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Showing posts from September, 2013

Crossing Courses on a Saturday Morning - Friends of the Poor 5K

After the Friends of the Poor 5K turnaround/running beside the MMRF 5K walkers As I mentioned in my Newcity review of the Friends of the Poor 5K Run/Walk , there are a ton of races in Chicago (and a truly incredible amount of them if you count all the races in the entire Chicagoland area). Yesterday morning I ran only one of them, but because of the way this race and another (the MMRF Race for Research 5K Walk/Run ) had mapped out their courses I basically ran both. That breakdown is in my Newcity review , but I thought I'd give a bit more information here. I overheard some of the race organizers talking about the situation and thought it was pretty interesting. They said that everyone basically goes into the Chicago permit office around the same time at the start of the year and applies for their Special Event Permit . When they get their permit they're not informed about whether or not anyone else applied for (and received) a permit for a similar event nearby.

My First Tri: North Shore Triathlon

The bike transition for the North Shore Triathlon So, as I said in my Newcity review of the North Shore Triathlon , the triathlon is its own special animal - one part swimming, one part biking and one part running. And being good at any of those does not mean you'll even be competent at the triathlon as a whole. I definitely found that out yesterday morning when I competed in my first triathlon. Well, maybe "competed" is a strong word. Let's just say I participated in it. Obviously, being so involved in the running world I have heard a good deal about triathlons. A number of my friends do them and tell me how fun they are. But there's just never been a pull in that direction for me. I like to run and I don't really want to have to swim and bike before I can do it. Still, the triathlon concept is something that has been on the periphery for a while now and when a friend suggested I sign up a few weeks ago, I figured "Why not?" It's a fir

5K Run Against Traffick recap

Last year my friend John ran (and recommended to me) the 5K Run Against Traffick . So Saturday morning I snagged a ride with him to Diversey Harbor and we ran this third annual race along with around 700 other participants (a record for them) - with about half registering through Groupon. Basecamp was just northeast of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, where many other races have set up shop and things were well-organized, with a personality from Moody Radio providing the pre-race (and finish line) announcements. It was an open course without any water stations ("There are lots of water fountains along the Lakefront Trail," Laura Ng reminded runners before the race) but with plenty of volunteers along the course directing traffic. This extra support along the course was extremely welcome, due to the amount of runners (both participating and just out for a morning run), especially at the turnaround and near the finish line (this is one of those courses where you think yo

On Being Cleared to Run Again and Overcommitting as a Result

After over two months of physical therapy (with the very friendly members of NovaCare !) I was finally cleared to run last week by my physical therapist. Not that I wasn't running leading up to that (as my race reviews will attest) but the therapist was only begrudgingly giving me clearance to run (mainly because they knew I would probably do it anyway) whereas now I've been given the all clear. Am I an ideal patient? No. But did I follow all of my prescribed exercises and whatnot? Yes. This morning I ran a solid three miles without any pain which was really exciting, though I have now been incorporating about ten minutes of pre-run warm-ups and fifteen minutes of post-run stretches to every run. It adds a lot more time to my running (oh, for the days when I could just go out and foolishly run with no pre- or post-race stretching) but it's worth it to prevent more IT band issues. So, to celebrate my newly cleared status (and to make up for the past month when I haven&