Half Marathon, Peer Pressure & Potty Talk

Thanks for the congratulations on my 2nd marathon finish (read about it here).  It's kind of cool to know I have to marathon finishes (and medals) under my belt.  I have to say, even though it was hard and yes, I did cry for a minute, I'm pretty proud of myself.  It's so easy to give up when things are hard.  And even though my time might not have been what I initially hoped for, I'm proud of the time I got for the hard time I had during the run.  And I'm just completely ecstatic for my next (3rd) marathon attempt in Chicago later this year in October!  I really have a good feeling about it.  And 3rd times a charm, right?

I haven't run since the marathon, which is what I planned.  I planned to take 2 full weeks off of running just to make sure a lot of my previous injuries were healed up.  It's only been about a week and a half since the marathon and I'm itching to run again!  A lot of my friends participated in the First Midwest Bank Southwest Half Marathon over the weekend and a few of them ran in the Illinois Marathon with me the week before!  Crazy people!!  (Even though I considered running because I was offered someone's bib).  I decided spectating and cheering were just as important as running.  Plus there were some friends running that were first time half marathon runners too and I was excited to see how they did (or worried because some didn't train well).  I even wore running clothes just in case!!

Anyway, after driving around and around and around for over an hour trying to get to the spot to meet some other friends that were also cheering, I couldn't get there.  All the roads were blocked.  There really wasn't anywhere to pull over and park.  This place is only about 15 mins from my house!  I started getting incredibly frustrated and almost went home.  But I got a phone call from another friend telling me to just come by the start/finish line, which is what I ended up doing.  Since I was by the finish, I saw most of the elites finish and a lot of the VERY fast runners finish.  I also found out my one friend that I went on several dates with earlier this year finished with a time of 1:35 (which he said was 5 minutes slower than his PR).  I did always tell him that I hate him and his fast-ness!!  lol.  He completes a half marathon quicker than I complete 10 miles!  He then told me he wants to get me under 2:00 for a half.  I told him I'd be happy right now under 2:10 (my best is 2:!3).  I digress.

I missed seeing my friend Kelly finish (I don't know how!  I kept saying that I needed to stay until I saw her finish but yeah, I missed it!).  And I need to start posing like Kelly does in all my run photos too!!  I swear she looks like this in almost every photo that's taken of her during a run!!


Kelly at the Southwest Half 5/6/12



At the Cupid's Chase 5k with me on 2/11/12
Kelly is obviously the one with her hands up - I look like I want to kill someone.

 Guarantee I'm throwing my hands in the air on my next official run!  But the half was fun to watch.  Since it was a local half marathon, there were tons of people I knew running it.  I will consider this run for myself next year.

Speaking of my next run...clearly as you can tell if you look to the upper right where I have a list of my upcoming runs, that my next run is this Saturday in Lemont!  What???  It's not there??  How can that be?  I updated that list about a week ago after my Illinois Marathon!  Oh I know why it's not on my scheduled list of runs!  Because I wasn't planning on running this run!  What run, you might ask (since it's not on the list)??  It's the Advocate Good Samaritan Quarryman Challenge 10 miler (There is a 5k option too).  Anyway, I was at an after party from the Palos Half on Sunday celebrating all kinds of achievements and what do you know...I was completely FORCED to sign up for this run!  Like almost at knife-point!  The conversation went something like this:

Friend: "Does anyone want to sign up for this run?  Amanda, have you thought about it?"
Me: "Yeah, I heard about it."
Friend: "Today is the last day for online registration.  It's a good price. I'm just doing it for fun."
Me: "Um, I don't know. Uh...I kinda want....oh I don't know....I haven't run since the marathon. This is a hilly course...uh, uh, AHHHH!!!!!!  FINE! I'LL DO IT!!!!!  ENOUGH WITH THE PEER PRESSURE!!!"

I mean, seriously!  Peer pressure at it's best right?  Pretend that you don't care!  Gets them every time!  So hilly 10 miler is on its way this weekend!!  Check out the course map and elevation here.  The first hill looks like death to me!  I guess I just like a challenge! I'm just going to run this very easy and not for time and just have "fun". 

Now just a funny story to end this post.  I completely forgot about hearing this story after the Illinois Marathon.  My friends Shelby and Curtis ran in it.  Shelby told me that Curtis has bathroom issues while running (my guess is #1 issues).  By the way, I told them I was going to blog about this.  After talking to Shelby and Curtis after the half marathon last Sunday (which they ran in), I was reminded of Curtis' bathroom issues at the Illinois Marathon.  First of all, he had to stop 4 times in the first half of the marathon to use the bathroom.  During one of those times, he asked a police officer orcourse volunteer or someone when the next port-a-potty was.  Apparently there was not one coming up any time soon.  And what did Curtis do?  He asked someone if he could use their bathroom (much of this course was residential).  The woman apparently looked at him like he had 3 heads, but reluctantly let him use her bathroom!  I thought that was a funny story and completely blog worthy!  I'm sure I missed some information about it, but you get the point.

I would completely let someone running a marathon use my bathroom if I lived on the course!  What would you do???  In fact, my house is on a 5k route for Tinley Park Turkey Trot every year and if I didn't run it, and someone needed to use my bathroom, I would let them!