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 :)