Awesome run today...

I feel like I am getting the hang of this heart rate training...both Matt and Mom were correct, once I got some decent weather, it seemed so much easier. I was able to stay in my zone for 80% of my run. Which was awesome. I ended up doing 4.1, I normally do 3.1, but I felt so good I had to keep going. If it was not a work day, I would have gone even further.

It honestly was a run that reminded me how much I enjoy running. When we started this last year, I honestly believed that this would be a year that I would dedicate to 1 race (Disney Full), but at this point I can not picture my life without running. I may not be the best at it, or the fastest, but I love it, and as my brother is finding out...I want everyone to love it too...or at least try. Hell, if I can do this, anyone can.

Day 15 Weigh In

241.8

I did not lose as much this week...we did go a little crazy on Saturday with eating popcorn at the movies and I probably could have exercised a little more self control at our dinner off Saturday night at Chili's...

I still am sitting at about 7 lbs for the 3 weeks we have done this...that is still pretty good.

I am excited about my runs this week, the weather is supposed to be very mild...I do not think we are going to be breaking 80 today.

Great Long Run Yesterday...

I was without my Garmin (Karen was running with it), so we went on Mom's heart rate and ended up doing a very comfortable 9.5 miles. We stopped frequently to stretch, plus a nice stop at the Kroger to refill water, go to the potty, etc...I really like that we are getting to the point where a close to 10 mile run can be uneventful. It was more humid than it has been, but we are looking forward to some cooler weather. Yes, it screws up the end of our pool season, but I have heard that heart rate is easier to do when you are no gasping for air with all of the humidity.

That is all I have to report at this point...I may do a short run later tonight and tomorrow I will blog my week 3 weigh in...not really to happy about that because I somehow gained 3 lb's yesterday...

Been a bit...

So, I have had 2 good weeks of runs...I feel pretty confident that I can get 4 runs in a week, plus a swim or two...

Over the past week, Mom and I have been doing our long runs in Spring Hill which is different than normal. We normally like to go up to the River Park in Brentwood, but it has been a bit easier to run close to home. We found a pretty good route that has some hills and also passes to restrooms, so we have been running that...

During the week, I have been running 3ish miles at the River Park...I am comfortable running there...if I forget the Garmin, I know my distance so I know where to turn around...

On to the Heart Rate training...it is going well...Mom and I ran 8.4 miles last week using HR instead of intervals...we were slow, but we could have gone on for at least another mile or two. This is going to be really helpful for the marathon...right now, I feel confident that I can run a half and know that around mile 10, I still have enough in the tank that I can open my speed up at the end if I need to...for the full, it will prety much be about survival. As long as I can keep running even at a slow pace, I can stay ahead of the sweepers...

Nothing else really new to blog...I have been reading this book...

http://www.amazon.com/Slow-Fat-Triathlete-Athletic-Dreams/dp/1569244677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251512244&sr=8-1

I am about 70% through it...it is more or less a beginners guide to triathlons told by a "normal" athlete...someone who started running to lose weight...starting at 269 pounds and graduated to tri's...which I think is going to be next years project...we will see...

Day 8 Weigh In

243.2

I am pretty happy with that...I got a little nervous after our "off" days but everything seemed to work out. The diet is pretty easy to keep up with and I can eat pretty much everything that I like (except cookies)...

I had a couple of great runs that I will blog about later, plus added swimming into my rotation so, it was a pretty busy week as far as exercise is concerned. I really feel like I am getting the hang of the heart rate monitor...it is still slowing me down, but I am slowly getting to the point where I can run for longer periods of time...Look for the run post tonight...

Day one Weigh in...

248.0

So far so good. I do not have any lofty goals as far as weight loss is concerned, but I figured I would throw the number up there weekly...

On day 1, I figure the most difficult thing for today is to stay away from the cookies here at work...other than that, I am ready for my lunchtime workout...which will be a bit slower than normal due to I am still a little sore from the spin class...

Spin Class...

