Feels Like the First Time

Do the 'Santa Hustle!'

The last time I pinned on a bib and ran jogged participated in an organized race was way back in December of 2012. I signed up and ran a 5k with a handful of co-workers as well as a multitude of Santa Claus look-alikes. It was  called the Santa Hustle - which actually sounds more like a dance that everyone does at a wedding reception or school dance than an organized, athletic event.

I can't believe that it's almost been three years since my last race. I'm kind of ashamed, to be honest. Between mid 2009 and late 2012, I cranked out four half marathons, a half dozen 10ks and plenty of 5ks.I could pick up and run four or five miles without thinking twice, and without being sore for five days afterwards. I wasn't necessarily skinny, but I was at a much more reasonable weight than I am now - at least a weight that allowed me to run 13.1 miles in under two and a half hours.


Tomorrow I will be running the Big Ten Network 5k (even though the picture says 10k). This time I will be running with my brother in-law! And I'm planning on it being much harder and painful than any one I've done before. To be honest, I'm actually in a worse place now (physically) than I was when I initially picked up running in order to lose weight six and a half years ago... Eric, on the other hand, has killed it in training and lost 20-25 pounds! This will be his first 5k ever, and he will smoke me.

Here's to hoping this race is the eye-opener I need to get my rear in gear, and that Eric gets hooked on 5ks and asks me to sign up for another one later this year. Leading up to the race, I've made excuse after excuse as to why I "couldn't" go to the gym or head out for a run in preparation for tomorrow.

And tomorrow I get to pay for those excuses.

2014 Naperville Marathon - Or Not...

If you've read any of my posts older than two weeks ago, you know that I signed up for my first full marathon earlier this spring. You also know that I have since dropped out of the race due to a knee injury I suffered this summer. Apparently my knees and a sand volleyball court do not get along well.

Well, that marathon (believe it or not) continued without me this past Sunday.

Since the race was a qualifying race for the Boston Marathon, I did not have the option of selling my registration to someone else or giving it away. As a result, I got stuck paying a decent chunk of money for a race that I wasn't participating in. However, I did realize that (like every other race) my registration comes with some 'free' stuff!

So Karin and I made the trek to Naperville, Illinois on Saturday to visit the expo that coincides with the race. It's a place where runners pick up their race bibs and vendors set up booths to sell running gear. It's a pretty fitness-friendly atmosphere, you could say.

Immediately upon walking in, we spotted a guy in a costume. And there's something you need to know about me - I am a sucker for mascots. If I'm at a parade or anything, I need to get a picture with them. Guess it's just my inner six year old wanting to get out.

We then went over to the board to find my bib number - #1430!

While picking up my bag of stuff, the lady handing things out just HAD to try to make conversation, didn't she? I, of course, just fed her fake questions - but in my head I was thinking:

"Is this your first race?" - It probably looks like it, doesn't it?
"Are you all ready for tomorrow?" - Yup. All ready to sit on the couch and watch football.

Needless to say, I really felt like I didn't belong there. All these skinny, fit runners in their race shirts and bright running shoes really just made me stick out like a big, sore thumb. On top of that, I had ordered a large shirt for the race. Guess I was a little optimistic about my training regimen.

But that being said, going to these types of events still reminds me that I still do have a goal of being a runner. While running a full marathon wasn't part of my Sunday this week, it will still be a part of a Sunday at some point in the future. I haven't given up on this goal yet.

The Injury Bug Strikes!

All the way back in May, I announced that I was going to tackle my first FULL marathon after a few years on the bench. But, as you can already probably predict by the title of this post, that will not be happening anymore.

About a month ago, while up at a summer camp with friends and family from church, I tried to participate in the annual sand volleyball tournament. Well, my knee felt otherwise. During our second game of the tournament, it decided to buckle underneath my overweight-ness (accompanied by three, terrifying pops) with a little help from the uneven, shifting, soft sand court. Awesome. At least my team went on to win the tournament without me!

As you can see, my right knee swelled up nice and big...

After getting back from camp, I wasn't able to get to the orthopedic doctor for 2.5 weeks. By then, things had started to settle down a little bit - I was able to walk without a limp, and it really only hurt when doing a squatting motion or trying to jog. The doctor didn't really find anything wrong either, with the exception of a half-hearted, hail mary "possible torn meniscus" diagnosis. He suggested I head to physical therapy for 6-8 weeks and get back to him after that. While there, they further diagnosed a hamstring strain and possible meniscus tear. Splendid.

So since then I've been forced to deal with the reality that I won't be able to finish training for the marathon in two months. I've fallen extremely far behind in my training, and don't want to risk further injury by trying to rush back into things. The icing on the cake is that I can't get sell my registration to someone else either, since the race is a Boston qualifier. Better believe I'm going to pick up my swag bag though!

