Race to Wrigley 5K

I'm sooooo not going to be able to do Race to Wrigley justice. But there's no way I'll be able to blog about it on my roadie, so I'll do a quick recap before heading to dreamland.

I stayed with my bestest friends ever Monica and Tim down in Hoffman Estates, IL so I didn't have to get up at 4am to drive from Milwaukee to Chicago this morning ;) They treated me like a QUEEN for the short 18ish hrs I was in town. We had mostacciolo, spinach feta almond salad, and garlic bread for dinner MMM! And then I tried going to bed early but we got distracted by Facebook Cat Nipple Hilarity WHOOPS! Got to bed between 11 and midnight and awoke to the sound of a 5:30am alarm yippie!!

After picking up some Starbucks, and poppin' in some Luda, Monica drove us to Wrigleyville and we found FREE parking right by the race yippie again!!! We hung out in the car for awhile because it was pretty chilly but NOT raining HOORAY! We took some photos [insert here] and Monica gave me a hug, wished me luck, and sent me on my way.

As a diehard Cubbies fan, I was SUPER excited about running in Wrigleyville! I was totally amped for the start! Now with 8,300+ people (a record!!) at this race, I'm gonna tell you it was pretty congested and congested the entire time. But I won't try and use that as an excuse for my shitty results. Oh wait I think I just did. No but seriously, it really does take a lot of EXTRA work when you're dodging and sprinting around people and cones. I think that's what wore me out so quickly. I just could NOT go faster no matter how hard I tried and my lungs burned?? I've felt this way during my other two runs this week too. Like I couldn't get enough air in my lungs and it hurt breathing.

I reeeeeally wanted to get under 27, and when I looked down at my watch at 26:30 with a little over block left to go, I knew, even if I sprinted, it wasn't going to happen. But that's ok because I ran inside the concourse of Wrigley Field and THAT is flipping awesome!

Monica yelled "GO KATIE!!!" really loud as I sprinted in. Meanwhile I "raced" this chick in a green shirt next to me and "won" haha ;) And then she said: "I ran behind you the whole race...thank you so much for pushing me!" WOW! I need to dwell more on cool stuff like that instead of being so self absorbed SHEESH KATIE!!!!

I grabbed my Gato and naner, found Monicat, and chatted about the race for a bit. We tooled around this make-shift Cubs Shop next to all the race stuff, and OMG she bought me a Cubbies shirt as a "congrats"?!?!?!? BESTEST FRIEND OF ALL TIME!! I was like, "no no, what do you mean?!" And she said she was inspired by me and really proud! AGAIN...less self absorption Katie, honestly!

So that rocked...we headed back to the car and had an awesome time chatting on the 30+ minute ride back to H.E. Seriously, of all the parts of the day, my favorite was the ride to and from the race in the Ion with Monica :) So cozy!!! Then I, Monica, Tim, and their nearly one year old daughter Addison Grace (as in Wrigley Field streets Addison and Grace haha!!) piled into the car and headed to Panera for post-race yumminess. They treated me too! AWWW!

So yeah, while I'm going to stop focusing so much on negativity (especially considering how awesome it felt to have such a great friend in my corner), I DO want to turn this into a fuel burning inspiration to get back into my good running days. My 5K PR is 25:30 which is crazy for someone like me. I want to get back there. I just need to add the interval type training back into my routine (which is exactly what got me that PR last year). But I need to stop talking about it and start DOING it.

But in May. Haha! Tomorrow at 7am I will officially embark on my road trip to San Bernardino and back! All car. No legs. Haha! May will hopefully be a rockin' runnin' month. Especially considering the fact that I ran six times in April SIX!!!! And two of them were races!!! What the heck?

Speaking of 7am it's currently 11pm...TO BED I SAID!

See you in May :)