So, I attended "spin" class with Karen this afternoon, it didn't suck...however it is not something that I will do regularly. It was a great workout, I definitely worked up a sweat, but any XT I am going to be doing is going to be moderate and at my own pace. It was really amazing watching Karen and the rest of the class "sprint" up the "hills" and whatnot, but I have been injury free since February and I want to keep it that way...any cycling I do, will be on a real bike through the neighborhoods.

Tomorrow, Karen and I start the big diet. One of the big concerns of this diet was one of the "rules" is no soda...meaning no diet coke...on a bet, I started a week early. So, as of tomorrow, I will be off the diet coke for a full week...so far, it has been pretty easy...I wake up with a small headache, lack of caffeine I guess, but that is easily remedied with my morning coffee. Other than that, there is really nothing special about the diet...eating the right carbs, lean meats, etc...no fries, no pizza...smaller meals, but more of them. It last 4 weeks, we will see what happens...

I am going to do my best to run during lunch tomorrow. I decided than instead of being out late 2 nights in a row, I would try to run during lunch on Mondays...the temperature difference between 11 and 5:30 has been minimal lately...

Also, I booked the Disney trip for January, I already had our hotel booked (Pop Century), but I had not made the decision on how many days of tickets we would need...just a quick call to Disney reservations and all of that was fixed. I love talking to those people...they really know what they are doing...

Have a good week...

Yesterday's Run, etc

Due to some scheduling conflicts, Mom and I ended up running around the neighborhood instead of going to the River Park...as with our last few runs, I am still doing heart rate training which is getting better, but still a bit frustrating. We initially planned to run 5-6 miles, a quick out a back through the next subdivision over, but changed our minds once we got out there and decided to go a bit further...

We ended up doing about 7.3, which was great, but it was a slow go. I understand that in the long run, the HR training is going to be good for me, but right now, it is a bit frustrating. Having to stop or slow down considerably to stay in my zone is a bit annoying. We ended up having a 15 minute pace for our 7, which is fine (albeit, very very slow)...when we finished, I was not tired at all. Sort of felt like I had not worked out at all, but I know that this has worked for Mom, Byron, and Lou...so, I will keep it up. I imagine, it will work great during Marathon training.

Speaking of which, after the run, Bella and I went into Brentwood to sign up for the Fleet Feet Marathon Training...we got Karen and I signed up, we are good to go to start on 9/12! We also visited the Halcyon Bike shop, a local outfit that sells and refurbishes old bikes. It was a great visit, they seem like really nice people...although I did not see anything I liked yesterday, I will definitely be back. I am definitely interested in getting a bicycle so that I can do some cross training...

Today, I am going to attend a spin class with Karen, we will see how that goes...

In Training...

So, we have a lot going on training wise right now...

Monday - Tin Roof 2 Fun run - this is a 3.5 - 5 mile run every Monday night from the Tin Roof 2 in Cool Springs...It is right up the street from work, so it is easy to get to for me. I am considering making it my normal Monday run due to its "ease of use"...I do not have to plan a course...just show up and run...

Tuesday - Mom and I are running with the "No Boundaries" group which is a couch to 5k program training for the Race for the Cure, organized by Fleet Feet...Here is another 3-5 miler that is every week. We ran 3.76 the other night so I imagine once we pick the pace up and I get in better gear with my Heart Rate training, then we will be running closer to 4.5 or 5...

Wednesday - Rest or swimming...we will see, I am trying to get myself up earlier enough to swim laps in the morning...

Thursday - Starting next week, Thursday will be an 'easy run'...at most 3 miles...just to keep warm and keep my miles up...

Friday - more XT - when I can find a decent used bike, I will probably take it out with the girls around the neighborhood or something.

Saturday - Long Run day - starting September 12th, full marathon training starts with Fleet Feet, we will run at the very least 12 miles every Saturday...it is going to be tough, but we are ready. We are starting our mileage increases this weekend so that when we get to 9/12, we will be ready to rock...

