Ravenswood 5K

I came, I ran, I conquered!

OK, ok, ok…I didn’t really conquer. But I did come, and I felt great! Last year I ran this race. It was the first race I had run in years. The morning was cold, rainy as hell and I was scared sh*tless! You can’t imagine…I mean my stomach was in KNOTS!!! A friend of mine, Tony, ran it with me. Well, we started at the same time. He finished in under 20 minutes. I think I ran it in just under 30 minutes which I was really happy with, even though after the race I looked like hell and I felt even worse.

It was a hard run for me. I hadn’t been running in so long and I just wasn’t prepared like I wanted to be. It was a good experience though. The Ravenswood 5k was the beginning of an addiction for me. Ivan was there for the first race (as he has been to all my races to date!!!) and he documented the day with photos that show just how scared I looked and how bad I felt at the end of it! I was a tomato face!!! Ha!

THIS YEAR, however, was a completely DIFFERENT STORY! There were almost double the number of runners as the day was sunny and gorgeous! I wasn’t planning on running fast or hard or even breaking 30 minutes. I wasn’t looking to win anything, I was just looking forward to getting my tech shirt and experiencing the first anniversary of a run for me!

Ivan picked me up, early! We got down there, and I was feeling pretty good. I had eaten a little food before hand, gone to the bathroom, had on green and my new shoes and just was generally excited to be a part of it again. GOD I love when running season is back in swing! You know? It just makes me happy!

Well, I got in the line up, I did some stretches and my iPod was loaded with lots of great songs filled with heavy beats perfect for keeping pace to. My goal for this race was to have fun and take it easy.

I started off too quickly, but I didn’t realize that until I got to the second mile and I saw that I had run the first mile in a little over 8 minutes. I knew I had to pull it back a little if I wanted to feel good in the end and so I tried to slow up a bit. When we were getting close to mile three I was starting to feel it. I was a little tired and kind of felt a little burnt out. Wasn’t sure what to do but keep going. I got to the point where I just wanted the race to be over! Ha.

Then we turned a corner. I had NO idea where we were but it turned out we had less then a mile to go. I saw the manager of the Fleet Feet at Pipers Alley and he recognized me and waved at me. He was yelling out to the everyone “Come on runners! Less then a 4^th of the way to go!!!” I was excited that he recognized me so that gave me a little more energy to pick up my legs and move.

I told myself that once I saw the finish sign I would sprint the rest of the way in. And I tricked myself into NOT seeing that darn sign until I was good and ready. Finally I couldn’t deny it anymore and I knew that it was now or never. I had to make my move or I would have a slow time. Suddenly I wanted to beat my time from last year! So off I went! I passed a lot of people in the end (it’s kind of a good feeling…does that sound bad?) And I finished. For a split second I felt nauseous, but then it passed and I drank some water and felt fine!

My official time for the race this year was 27:40 which put me at 8:55 minute miles. I was THRILLED with that! I wasn’t looking to beat my time from last year, but even with 7 months off of training and doing NO RUNNING I was still faster by over a minute from last years time.

THAT makes ya feel good!

Ivan and I hung around for a moment…I got stretched out by some dude and then ate some bananas! Yes, eating bananas. It’s true, I’m a convert. That doesn’t mean I like them or anything, but I understand the nutritional value and serious benefits of eating bananas regularly. SO YEAH, I ate a banana and some other goodies they were giving us, drank some water and off we went back home.

All in all, today’s run was awesome. I felt great, I had fun and I can’t wait to do it again next year…maybe after shaving off ANOTHER minute to my time! WOO HOO!!!

First training run!!!

Well here I am again, at the beginning point of another great journey.

This time it’s with the Aids Foundation of Chicago, and I’m training for the Chicago Marathon which happens on Oct. 7^th! Jamie was the one who convinced me I absolutely HAD to join and that it was the most amazing experience. I really felt that this time around I wanted to train with a group of people and I wanted to do this for something other then my self.

SO here I am. I signed up about four weeks ago but have been really slow getting back into the groove since recovering from the injury of last years marathon! I am all healed up and today was the first day of training. I went with Jamie and we met some really FABULOUS people. It was awesome. We only ran three miles and did a time trial to determine our pacing groups. I hung in there with Jamie and we are in the Teglas group where our training pace is about 10 minutes per mile. I am happy enough with that for a starting point. I hope to run the marathon a little faster then that, but really I am just looking to make improvements in my running, meet and work with great people and fundraise for an awesome cause.

Today’s run was the first of many many early morning Saturday runs. I will be training for the next 6 months with many races scattered in between. In fact, I’m running a race tomorrow! The Ravenswood 5k which was the first race I had run in YEARS last year! It will be great!

It looks like we have a pretty large pace group so they might have to split us up into one or two more groups, but I think it would be great to run together. The atmosphere here in the Aids Marathon training program is one that I haven’t felt before. Everyone is here and excited and scared and friendly. We are all aiming to reach several different goals, but all with one common goal, helping prevent, fight and find a cure for the HIV/AIDS virus. It feels great to be a part of something. I can’t wait to tell you more and more about each training run, the people I’m training with and everything going on for me as I take on these next six months of serious training.

GO TEGLAS! GO AIDS MARATHON! GO TEAM DEVIN!

Welcome back to The Leaping Lizard! I will finally be posting here more regularly!!! Mark my words!