Registration Giveaway - Chicago Half Marathon - September 8, 2013

It's that time once again, readers! Time to give away a FREE registration to one of the Chicagoland area's premiere races! Let's read on, shall we?

The 17^th Annual Chicago Half Marathon (and Hyundai Hope On Wheels 5k) will be host to thousands of runners that will enjoy a beautiful 13.1 mile course along scenic Lake Shore Drive with great views of the Chicago skyline, starting and finishing at Jackson Park. Visit www.ChicagoHalfMarathon.com for more info!

There aren't a lot of half marathon courses around here that feature as gorgeous of a view as the one that runs up and down Lake Michigan. Since most of you reading this are from the Chicago area, you know what I mean - so awesome.

"Jordan, stop talking! How do I get my mitts on this free registration?"

Okay, okay. Your name will be put in the hat by simply commenting on this post either here on my blog, or by commenting on Facebook when I share this link.  Easy peasy!

I'll be choosing a winner at the end of this week - June 14th - so get to commenting!

In the Starting Blocks

On the heels of the Men's 100m Finals - all hail Usain! - I think the title of today's post is quite applicable.  By the way, can we all just stop a second and admit that he is ridiculous? Any time I watch his run my jaw just drops - so impressive.

Anyway, if you read my post from yesterday, you know that I am now 28 years of age and am embarking on a year-long journey (a la Chris Powell) to get to my sub-200 pound goal. So before I get started, I want to establish where I'm starting. I'm adjusting my feet in the blocks and getting ready to tear up the track. (But of course this isn't being treated as a sprint!)

This morning I took stock of where I find myself after a week of vacation and a week + of slacking on my half marathon training schedule. And it was worse than I thought.

If any of you follow me on YouTube, you'll know that I also just joined a couple of challenges - so to speak - that require me to make regular update/progress videos. In my initial videos for #CHANGE and "Hot 4 Halloween" I made a guess before vacation that I weighed around 270 despite having not seen a scale for a week prior to that. Well...I must have been wrong. Here are my starting numbers as of today:

Starting Weight: 275.6

Measurements (in inches):

I took some 'before' pictures that I will show you at the end of each three-month "Phase" (again with the Chris Powell comparison). I will also be giving short, weekly reports each Monday letting you know how my last seven days went - mostly statistical with a little analysis. I'll also have a running, weekly, weigh in tally in the upper-right portion of the blog.

I also want to note that I don't want to stray too far from the running focus of this blog, but that shouldn't be a problem since I'll be continuing my half marathon training this next month and using it as a huge part of my weight loss. My ultimate goal after all of this is done is to become a hardcore runner (like some of you!) and maybe even dabble in some du- or triathlons. Hmm? Hmm?

But let's take this one day at a time, k? I'll have my first progress post for ya on Monday.

Half Marathon Giveaway 2.0

Well, well, well, what do we have here? By the title of this post, it looks like I have another free, half marathon registration to give away! So I'm guessing that's why you're here!

The folks over at the Chicago Half Marathon have graciously given me a free registration to hand out to one of my faithful readers. If you like downtown Chicago, the lakefront and running, then you may want to get your name in the hat for this (if you're not already signed up, that is).

The race takes place on Sunday, September 9th at 7:00am in Jackson Park and is the second leg of the Windy City Challenge (click for details). That means if you've already run the Allstate 13.1 Marathon Series race back on June 9th, you're elligible to get a THIRD medal for running that race and this one!

All you have to do to get your name in the running for this FREE registration is leave me a comment letting me know what sport you're most looking forward to in the upcoming Summer Olympics! I find it hard to narrow down one event, but after Beijing how can you not be looking forward to the men's 100m dash?! Usain Bolt is a beast!

Can't wait to give this away - I'll pick a winner on Sunday, July 8th!

Karhu 5k - June 9, 2012

Well race day was Saturday, and as some of you may know, I decided to downgrade to the Karhu 5k, which was the partner race of the Allstate 13.1 Marathon. While I use the heat warnings as my first reason for switching, the reality is that I simply wasn't prepared to run a half marathon - heck, I even struggled at the 5k. And while I may say that I was given short notice that I would be able to register for the half, the truth is that I didn't put in as much time/miles as I could have.

But I'm also using this weekend as a learning experience.

When a challenge is thrown your way, sometimes you can't afford to doubt, second-guess or delay. Sometimes you need to get your helmet on, lower your shoulder and plow forward towards whatever challenge awaits you. When I registered for the half marathon, I knew it was less time than the 12-week training plan I have, and I knew I'd have to bust my rump to get my miles in.

So I think I caved under the knowledge that I'd have to work hard, which isn't a good thing. I seem to have treated my training as a lost cause - even before I began. Reality is that I definitely could have gotten in shape to run 13.1. Maybe not well enough to run a good time, but to at least finish.

