola Softball Alumni game and catching up with many former teammates from near and far (one of who ran the marathon today) well into the night... it was an early morning (and a beautiful sunrise!) as I rose to drive a teammate to the airport.

And then it was time to get serious about being a spectator. And I mean that seriously. With 45,000 runners and 1.2 million spectators moving around a compact metropolis--you have to have a solid game plan. I signed up to track our former teammate Andrea, printed off course maps, calculated her approximate location, and another former teammate of mine and I were off on our bikes to cheer her on as much as possible. We biked down the path to the South Side and made our way to Chinatown which, while I have never run the course myself, I have heard is one of the coolest parts of the race.

I never received the notification text messages, so we were a little uncertain about how the first half of the race had gone. But, if all was going according to plan, Andrea was scheduled to be coming through shortly after we arrived. Well... we waited for an hour, sifting through the athletes with our eyes, to no avail. We finally figured that she must have been having a great race-day performance and was better off than she guessed she would be. Sadly, we decided to grab some food and then make our way to the finish line to meet up with her. As we sat down to eat our Chinese food, I got a text that Andrea had just ran by. We packed it up and booked it out of there. Flying around the city on our bikes, we were able to catch her in the last stretch.

This is where the twist comes in. The race directors called the race off. It was in the high 80s with high humidity. The Sun-Times reported 250 people went to local hospitals and one man died. If you hadn't hit the halfway point by 11:45am you were diverted to the finish area immediately via cutting across downtown. Anyone who was in a 4:00 finishing group or behind them were told by police to walk the rest of the way. In addition to the heat, that was why everyone's times were so far behind the predictions.

We spotted our friend and ran out on the course to offer our support for a bit. She was in pain, from the heat and her knee, and asked us to walk her in the rest of the way. The last mile seemed to be about half marathoners and half supporters as everyone walked it in to finish the 30th LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon--hottest race day in history and a unique second half.

I've gone down and cheered on friends in the marathon for a few years now. It is unfailingly inspiring. I'm always happy to go down and experience part of the excitement. Maybe one of these years I'll complete it myself. But for today--with the bike down to Chinatown and back to my apartment--I coincidentally biked almost exactly 26.2 miles

< 26 mile bike >

Greetings. Trish is now dominating me not only in activity, but also in posts.

The Cowboys game was insane! We got there at noon for a 7:00 game. The gates opened at 4:00 and we were serving non-stop until the end of the third quarter when our inventory went completely dry. We even ran out of the concentrated syrup for soda and people were still willing to pay for just the carbonated water. Rediculous, but we raised over $4,000 for our Team in Training club. We're raising money to sponsor a team in the USA Rowing World Challenge, which is in Oklahoma City this year at the Chesapeake Boathouse. Ultimately all the funds go toward leukemia research.

Sunday I took a break, but on Monday I rowed a 10k with a four-crew. I love rowing, but the membership fees are really expensive so I don't get to do it as much as I would like. Here is a photo of the proposed rowing course for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago.

This morning I actually built up enough motivation to run and got in a quick three miles. I'm going to try it again tomorrow because things are getting really busy at work and I haven't been getting home until 10:00 PM lately.