Tag: Scarecrows Grin

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Chicago Rock & Roll Half Marathon Expo

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This morning I attended the Chicago Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon Expo to pick up my packet for tomorrows race. The expo ran all day yesterday and runs today, Saturday, from 9am to till 5pm. I left the house at 8:15am and was in the parking garage at McCormick Place East by 9:00am for the opening of the expo. It was not too busy when I pulled in but by the time I exited the building at 9:30 the line of cars at the parking entrance was starting to get pretty long.

The race organizers anticipated this Saturday rush thinking the out of towners would be coming to the expo today to pickup their packets, so they suggested that if at all possible that the locals should shoot for a Friday pickup. They even tried to incentivize pickups by offering prize drawing entries to anyone who did come in for a pickup on Friday instead of Saturday. Unfortunately my schedule did not permit a pickup yesterday so I wanted to get there for opening today and that plan worked out pretty well.

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Lots of the usual race branded clothing, sports accessories, bars, gels, sports healthcare providers and a ton of Brooks stuff, the main sponsor of the race. Even a couple of electric vehicles on display for a healthy planet.

I know I am not fully ready for the race tomorrow so I am going to run with the 2:15 pace group and see how it goes. I expect to loose them at mile 11 when I stop to say hi to my brother Joe and his band who will be performing there, or before that if I have trouble. At any rate it should be a beautiful day and I am really looking forward to it.

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Mile Marker

Mileage 4 Miles
Time 8:00AM
Location Elknorn, WI
Weather Hot and Sunny

We were up at the lake for the 4th of July weekend holiday with most of the family members. Jenna could not make it as she was still in Arizona for the volleyball tournament and would not arrive back in Chicago until late Saturday night. Matt and I waited until Saturday night to go up as he had to work until 5 and I wanted to take advantage of the day to clean the garage and get it in order (yes I know boring but necessary).

Since I knew Saturday would be shot as far as activities, I made plans to go for a run with my sister in law on Sunday morning before everyone got up. Little did I know that I would again be bitten by the sleep depravation bug. I usually sleep in a certain room at the lake but by the tie I got there the room was already taken, leaving me with only the room that has two twin beds, not made for, in my opinion, anyone over 5’10” in height. Anytime I sleep on those beds my feet hang over the edge and make it had to get comfortable. Plus I felt like it was about 90 degrees in the room that night. I ended up tossing and turning till about 3 am them finally I finally put a pillow on the floor and got a few hours of sleep.

We had planned on getting up for our run at 7 to beat the heat, but my alarm could not coax me off the floor that early. I decided to rest for 8 and give my self one more hour as it was cooler in the morning than the night before and was actually very comfortable.

When 8 came I got up, woke my sister in law and we were out the door by 8:30 for our 3 plus miles. It was just starting to heat up as we got on the asphalt but despite the heat we both felt very comfortable for the first 3 miles. It was at about the 5K mark that we both noticed we were having extra breath sounds which made the run increasingly difficult. We had wanted to do 5 miles but ended up stopping just short of 4 this morning. Strange that we would both experience the same breathing difficulty, but her son had a major allergy attack the night before so perhaps there was something in the air.

I have less than 1 month before the Chicago Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon where my brothers band Scarecrows Grin will be playing, so I need to pick it up here in the next few weeks.