Splish Splash I Need A Bath!

I'm resting up as I write this after running a decent 13 mile run on Saturday. This comes after a 3 miler Friday afternoon, with a decent four hour "nap" in between. This is sort of a carbon copy of last weekend, except I had an official 13 mile half marathon to run on Sunday- the Splish Splash half-marathon at Keylime Cove in Gurnee. That race wasn't my best performance, finishing in an unofficial 2:06- that's about 13 minutes beyond my personal best in the half at 01:53. It got dang hot! But it was more of a practice run for the Ragnar Relay coming up here in a couple of weeks.

I hadn't run a race that big since the Chicago Marathon back in October. Plus, how could I miss running a half marathon in Gurnee of all places! I can now admit to being partly responsible to holding up traffic on busy Grand near Gurnee Mills. And I got to run through Great America and UNDER the American Eagle. How cool is that? It was the inaugural running of this race and I think a first for Gurnee. It was a really nice experience despite the rather slim spectator turnout. I hope it becomes an annual thing and more people turn out. The post-race buffet at Keylime Cove was really awesome. There was a HUGE spread of all kinds of goodness, and a band to boot. Applause to Splish Splash for a job well done.

The Ragnar Relay is in a couple of weeks, so my training has been focused on that. I have a string of double digit long runs planned, including 13.1 last weekend, 13 this weekend, and and another 10 next Saturday. Even though I only have a total of 19 miles to do over three legs, it still feels good to finally be hitting big mileage.

More photos from the race can be found here.

I can't wait for this thing to begin!

Splish Splash Half Marathon packet pickup, Keylime Cove, Gurnee

Splish Splash Half Marathon packet pickup, Keylime Cove, Gurnee
Originally uploaded by automatic_man2

-- Sent from my Palm Pre on Verizon Wireless

Madison to Chicago Here I Come!

Well, in less than 30 days I'll once again be running the Madison to Chicago relay on June 10th and 11th. Its been something I've been looking forward to all winter. Almost 30 hours of non-stop running with a team of 12 and two support vans between us, hopscotching between two states to make it to the finish line in Chicago. We start at 10 a.m. on Friday and finish some time in the afternoon on Saturday.

Last year, I ran three legs for a total of 12 miles or so, and got maybe 20 minutes of pure sleep over two days curled up in the front seat of an SUV somewhere on a lakefront near Kenosha. Some of the team in the van I was riding in tried to sleep on the beach before a fearce north wind came through to stir us all awake. I met 11 of the coolest runners you'll ever run into, and it was a joy teaming up with them last year. We lost a couple of that same crew for this years run, and they will be sorely missed, but we still managed to fill the 12 person team just as well this time.

We are ready to roll.

My training over the winter was pretty scattered and light. I absolutely hate running on the treadmill because it seems I can't stay uninjured running through the winter months on it. One year it was the left knee, the next the right knee, a hip flexor, and an IT band the year after that. This time around I did no more that two or three miles at a time on it, and came out mostly unscathed. I am still fighting that IT band on my right leg, but targeted stretching has helped it a lot. I am mostly healthy, thank God.

So here I go again. I'll be blogging throughout the relay here, on Twitter, and Facebook along with the usual random post.

Thanks, friends, for sticking around. I'm still alive and healthy.

Oh, and Katie says hi :)