Blue toe

I went to go get a pedicure for my brother, Rich's wedding this past weekend.  I knew that my big toe on my left foot was bruised, but the last time I checked, it was just a pale blue color.  I covered it up with some nail polish and went on my way.  Now, two weeks later, the pedicurist takes off the polish to reveal a very ugly, dark blue toenail.  Bwahahaha!  Hilariously disgusting.

The good: It gave me another excuse to tell someone that I ran a marathon.
The bad: the cute pink blush color I had picked wouldn't cover up the deep navy currently under my nail.

I just hope it doesn't fall off.  My battle wound.  =D

2011 Chicago Marathon - I made it!

So Marathon day arrived. I was freaking out! All weekend I was stressed, which Phil wasn't used to.  Hahah. I had trouble sleeping and I just wasn't talking very much.  But, everything worked out! I woke up as expected on Sunday, October 9at 4:15 AM and went downstairs to eat breakfast. The dogs just kept staring at me with a look of, "What are you doing? Don't you know what time it is?" They weren't even awake enough to want to eat: just confused. 

I went upstairs and put on my running clothes including my amazing shirt that Isaac designed for me and I ironed on.  Amazing! I absolutely love it! I remembered to take my water bottles out of the freezer, I was prepared with plenty of GU, I applied my anti-chafing cream to all of the necessary areas and waited for Anna to pick me up. 

We drove down to Chicago with Anna's Mom and Aunt in tow.  It was so much fun! they decided to teach me Korean and I learned how to say "Cold" and "Good"….although I think my foreign language memory cells were eaten away with the calories lost during the marathon, so I couldn't tell you what those words were.  Maybe one day it will come back to me.  Anyway, her mom and aunt were hilarious and super-sweet!

We got down to the start line, hugged Anna's mom and aunt goodbye and went in search for porta-potties, which suprpisingly had a decent line.  Finished up there and off to the corrals we went. 

Oh my goodness, my nerves were going crazy! I was so nervous! We waited for what felt like forever and then decided to say a little prayer before the race began.  We prayed that God would give us the strength to complete the race and thanked him for how far he has already brought us.  What an wonderful experience it was to train with such a good friend! I am so grateful. After our prayer, a woman from behind tapped us on the shoulder to tell us that she was praying with us, too.  It was very uplifting.  =)

Before I knew it, the race started and off went, the Kenyans in a blur, as we slowly began our 20 minute crawl to the start line.  At 7:50, we were on our way and I was in awe.

I could not believe how many people showed up to watch the race.  This was nothing like any of the half marathons I had done! there were so many more people!!!! Anna and I are normally very chatty, so we caught up on the ongoing in our lives from the previous few weks (Vegas, a wedding, moving…etc), but after that we became more quiet than usual.  I apologized for my lack of talking and told Anna that I was just in awe of the race itself and the fact that this moment was actually here after so long.  I took deep breaths and just tried to enjoy every minute of the race, and I really did.

We ran north towards Lincoln Park and I called my friends, Lori and Stacey, a couple miles in to find out where they were standing.  When we found them at around mile 6 (I think), they hopped into the race and started running with us.  I remember telling Stacey that this was so much more fun than I had imagined and that we had a good pace and I was feeling good.  I am so grateful for their support and it meant so much for these two (also marathoners) to run beside me for a short period of time.  Love you both so much!

At around mile 10 or 11, we met some other friends (Pretty, Connie and Niyati). Pretty is one of my biggest running supporters and has been to several of the races that I've run in Chicago, so I was so excited to have her along the course again.  I was so happy to see Connie with her: we never had the discussion about whether or not she was going to be able to make it, so it was a very happy surprise.  We stopped, took pictures and went on our way again. 

Lori and Stacey met us again a couple miles further in and somewhere in between there we ran trhough Boystown.  Oh my goodenss, how entertaining! There were two men on a stage dressed up and singing Lady Gaga.  Hilarious! On the other side was a group of 10-12 guys dressing in ROTC shirts and cargo pants doing a baton spinning routine with fake guns.  Amazing.  People were also outside of there homes with their own sterio systems blasting music, others brought out their hoses and were spraying the runners to cool off. Others were handing out food (oranges, pretzels..etc).  Anna told me I shouldn't take food from strangers, but I ate an orange anyway.  hahaha.

