Chicago

On May 25, 2010, I ran my first mile.  The pace was 9:36 and I remember feeling like I wanted to die.

I started running as a part of my company’s Wellness Program.  An incentivized program that rewards employees for exercise and consistent updates to the programs website.  I joined a team of coworkers and we all started together.  We’re a mostly remote group of people, so when I say “together”, I mean “virtually together”.  Only one of the 5 people lived within driving distance to me.  He and I ran our first 5K together in June 2010 at the Milwaukee County Zoo.  My pace at the 5K was 9:10.  I remember feeling like death for about 20 minutes after the 5K.

I ran a total of 5 races in 2010 (from June to November), each of them unique in their own way.  I’ve linked each run to my DailyMile profile where I talked about each run.  If you want to read my race report for the race, feel free to follow the link.  It will open a new window/tab when you click it, so you can easily come back to this page just by closing the other page.

Lombardi 5K Run/Walk for Cancer:  Dedicated to my mother-in-law who passed away from cancer a few years back.  (I ran, wife/family walked).  Ran with a friend.

Kishwauketoe Trail 5K:  Local, small town nature conservatory.  Entry fees went to a great, local cause.  This was the race where I figured out how slow I was compared to others and how much more I needed to train.  Solo run.

Storm the Bastille:  Night fun run that zigzags through downtown Milwaukee.  Solo run and PR’d my 5K time.

Chicago Half Marathon:  Longest run ever.  Felt like I was going to die afterwards.  Ran with DailyMile friend, Eric (Runs4Brains).  After the half marathon, I ran sporadically for about a month, recovering from the beating my body took.

Lake Geneva Turkey Trot:  Trail 10K race in Lake Geneva.  I PR’d my 10K time and had an awesome run.  Solo run.

The turkey trot was the final race of 2010.  Up next was the indoor marathon relay, in Milwaukee, in January.

InStep Indoor Marathon Relay:  Team of 4 people, 1 of whom I actually knew.  The other 2 were strangers, but we had fun none-the-less.

From January to May 2011, is the winter season and training for my first marathon.  I signed up for the Lake Geneva marathon in early 2011 and trained through-out the blustering winter for it.

Lake Geneva Marathon:  If you read my race report, it looks a bit scatter-brained.  I was going to go back and reorganize my thoughts, but I decided that, that’s how my brain worked afterwards, may as well keep it that way, so I remember.  This was HARD.  The Lake Geneva course is known for its grueling hills and solitary running.  No crowds, no fan-faire, just 26.2 miles around the awesome lake, mostly solo.  Jen, my mom/dad and the kids met me at a few spots, which was nice.  Hearing them cheer me on helped.  Started with 2 friends, ran 99% of it solo.

Up next is the 2011 Lombardi 5K Run for Cancer on June 11.  I plan on PR’ing my 5K time from last year by a lot.

After that, the Rock-n-Roll Seattle marathon, on June 25, 2011.  I’m running with my cousin, Katie, who wanted to run her first marathon this year as well.  She and I will hopefully start and finish together.  At least, that’s the plan.  Training for a 5K and a marathon at the same time is proving to be challenging.  I want to run the 5K hard and the marathon easy, so finding the mix during my training runs is confusing sometimes.  It’ll all work out fine, no need to stress over it.

In July, I have the Kishwauketoe Trail 5K race.  After July, I don’t have any races scheduled.  There are a few other 5K/10K’s in the area that I’m eyeballing, but nothing concrete just yet.  Going to get through marathon #2 and the others before committing to anything else.

Also in July, I’m traveling to Alaska.  I hope to get in some remote Alaska runs and get them logged on my Garmin GPS watch.

My longer term goals are:

• Improve my 5K and 10K times
• Setup/coordinate a 5K in Lake Geneva
• Keep running; regardless of if I’m training for something or not.
• Run for fun!

Thanks for reading my year in running.  Here’s to another great summer and year!