Go Team James go!

Let's hear it for Team James! Claudia, Tash, Ciara, Marco, Carlos, Achille, Carmen, Maria Mac and the most awesome one person cheering section ever, Stephanie! Great work today at the Susan G Komen Race for the cure. A great morning and a great event. We missed you Hill (hope you feel better!) and Theresa (slacker!).

One of my best friends in college lost his sister to breast cancer before she turned 30. Fortunately, this is the only person I know who has been touched by this disease, so I can't say that I have a strong emotional connection to this cause. So why did I choose this race/cause to run for today? Besides being an event that we decided to run as a team, I have to admit that, while I'm a legs man, I'm a pretty big fan of boobs too, so I should run in hopes of saving a few. So I did...and it felt great!

After 5 cities in 5 days with lots of work and not a lot of work out, I was admittedly expecting a tough run this AM. It was anything but. Really nice course that starts where the Marathon ends, going the opposite way, so first turn takes us down the hill that burns so bad during the final mile of 26.2. Up Michigan Ave, across to Columbus, turn east and connect to Lakefront running path by The Chicago Yacht Club, N through the marina and looping back south along the water. The end of my 7 milers, but again, the opposite direction. S along the lakefront around the Shedd, up the troublesome little hill that Hill helped me up last Sunday, loop back by Soldier field back around the Shedd and through the tunnel to the home stretch. Here's where they psyched us a little bit. On other races that finish in this vicinity, you come through the tunnel, up a tough little hill and turn onto Columbus for the home stretch. As I motored up the hill, I turned and started my kick to the finish. PSYCHE! Course makes hard right turn back onto the path and around Hutchins field along the drive, turning left on Balbo to the finish. Really nice and I'm beginning to think the 10k is the perfect distance for me.

I wound up finishing with a 10 min mile pace, 1:02:35 was my time. Personal best for the 10k by over 3 minutes. Not bad and new goal for me is to break 60 minutes. Was great to come home to our loud, boisterous cheering section although she was a slacker and didn't make a sign or bring any noise makers or crazy costumes and didn't really cheer much, just a wave and a thumbs up. It was actually just perfect!

So I guess you can say that today was Opposite day. The course was same in many places to other races/routes only in the opposite direction. I thought I was going to have a tough run, instead I had my best 10k run ever. And to top it off, The Seminoles put up a L instead of a W and I am not that upset, which is totally opposite of would have expected. Oh well, you can't win them all.

2 weeks and a day from Marathon Sunday. Starting to get excited. Tomorrow, goal is to figure out how to get the info Joe put together on Parkinson's posted and post amazing recipe from Runner's World that I made last night. Healthy and Delish!