Week of Wins and Firsts

This was a great week in the running realm of things. There were a lot of firsts that I was thrilled about.

Longest run time-wise
Longest run in miles
Most miles ran in a week
No walking at all for a longer run
Most miles logged in a month (just under 70 miles)

I was in Chicago earlier in the week and had the opportunity to take a run on the streets of Chi-town a couple mornings. The first morning, I was able to run with a few of my co-workers and it was an easy run as we are all at different levels. We decided to do about a 3 mile run down to “The Bean.” We started the run at 6 and we got to The Bean right at sunrise. For those that have been there, there are always a ton of people there. The nice thing about getting there at 6:30ish in the morning, there is no one there and the sunrise reflection off it was incredible.

The Bean at sunrist

The Bean with Chicago skyline

Running with co-workers and stopping in front of the Bean

The second day in Chicago, I got up and took a run by myself. I decided on a little longer run since I was by myself and wanted to get some miles in before a long day. It was a chilly morning and ran against the wind towards the lake…Brrrr. When I got to the lake, I ran south down towards Navy Pier. The wind was behind me at that point so it wasn’t bad at all and was actually breaking a sweat with a 20-something windchill. One thing that I have learned is running in a different city than your hometown, it is so much better than running by corn fields.

Sunrise on Navy Pier in Chicago

Navy Pier looking over Chicago

My big win for the week was a 9.5 mile run on Saturday. I have never run that far or that long in my life. I never stopped to walk except about halfway through to take some sips of water. I knew I had a pretty good pace going and was feeling great. When I got home, I looked at my splits and they were almost identical for each mile and was within a few seconds of each other. Three weeks into the training, I am feeling great and actually starting to like running. Overall, I ran over 20 miles this past week and am feeling strong.