By this point we had turned around and were turning west West to go through the West loop.  I took some pictures of the Sears tower and ran ran ran.  This point had fewer spectators, but it was the two upcoming spectators that kept me going and got me excited to get to mile 13.  Before we knew it we were passing the half way mark and approaching by wonderful husband and his best friend Andres! First of all, that might have been the easiest 13 miles I have ever run! I felt like a million bucks at this point as I ran up to Phil and hugged him.  It was so good to see both of them waiting to snap pictures of us and cheer us on. We keept running West and eventually turned around to come back East and there they were again waiting for us at mile 16.5.  You two are the best!

My handsome and loving husband and biggest supporter

Andres Aya cheering us on from the sidelines

Nikki (left) and Anna (right) as we ran over to greet Andres and Phil

At this point I think I am finished seeing my friends, but I have a surprise waiting for me at mile 17.5 in Little Italy.  I had run past my college (UIC) and was approaching the street where I used to live when I hear my name being called from the sidelines.  Phil's dad came down to cheer me on, too! What a great surprise to see him along the course. 

Me and my father-in-law. I am so happy you were able to make it, Dad! I love you! 

After snapping a few photos, we went on our way. We ran through Pilsen, which was one of my favorite areas.  The cheering was just incredible! there were so many people out blasting music, spraying water, handing out oranges and snacks, and I got a great picture standing next to a guy in a HUGE costume.  Next we ran past some areas that seems desolate before listening to Elvis serenade us and then entering Chinatown.  The dragons were really cool!

Nikki in Pilsen

The dragons in China town

Anna reaching out to Elvis (I knew he was still alive!)

It was at this point that I had made my mistake.  I was concerned about taking my third GU because of the way the second one affected me (it felt like it sat on top f my stomach for 20 minutes and I swore off the possibility of ever eating chocolate again), so I skipped it.  At this point I was still feeling good, but my hip was starting to bother me, so I took my tylenol that I brought along.  It wasn't until mile 23 that I felt the consequences of Gu-less-ness.  I hit the wall.  Although I kept telling myself that I only had a 5K to go, my legs did not want to do it.  So, I sucked it up and tried the last GU and ended up inhaling it.  It was the little bit of energy that I needed to finish the race, although it was still VERY hard.  We had to stop and take walking breaks, we hung out at a medical station and rubbed biofreeze everywhere and we refilled on water at every station.  We were just dragging….

Then we made a turn and started up Michigan avenue towards the finish line.  We had 2 miles left and I started to feel the adrenaline rushing through my body.  It took everything I had in me to not throw up from excitement of the upcoming finish.  I grabbed Anna's hand at mile 24 and started crying. I thanked her for running with me all these times and being such an amazing friend and I meant it. 

We hit mile 25 and I started repeating to myself, "Its just a regular Saturday morning run.  Nothing special about this run.  Just a regular run."  And I was able to convince myself of it for a millisecond between hearing people cheer, "You're almost there! One mile to go!" My legs were on fire, my hip was killing me, I felt sick to my stomach but all I could think about was the fact that I was about to finish a marathon.  Who would have thought that a girl with asthma could run 25 miles?!?

The marathon course takes another turn and we are headed up hill at mile 26 (how kind of them).  I thought about all of the hills that I had done during training and I killed it.  One final turn and it’s a straight dash into the finish.  Don't throw up. don't throw up. Don't throw up.  And then I was done.  I tried to lift my arms in triumph, but had little energy. I remember bending over in amazement and crying. I remember having a woman put a medal around my neck rather than just having it handed to me.  I remember seeing people putting on mylar blankets and saying, "how the heck are they able to wear those right now?!" in an almost angry voice.  I was warm and emotional. 

The next 10 or 15 minutes were spent taking pictures and navigating my way past the snacks and water and towards the post-race party where my friends and family were waiting for me at letter R.  "OK," I replied, "Argh, Like the pirate. Arrrrrrrrr."

The walk to the party was soooo long.  I remember thinking, "Why the heck is this so far away." I finally made it, though, and when I got there, I collapsed into my husband's arms and began to cry tears of our happiness. I couldn't believe I just finished. After all of the training, the pain, the fun times (and scary, lost times) with Anna, the physical therapy and the resting....I was done.  

The slow walk to meet my family and friends. 

my biggest support before, during and after the race. 

I am so grateful to all of my supporters.  Thank you all so much for being there for me and cheering me on through my training and the race itself.  I don't know how I can repay you, but it meant the world to have you there. 

From the left: Connie, Phil, Andres, Lori, Nikki, Stacey and Pretty

This truly was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and I wouldn't trade a second of it for anything. 

Fall Final 20

On September, 18, 2011, I ran a 20 mile race with none other than the beautiful Anna Steeves!!!!  It was so much fun and I am so grateful to her sister, Lisa, for letting me run with her bib number.  Hmmm…maybe I shouldn't announce that publicly.  The race police might get me. 

