My Race

I still love running a lot, but after having Alyse I've noticed that it's harder for me to want to spend the time/ have the time to up my mileage like I used to. Pre-A I sometimes used to push myself without having a race to train for. Now it seems I need a goal like a race-- a pre-determined number of miles to train for and a set date to work towards. I still don't consider myself a race person-- I just love running-- but in Chicago I've now done two races in less than a year and I am starting to understand how someone catches the race bug! I signed up for a Chicago style race-- the Solider Field 10-miler. It was Chicago style because it ended on the 50 yard line of the Bears stadium, there were 13,000 people who ran it, and even though it was in May it was a brisk, windy morning running down Lake Shore Drive. In training for it, I realized/decided that at this point in my life (young child, very busy husband, student financial situation (i.e. no gym with childcare!)), a ten miler is the perfect race for me. For the month I trained, I could do my long run, shower, and be ready to move on with the day in two hours, and still have lots of energy for the day's activities. I was also able to really push myself to run a faster pace than I have in the past because I wasn't worried about making the miles, so I had several personal best times while training and then for the actual race. Anyway, I could go on and on analyzing this most recent race experience, but instead I'll just post some pictures :)