What a fun weekend in Chicago. It's the easiest race weekend I've had since I couldn't run the half. I sprained my ankle about 4 weeks ago and it still hasn't healed well enough to finish a half. However, according to my Moves app, I walked about 20 miles between Saturday and Sunday, so maybe I could have walked it. It was a Remix weekend, so I at least was able to do the 5K with the gang. It was nice to take it easy and run the last half mile or so with my bffs.
The 5K was mostly in Grant Park/Millenium Park along the lake front trail. Gorgeous. I could run here every day, there is so much to see and I always love running along the water. Since we had to get up pretty early, we were able to go see the bean, Cloud Gate. Got a pretty sweet pic of it that looks awesome in black and white. I tried to get some shots of my reflection thinking that I'd look distorted like when you look at yourself in those funhouse mirrors. Not so. It was mostly a bunch of hand prints all over it. I wonder if someone comes out there periodically to wipe all the handprints off. It looks gross. Stop touching it people.
After the 5K, we went to get our packets at the convention center and tried walking to an area that our Uber driver told us would have "adult beverages", but I'm pretty sure we were just taking a stroll through residential areas where no one lived. It was pretty empty. So we ended up Ubering back to the hotel, dropped our stuff off and went to find somewhere to chill and drink. First stop, Theory, where we they had a bloody mary bar where you could make your own. It was interesting, but I think they could have done better.
After that we went to Bottlefork for even more adult beverages. This is pretty much when I went off the rails and started hitting the hard stuff. This place is great, they make really delicious and unique drinks. I tried a sazerac and it was really good. We just sat around watching the cute Kentucky-bred bartender make drink after drink and adult flavored snow cones. I never got around to getting one.
After that, we got dinner at RockIt and dessert at Firecakes. Dessert was a glazed donut gelato sandwich. Oh man, was that the best thing in the whole world. I don't know how this isn't a huge thing everywhere. If you're in Chicago on the north side, definitely find this place and get one. You won't be disappointed. So after all this, it appear I pretty much passed when we got back to the hotel. I think it was about 7:30pm. But, at least I was able to get enough sleep to get up and cheer on Rachel and Traci while they ran the half. It wasn't terribly hot, but it was huuuuumid! I think I would have had a slow run, but could have handled it if it weren't for the ankle that was swollen from running the day before.
Walking along the course made me really want to be able to run it. The architecture in Chicago is amazing, the buildings are so unique. I'll probably come back for the half next year or maybe the marathon, just to run through the city.
The 5K was mostly in Grant Park/Millenium Park along the lake front trail. Gorgeous. I could run here every day, there is so much to see and I always love running along the water. Since we had to get up pretty early, we were able to go see the bean, Cloud Gate. Got a pretty sweet pic of it that looks awesome in black and white. I tried to get some shots of my reflection thinking that I'd look distorted like when you look at yourself in those funhouse mirrors. Not so. It was mostly a bunch of hand prints all over it. I wonder if someone comes out there periodically to wipe all the handprints off. It looks gross. Stop touching it people.
After the 5K, we went to get our packets at the convention center and tried walking to an area that our Uber driver told us would have "adult beverages", but I'm pretty sure we were just taking a stroll through residential areas where no one lived. It was pretty empty. So we ended up Ubering back to the hotel, dropped our stuff off and went to find somewhere to chill and drink. First stop, Theory, where we they had a bloody mary bar where you could make your own. It was interesting, but I think they could have done better.
After that we went to Bottlefork for even more adult beverages. This is pretty much when I went off the rails and started hitting the hard stuff. This place is great, they make really delicious and unique drinks. I tried a sazerac and it was really good. We just sat around watching the cute Kentucky-bred bartender make drink after drink and adult flavored snow cones. I never got around to getting one.
After that, we got dinner at RockIt and dessert at Firecakes. Dessert was a glazed donut gelato sandwich. Oh man, was that the best thing in the whole world. I don't know how this isn't a huge thing everywhere. If you're in Chicago on the north side, definitely find this place and get one. You won't be disappointed. So after all this, it appear I pretty much passed when we got back to the hotel. I think it was about 7:30pm. But, at least I was able to get enough sleep to get up and cheer on Rachel and Traci while they ran the half. It wasn't terribly hot, but it was huuuuumid! I think I would have had a slow run, but could have handled it if it weren't for the ankle that was swollen from running the day before.
Walking along the course made me really want to be able to run it. The architecture in Chicago is amazing, the buildings are so unique. I'll probably come back for the half next year or maybe the marathon, just to run through the city.