What a great week for running. It seems as soon as the temperature started to act like early fall, my running and mood improved dramatically! It was incredible to run a track workout earlier in the week, and not be dripping with sweat when it was over. And today's 20 miler? Well, I don't think I can recall another one I have enjoyed as much. It was called the 'Ready to run 20 miler' organized by CARA.
I mentioned the other day that I was looking forward to it, and my hopes were answered this morning. First, the weather was great. But they also organized it in a way that was very similar to a race. They had a starting line, and emcees, including my colleague Ben Bradley, making announcements at the beginning. Ben did a great job.
They also had many of the high profile people in the Chicago running community, as you might expect from an event like this put together by the Chicago Area Runners Association. I saw Chicago marathon director Carey Pinkowski and CARA President Dan 
Daley at the starting line. Carey had some words or encouragement for the runners at the start, and Dan was on his bike riding the course to make sure it was clear for the runners.
CARA already sponsors the highly successful marathon training program that has helped thousands of runners get not only to the starting line, but the finish line of the marathon. This was the first year they carried the training to the point of a big organized long run as part of the training. This was open to everyone, not just CARA training program runners. They closed registration at 3000 runners. A sellout in their first year. Impressive.
As far as the run, it just seemed to roll along. They had all the miles marked along the path. I have run the path along the lakefront in almost every variation imaginable, but I have never run point-to-point from the north to the south. We started at Foster, and finished at the South Shore Cultural Center. That seems like a long way, and I guess it is 20 miles, but it seemed really pretty manageable. I remember being at the 7 mile mark and feeling like I was barely warmed up. That was the case at nearly every mile marker. We were at 16 and I kept expecting to start feeling bad, and I never did.
I'm sure the aid stations, sponsored by Fleet Feet, had a lot to do with that. The conversation with my friend Greg also helped a lot. Greg has been training with CARA, while I have been on my own training program, and we haven't had a chance to run together in a while, but we had two and a half hours to catch up today!
I signed up to run 7:3
0 pace miles with the expectation of running a little slower than that. I had a really disappointing long run last weekend, so I was looking for a confidence builder during this run. And that's exactly what I got. We ran a pretty easy 7:40 or so pace and finished feeling good. We crossed the finish line they set up and it felt like finishing a race.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay and hear the band (Underwater People) at the post-run party, but I hear it was a great time. This was just the first event of a marathon day for me. I went straight from the run to the Mexican Independence Day Parade, then to the Bears game. But it was a great day. The parade offered my two daughters a chance to ride on their first float, and wave to the huge crowd. Then, the Bears had a great game. To top that off, the Cubs won and maintained their first place standing. All in all, I would say it was a great day.
Most importantly however, it was a great run. Congratulations to CARA, and to everyone who ran it. It really is all downhill from here! And the best part of marathon training is now upon us. Taper! Yes, it's time to starting cutting back and resting up a bit for the big day. I'll write more about that in the next few days, but for now, enjoy.
See you on the roads....
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