Quad Cities Race Weekend (x2!)

I've written before about my love for the Quad City area...it holds a lot of history for me.  It is where my parents and my sister and her family all live and where I completed my undergraduate degree.  I've also completed many races in the Quad Cities.

The past two weekends, I went home for two great races:  The Quad Cities Marathon (I did the half) and The John Deere 5k Fall Classic.

#1:  The Quad Cities Marathon

On Saturday, September 21 I went up to the Quad Cities and had my pre-race dinner at Red Robin (YUM!) with my good friend/cousin Jen and my niece Macy.  Naturally, after dinner we hit up Whitey's for some ice cream (great pre-race fuel!).

Sunday morning, September 22, my sister Megan and I ran in the half marathon at the Quad Cities marathon event.  As I've written many times before, my sister is my favorite running partner.  We've run many races together...my first races (The Maple City 4 in Geneseo, IL was my very first race!  I got 2nd in my age group...out of two...with a time of 33:53, not too shabby for my first race experience and likely one of my first times ever running 4 miles!) were with Megan by my side (well, at the starting line at least...she was always MUCH faster!!).

Sunday's half marathon was Megan's second half marathon after giving birth to her sweet little Macy ten months ago.  I was nervous about committing to run the race, seeing as it was just two weeks post-Ironman, but thankfully it was possible to wait to register until the day before the race.  The day before...I felt great (ish :)).  So, I registered!  While at the expo, I saw my random-stranger-turned-friend Jen Blackorby which was awesome!

Sunday's race went pretty well.  I felt very tight throughout my legs for the first few miles (I hadn't run much since Ironman Wisconsin!), but was able to push through it and stay true to my commitment to stick with Megan throughout the race.  I did consider slowing down, but convinced myself that was ridiculous.  I could absolutely stick with the 8:30 pace we established at the beginning of the race.  Absolutely!

As the race went on, Meg had a few rough spots.  I teased her later because at a number of the water stops she waited until the very end to grab one of the last cups of water held out by volunteers.  Well, each time the last cups were Gatorade...which wasn't what she wanted.  So, each time...she got half (or more) of my cup of water :).

Later on, around mile 10 or so, she really needed to pee.  We had a long conversation about the pros and cons of just letting it go and peeing herself...and determined that we would instead keep our eyes pealed for a porta-potty.  Thankfully, we saw one (though I am sure it was a FAR longer run to it than she would've liked!) and made a quick pit-stop.

We finished side by side in 1:57...under two hours for her second race post-baby:  pretty stellar I do say!  Way to go Megan!  I'm so glad my body wasn't broken from Ironman and that I had the opportunity to run with you again!

Me with Meg post-race!

#2:  The John Deere 5k Fall Classic

A few weeks ago, my uncle Jack contacted Megan and me to ask if we were interested in running a 5k with him and his daughter Lanie (12 years old) for John Deere employees/families on Sunday, September 28 at the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, IL.  I knew this would make for a crazy weekend...not only would it be the second weekend in a row that I drove up to the Quad City area, but it would mean a very early morning for me.  I had committed to volunteering at the 2013 Easter Seals Grape Soiree Saturday evening September 27, which is an event that typically goes pretty late.  Regardless, I decided that it would be a lot of fun and good to be able to spend time with family...so I said "I'm in!"

Saturday night I got home around 11:30pm from the Grape Soiree and was in bed around midnight.  My alarm went off irritatingly at 5am...and I was in the car by 5:30am.  YIKES!  Those who know me know this is quite a feat...I am NOT a morning person!  Sadly, Gloria Jeans (the coffee establishment closest to my home!) didn't open until 6am so I couldn't even drive by for some morning joe to power my drive there! ;)

I arrived at John Deere around 7:35, just enough time to locate my family and get fired up for our 8am start!  I found our group:  Megan, Macy and Danny, as well as Jack and his kiddos Lanie and Mitch.  Danny and Mitch were awesome spectators, while the rest of us ran in the race (Meg pushed Macy in the Bob stroller...Macy's first official race!).  My parents also came and spectated at the start/finish line.

Meg, Macy, Lanie and myself getting ready to race! (The sun was crazy bright that morning, hence the silly shadows)

The race was a lot of fun.  Jack took off like a crazy man as soon as the starting gun went off ;) and the rest of us started at a more reasonable pace ;).  Macy kept us entertained with coos and smiles and we chatted with Lanie about her school year and volleyball season.  Lanie had never run further than about 2.5 miles...and we were so proud to see her putting fort some serious valiant efforts to finish the race!  We stopped for 2 quick walking breaks, but other than that ran the entire time.  Some encouraging words were needed a few times ;)...and we had some conversations about the food Lanie wanted to eat at the end (precisely one and a half McDonald's cheeseburgers was what she mentioned.  Ha!).  Before long, though, we made it to the finish...in just under 34 minutes.  Pretty great time for Lanie's first 5k!  Meg and I (and Macy!) were both happy to be along for the her journey to the finish for the first time.  Truly one of my favorite things about the sport is witnessing new people give it a try...and hopefully fall in love with it (though I'm not sure Lanie was exactly "in love" with running Sunday!  She may or may not have uttered the words "I'm just not cut out for running!" a time or two ;).

My niece, little Miss Polka-Dots (and favorite toy Sophie!) after the race...gnawing on some post-race carbs!

After the race, we hung out with Jack and his family and my parents and watched some of the kid races:  a 50 yard dash, a half-mile and a one-mile run were among the other events that day.  It was a beautiful morning (though it started out cold and foggy!) and very nice to spend time with family.  Later we went to Panera for some brunch...and then I went back to Megan and Danny's and crashed hard for a few hours.  I.  was.  EXHAUSTED!!

As I napped, Megan texted me from upstairs (I was in their guest room downstairs):  "Pumpkin chai?"  These two little words got me out of bed almost immediately after I read them.  There is a drive-through coffee place in Davenport that makes these seriously AMAZING pumpkin chai tea lattes...we fell in love with them after the half marathon the previous weekend.  We ran out to get our teas and then went to Fulton, IL to a birthday party to celebrate my grandparents' 95th (my grandmother) and 99th (my grandfather) birthdays!  I was happy to be able to attend...living a fair distance away from my extended family, I often miss out on events like this and was glad that I was able to go to this one!  Talk about some impressive birthday milestones!

Next up:  a half marathon adventure in CALIFORNIA on October 13 with my sister in law Laura!  This will be her FIRST half marathon...and it will be THREE weeks out from the NYC Marathon for me!  I'm going for a half marathon PR (so under 1:46:49, which is my current PR set in April at the U of I half marathon earlier this season).  Stay tuned!