So what's the answer to this problem? I think I'm just going to 'simply' work my tail off to get this weight off, get my running legs in good shape and be ready for whatever challenge is thrown at me next.


Mark (30:05), Jacob (30:13) and I (33:21) before the Karhu 5k

But enough of my rambling introspection, I'm sure you're wondering how the 5k went, right? Well, I didn't set any records by any means, but I finished in 33:21. And all in all, I had a great time with Mark and Jacob - the two guys I was able to give the free registrations to (Mark: half marathon but also switched to 5k; Jacob: 5k). The race course was so-so (we literally flipped a U-Turn on the sidewalk/running trail), but the after-race party was fun! The cover band was entertaining, the free Michelob Ultra was tasty and the Lou Malnati's pizza was a great breakfast!

Once I edit it together, I'll post my video from the day as well.

On the negative side, I was quite bummed that I missed the blogger meet-up by only a few minutes! I was hoping I'd be able to add a picture of all of us in this post as well, but alas... it didn't happen. I also wasn't able to catch any of you on the course in the half hour I stood around and watched more runners come in. Seems like you all had a great time, though! (Also, it turns out that Sara finished about 30 seconds ahead of my wife's uncle!)

My congratulations go out to everyone who finished the half marathon or 5k on Saturday! And I hope to meet up with some of you sooner than later!

Half Marathon Training - Week 1

Well I have one week of "training" behind me, and I definitely use that term loosely. Of the five days that I hit the treadmill (Mon-Thurs, Sat), I don't think I ran for more than 20% of the time. I feel like I gotta get this weight off in order to make the running a bit easier. But I know I need to get running in order to lose the weight - gotta love Catch 22's!

But as you can see by the text in the right sidebar, I weighed in this morning down 6.6 from last week! So according to this article, that means that I've taken 26.4 pounds of pressure off my knees! And as each new pound comes off, it only helps! I have, however, been bothered with a nagging Baker's Cyst on the back of my left knee, which is also the knee that I've had arthroscopic surgeries on (2001 & 2002). It causes my knee to get a little stiff and bugs me when I'm walking around during the day - we'll see if it comes to visit again this week.

Thankfully I started off this week with a great treadmill session - I knocked out about 3 miles running over the course of the hour I spent on the treadmill (4.25 total miles). Still finding it hard to get the endurance up enough to run for more than ten minutes at a time, though. But as long as I can keep knock out days like this, I'm sure I can begin to string together some decent spurts of running. But according to Bill Murray in What About Bob? - "Baby steps!"

Well I'm off and running in Week 2! My plan is to be able to knock out 3 miles straight by the end of the week. Everyday is one day closer to the big race, there's no time to waste!

Before I sign off, I just want to say "thank you" to everyone who's been reading these last few months. Your encouragement, support and words of wisdom are more valuable than you know and keep me moving forward towards my goals. While I don't quite consider myself a true "runner" yet - especially in comparison to some of you who knock out MANY races per year - I look forward to the day where I can feel even a little bit more worthy. :)

I hope you all had a great weekend! How many miles did you knock out?

Let's Get It Started!

Well, if you've seen my last post you know that I've suddenly decided to run a half marathon this June. I know, pretty unexpected for me too! But when I got a free registration code offered to me for this year's 13.1 Chicago Half Marathon I saw it as a great opportunity to give me some structure to my workouts.
As of now I was half-heartedly doing a Couch to 5k program at the gym during the week, but really didn't even have a 5k event in mind at the conclusion of my program that I could participate in. I was really just using it for the sake of having a structured program. Without a final goal I didn't see a huge urgency to get my miles in or push myself, to be honest.

However, now that I have a flippin' HALF MARATHON staring me in the face in just over two months, I don't have any choice but to get my miles in and stick to the program. I am in NO way ready to run a half marathon and I refuse to embarrass myself since this is my 5th race of this distance. By this time I should be able to train well and compete well - if nothing else compete with my own PR of 2:20:20 (easy to remember, right?)

So if I had to set a goal for this race initially, I would say that I want to beat my current PR. Even though I don't have a FULL 3 months to train for this, I do plan on being at least 30 pounds lighter (unless the endless supply of snacks in the break room at work have anything to say about it), and hopefully the "lighter load" will help the old knees push out a sub 2:20.

That being said, I plan to report to you all on my training as it progresses. It's been around a year since my last race, and I can't afford to deviate from my schedule this time around if I want to knock it out of the park. And I get to take one, lucky reader along with me!

So if you aren't already registered for the Chicago 13.1 Half Marathon and want to add it to your 2012 schedule, visit my prior post and leave a comment with why you want to run! Winner will be chosen on Monday, April 2nd! But if interest seems to plateau sooner, I'll pick one sooner so they can get to training!