Sunday - Rest

Then we get to start over...It is going to be an exciting fall between training for Las Vegas (half), then Disney 6 weeks after that.

Goals for the Fall:

1. Heart Rate Training - be able to keep my heart rate within my zone and be able to recover quickly...or quicker than I can now...I think that when the cool air gets here, we will be good to go...

2. At least 20 miles a week starting in September...

3. Beat 2:50 in Las Vegas...I know the course already...by then I should be in a great shape...

4. Eat right...Karen and I are starting the game on diet this week, we will see how that goes...I have already lost 3 lbs this week by drinking water instead of Diet Coke...

That is all for now...tomorrow morning there will be a 6-7 miler at the river park, visit to Fleet Feet, then a visit to Halycon Bikes in Nashville to see if they have anything good...

Short stop at the homestead...

After getting home and spending a week or so doing laundry and putting out fires at work, it was time to pack back up and head to Chicago for the Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon...

Our goal was simple, beat our time from the Country Music Marathon. For most of us, not Karen, our goal was pretty easy. Mom walked a good portion of the CMM due to an injury...and I bonked around mile 8 due to the heat, both of us finished on the bad side of 3:00:00...Karen, on the other hand, finished with a respectable 2:55.

The flight out was uneventful and short...we got to Midway to our Shuttle in no time...after a short ride into town, we made it to the Hotel Burnham, our home for the next few days. I have always been intrigued by the Kimpton Hotels, ever since Samantha Brown did a bit on the Hotel Monaco which seemed like such a nice hotel, I have always wanted to stay at one. Long story short, I loved this hotel, the building was 113 years old, stood across the street from the old Marshall Fields building, and at one point Al Capone's dentist was on the 8th floor. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, we got to the hotel, stored our bags because the room was not ready yet, and then caught a cab to the Expo...



The expo was fantastic. Most of the same players from the CMM expo was there...we got to see Kara Goucher get interviewed, eat lots of samples...make a few souvenir purchases and meet up with Lou and Byron, our running mates from Fleet Feet Nashville...of course, I also had to take pictures at the Disney booth...



and also the medals...



We finished up and went back to the hotel...our rooms were ready, so we went ahead up...it was a smallish room, about what you would expect at a boutique hotel in a 113 year old building...but, it was really comfy. Perfect for us...Karen especially liked the Aveda soaps and shampoos...the view was amazing. We had a full view of Macy's, the Joffrey ballet (at night, we could see the classes going on) and the Chicago Theatre...



I took lots of other pictures at the hotel, check out my flickr page if you want to see more...

After the hotel, we were hungry, really starving actually...we hadn't had time to eat lunch and the maple clif bars really didn't act as the lunch we wanted...so we hit Pizano's around the corner for pizza...we were seated immediately and ordered our pizzas...



It was delicious...and we knew that we wanted to try to be somewhat good on Saturday as far as eating goes, we we wanted to get the deep dish pizza out of the way. After our dinner/lunch, we went back to the hotel to settle down...

Saturday, we woke up early and walked around town a bit to see how far the starting line was for the hotel. Good news, we were about 3/4 mile from the starting line and about a mile from the finish line. A decent warm up and cool down from both lines. We met Mom and Gordon at Potbelly for sandwiches, it was awesome. After that, we went down towards the Magnificent Mile...Guess what, we found the Disney Store!!!



So, we walked up and down the mile and then took a water taxi to the Navy Pier. At the navy pier, they had plenty of souvenir shops, a ferris wheel, some other assorted Carnival rides, several restaurants...and unfortunately rain. We messed around there for a bit and then took a taxi back to the hotel. Now, Karen had wanted to see the Harpo Studios and visit the Oprah store, so we dropped Gordon off at the hotel and then took a taxi to Oprah's block. We took some pictures outside the studios, then went over to the Oprah store. Now, the Oprah store has pretty much what you would think. A whole bunch of crap with an 'O' on it...I walked around the store took some pictures, and while Karen was trying on an 'Oprah' fleece...I was asked to stop taking pictures. Now, normally, I am pretty compliant, but I could not wrap my brain around why this would be. It is a tourist trap...of course, it made me take more pictures...



