St. Patrick’s Weekend in Chicago AND Meeting a Running Goal!

March 17, 2014March 17, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Growing up in an Italian and Jewish household in upstate NY, I admittedly didn’t really know much about St. Patrick’s Day. I never wore green (and remember being confused about why everyone it seemed in my elementary school was), and didn’t try corned beef and cabbage until I was way into my 20. That being said, living in Boston and then Cleveland, both two very Irish cities that wholeheartedly embrace the holiday- and marrying into an Irish family- I’ve learned to embrace the holiday and enjoy everything about the celebration. Including the color green.

Anyway, this year, B and I had decided to check out the St. Patrick’s weekend celebrations in a city I heard knew how to party – as well as get in a half marathon – the Get Lucky Chicago Half Marathon (full recap coming soon).

It was an AWESOME weekend. For a few reasons:

1. I love Chicago and it was so fun to see the city’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations – including the river turning green!

2. We were lucky enough to spend the weekend and celebrate with a few of B’s siblings – his sister Mary drove in from Cleveland, and his sister Katie (her boyfriend lives in Chicago) and his brother John (who goes to school in Chicago) – and B’s cousin Tom who was in town visiting a friend.

3. I MET MY HALF MARATHON GOAL!!!

Yes, that’s right – I finally got a sub-two hour half marathon, coming in at 1:57:32. It’s been my goal to get this done for a while, and I really didn’t think that I’d make it this race. I hadn’t done enough outdoor runs thanks to the wonderful winter we’d been having – and the ones that I had done had been far from as speedy as I’d been running this summer. Like 30 seconds – 1 minute/slower per mile slow – oof!

Anyway, I’ll post more about the race later, but here are some highlights from a gorgeous green weekend. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

We started Saturday off at the Get Lucky Half Marathon and 7k. There were 3 of us doing the half – B, his brother John and I – and 3 doing the 7k – his sister Katie, her boyfriend David and David’s dad.

B and me in a pre-race photo

After the race, we enjoyed our free beer and some sunny (but chilly) weather.

And then made it back downtown, cleaned up, and checked out the river. It was SO GREEN!

B and the water

GREEN water!

And of course we made time for some deep dish pizza! Giordanos FTW. We met up with B’s cousin, Tom and his friend and feasted. I gave up meat for Lent so while B and the rest of the guys were eating the pepperoni and sausage pizza, I got the veggie feast. It was amazing.

the guys’ meaty pizza

Decked out in green and awaiting our pizza. Doesn’t the race sweatshirt that B’s wearing look awesome?

Not photographed, but also fun: some shopping downtown, eating a delicious meal at a place called Naf Naf (it’s like Chipotle for Middle Eastern food … aka amazing!), and of course some St. Patrick’s drinks.

Some questions for you:

Have you ever been to Chicago for St. Patrick’s Day?
Have you taken a weekend trip for a race before? I have been wanting to do this for a while. Go to a new city, run a Saturday half marathon, and then spend the rest of the Saturday and Sunday just siteseeing.
When is your next race?
What are your St. Patrick’s Day plans?

Looking Back at 2013: A Year in Running

December 18, 2013January 2, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

How was your year in running? A few blogs I read have started posting their 2013 running recaps to look back at how their year went, with regard to running. In fact, Miss Zippy is doing a Year In Running Linkup, and after reading her post, as well as a few others, I decided to participate as well.

My Year In Running

2013 was certainly an interesting year for running for me. 2012 was the year I trained for a marathon, and two days before had to drop out of the race from injuries. I’m still not really over that pain yet and am not ready to spend all that time training again, only to be let down again. But in 2013 I regained my sense of running, got my running groove back (somewhat), and found that I really kind of like running half marathons.

Anyway, here are a few other highlights from 2013:

Best race experience? As far as overall race experiences, I really enjoyed the Rock and Roll Cleveland Half Marathon. I loved the bands on the course, the excitement of all the spectators throughout the city, the people I ran with (B and his sister), AND my parents were even there to cheer me on! Really I loved the run in general – everything but the hills!

Best run? Definitely the Women Who Run race. I somehow ran the 4 mi race much faster than I typically run AND since I came in 3rd in my age group for this women-only race, I got a picture with firefighters at the end of the run (see the bottom right photo in the collage above). Can you beat that?