Anna and I had a great time.  It was rainy and cold, but we had some more great conversation (as always!) and goofed off a bit, too.  When we started getting up in miles, our muscles began to yell at us….profanely.  There were several 4 letter words that were no uttered from our lips, but our muscles apparently were not very happy.

We chewed GU (ewwww….), stopped for emergency bathroom breaks, hobbled along due to hip pain, talked about how heavy our butts felt, and when we thought we couldn't go any longer, our bodies always started back up after a short walking break similarly to an old car engine in the winter-time. 

I wouldn't change a thing!

Thanks again to the Steeves Sisters for an amazing experience!

BLUUUUUUDDD!

So, I know I haven't posted in a while, but I guess late is better than never.  I have one story that I really want to get down on paper, so I am going to pretend like I just ran my 18 mile race.  Hehehehe. 

So, I went out for my 18-miler and decided to take a new course rather than doing two laps in my 9 mile forest preserve.  I needed to run from my house to Meacham and Golf in Schaumburg and then turn around and come back.  Of course I was nervous because this was to be my first LONG run after doing an 18 miler a few weeks prior (the one during which I injured my hip). 

So, I set out.  I was  jogging along at a happy pace when: WHAM! I hit an upturned piece of pavement and went down.  I scraped my knee, but out of embarrassment, quickly got up and started running again.  After a short while, I stopped to look at the damage.  The cut was bleeding, so I squirted some water on it to clean it a little bit.  This caused the blood to run down my legs almost to my ankles.  so what would any rational human being do? Leave it.  I started running along thinking to myself, "Man am I cool.  I'm tough.  yeah, I fell. So, what?  I got up and kept going! Take that!" Hahahaha! I am such a dork…

So I am running along and, wouldn't you know it: at mile 7-ish my hip starts to bug me.  It was nothing horrible and since I was only a couple miles off of my turnaround, I decided to keep going.  It was a hot day, but it was overcast and I was feeling good, so I didn't want to shorten my run. 

I finally hit my turnaround and lingered a little at the busy corner so people could get a good view of my knee before proceeding back to my house. 

I was good on GU and I had a decent amount of water, but I had brought money with me so I could stop and treat myself to a Gatorade on the way back.  I ran into Dominicks at mile 13, went to the bathroom (without cleaning up my knee, of course!) and then bought my Gatorade.  I filled up my water belt and was quickly back on my way. 

Then mile 16 came.  By this point, by hip was really nagging me, but it wasn't that that stopped me; it was a charlie horse in my left calf.  BOY, did it hurt.  I tried to keep running, but my left foot started turning inward and my toes curled under. I had no choice but to stop and try to walk it out slowly.

It was at this point that I was passing a McDonalds and a really nice man was walking to his car.  He stopped when he saw me limping along slowly and said in a very concerned (almost panicked) voice, "Are you ok?"

            I replied, " Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Thanks."

            "Did you fall"

            "Oh, yeah. It's ok. It was a while ago."

            And with a strained look of worry, he responded, "But, YOU'RE BLEEDING?!?!"

            "It's dry now," I said as I wiped at the blood near my ankle with my hand.

            He began walking to his car, insisting, "I…I have some paper towels." I was the damsel in distress and this poor man wanted nothing more than to assist me in whatever way he could. I graciously accepted the paper towels, pouring water on them and began sopping up my blood, secretly thinking to myself there goes my cool picture. Sad….I wish I  could have posted this on my blog….

           

As I was cleaning myself up, the man, now much calmer, asked me, "So, how far do you run?" When I responded that I was going 18 miles today, he exclaimed, "18 miles!"

            "Yeah, I am training for a marathon."

            "Wow," he replied, "Well, yesterday I had to do a test and run a mile and a half under 20 minutes.  I did it in 15! I think that's pretty good."

            "WOW," I responded, "That's great.  Good job, really."

            He was so proud of himself.  He went on, "Yeah, not bad for my first time."

            "No, that's great!"

I then thanked the man again for his help, battling through my disappointment over my very clean leg, and went on my way.  I finished the last two miles remembering my beginnings.  I thought back upon the first time I set out to run and how shocked I was with the distance I was able to undertake: 4 miles.  What?! someone with asthma can go that far? I am grateful to this man for not only reminding me that I should probably try to avoid an infection and clean my wounds, but also that every step counts. From the first to the last, we all need to start somewhere.  It’s nothing more than a wonderful journey full of pain, injuries (even if you can't show them off), tears, excitement, celebration and joy in between.