Best new piece of gear? My best gear for 2013 hasn’t been super high tech. I’d say it’s either my running headband (I love the headbands from owl be sweating!) my hot pink PROCompression socks, or my armband. Not high tech, I know, but having an armband for my phone so I can listen to music or record my runs on Nike+ while I run has been incredible!

Best piece of running advice you received? “Push yourself.” Simple advice? Yes. But it works. B is always telling me that I need to push myself when I run – he somehow thinks that I am actually faster than I think I am – and sometimes it helps to hear him saying this as I’m doing speedwork or doing a race.

If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be? Learning that running for me is whatever I want it to be. If it’s about number of miles, so be it. If it’s for speed, that’s fine. If it’s just for fun and stress relief – that’s fine too. It really is whatever I want it to be!

Here are some of this year’s races (and posts about them):

Turkey Trot 5k in West Virginia (November)
St. Luke Pilgrim Run 5k (November) – came in first overall female somehow … I swear it was a small race
St Martin Cristo Rey 5k (November) – came in first in my age group – another small race 🙂
MidTown Cleveland HealthLine Classic 10K (October) – ran my first official 10K!
Rock N Roll Cleveland Half Marathon (October) – didn’t make our goal of a sub-2 hour half … oh well, there’s always next year 🙂
Women Who Run (June) – came in 3rd in my age group and had my fastest split times (for me)
Notre Dame Holy Half (March)
Inaugural Bockfest 5K (March)

AND my goal for the year, you may recall, was to run 1,000 miles. I passed that in August but kept going. A few weeks ago (nothing like a last minute goal, right?) I decided I’d try to get to 1,500. I’m hoping that if all goes well and I can fit in a few runs over the holiday break (hard without my gym!), I can meet that goal.
2013 year in running

A few questions for you:

How was your year in running? (You can read all my running-related posts here) Set any goals?
What was your favorite piece of running gear?
Any advice that you’ve learned this year?
How do you stay running during the holidays with travel, friends, families, etc.?

March Update: Well On My Way to 1,000 Miles

March 12, 2013March 11, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

It’s the second week in the month and I’m well on my way to meet my goal of 1,000 miles this year! This weekend we were lucky enough to enjoy some deliciously warm weather – 60 degrees – so even after a 11 mile run on Friday night, I decided to get out for a run on Sunday to enjoy some new sneakers plus a run in shorts.

There have been a few challenges – the weather hasn’t been the best and many of my runs in the morning have been on the treadmill at the gym, as opposed to outside as I would prefer. But it’s March and the weather will hopefully turn soon, meaning I’m on my way to warmer and less icy days!

Yes. (image from Pinterest)

Here are how the past few weeks have gone:

First week in February

week of feb 4

Wow… How did I get in a run every day that week?

Second week in February

week of feb 11

Third week in February

week of feb 18

Was due for a 10 miler on Saturday, but B’s knees and shins were hurting him , so I opted to go out for a run by myself on Friday after work. I felt decent for the first double digit run I’d had in a while and I was definitely glad to have gotten the run over with so I could relax and enjoy the weekend with B!

Last week in February

week of feb 25

I was out of town Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so I was thinking that getting a workout in wouldn’t be to easy — until I realized that I could set my alarm for 6:10 (instead of 5:35 a.m.) on Wednesday to work out before my meeting! It’s the little things.

We were due for a 10k on Saturday, but we were in Cincinnati and I honestly didn’t expect us to run at all – but we ended up doing the Bockfest 5k! Didn’t run for time, but felt good to get out for a run, even in the middle of a beer festival.

First week in March

week of mar 4

This past week was great, running-wise. We had an 11 miler scheduled for the weekend, but B and I decided to get it in on Friday after work. I felt much better than I did on my 10 miler (maybe because I actually drank a ton of water that day?) and it was great to just relax and use the elliptical on Saturday. Sunday’s weather was so nice, I couldn’t not go out and enjoy it? PLUS I had just gotten new sneakers! That’s right, I’m retiring the pink Sauconys (they were great though, just worn down) for some pink Nikes.