So, by looking at the picture, you are an accessory to the crime...we decided to walk back to the hotel...it was about 2 miles...we walked by the Sears tower and took some pictures, then went back to the hotel to change for dinner. For our pre-race meal, we opted to go back to Pizano's to carb up. It was a nice meal, then back to the room to be in bed by 8:00, we had a 5:00 wake up call and had to get our gear ready...



We all got a good night's rest and then went down to our corral...before getting there, we noticed a lot of the sponsors had set up tents and were giving away lots of fun stuff...fruit, bottles of water...it was a nice touch. We found our corral and our running group easily!



What was great about this race is that the corrals were sent quickly...like every 1-2 minutes quickly...before we knew it, we were up front!



The race itself was great. The course was flat and fast as promised, the only issue was that we had to go through a few tunnels at the beginning that threw everyone's Garmins off. It also could have been the tall buildings, but everyone's distance was about a mile off. Mine righted itself at some point, or at least came close to righting itself. The course took us north through Millenium Park and into the city, by the Magnificent Mile, by our hotel, and then south to and out and back by the Mccormick Expo center, soldier field, and then the back portion was right next to the lake...it was pretty awesome...



As we crossed the finish line, we were IMMEDIATELY met with cold towels and COLD water...snacks, and of course, our medal...then exited towards the same tents that we saw earlier...we drank our water, I grabbed a muscle milk and then we headed back to the hotel...

It was a great trip and race and wouldn't hesitate to go back next year.

Next up...Vegas.

I have us booked for 2 nights at the Luxor for the Las Vegas Half Marathon in December...We also start our Marathon training for Disney on Sept. 12...so we should have plenty to blog on running wise soon!

Disneyland Part 3!!! Possibly the Final Chapter

So, after a speedy runthrough of Disneyland, we headed across the way to California Adventure...during my research, it CA Adventure seemed to house "the best of the rest" from the rest of the WDW parks...but of course, before we can leave Disneyland, we HAD to get stuck behind a parade. Now, I am not going to totally hate on parades. The Main Street Electrical Parade is one of my very fondest memories of WDW from when I was little. I can remember on our first trip pestering Mom and Dad to buy the 45 of the music...yes, it was a 45 rpm record, not a cd or cassette, and my brother and I wore it down when we got home. Anyhow, we got stuck being the Celebrations parade, it was alright, but when we have 1 day to cruise through 2 parks with 2 kids...they are more annoying than anything.



We escaped DL, and made it to the area between DL and CA...I really enjoyed CA as a park. It was really pretty and I think they were pretty creative of how they connected the lands...my memory is kind of fading, so I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but we went over to TOT so that Ry and Amanda could ride. I felt like I had the kids talked into it, but they decided it was not for them, so I took them over to do something else...here are a couple of TOT pics...



The girls in front of the sign...looking scared.



While the others rode TOT, I wanted to go ride the Monsters, Inc dark ride. I loved Monsters, Inc...I thought it was a great film and I think they did a great job with the attraction...and, of course, theming the trash cans. I love this about DL and WDW, if you go through my flickr pages, I try to take pictures of the themed garbage cans...

Here's a Monstropolis can...



Anyhow, we get to Monsters, Inc...down...yep, the ride is down. Luckily, a few doors down, I see a Mickey fountain, and right behind it MuppetVision! We all loved Muppet Vision AND there was no line, which means extra AC for us...After MuppetVision, once we left the MuppetVision theatre, they opened Monsters, Inc...once again, no line. Awesome.

You can see the entrance to Monsters Inc to the right in this picture...



The ride pretty much follows the movie, the end of the attraction takes place in the giant room with all of the doors which was very cool...as an added bonus, they have an "interactive" Roz at the end of the ride that makes comments to the riders...Claire loved that she "hit" on me...she noticed I was alone, and told me that she was going to be hiding in my closet that night...

We re-grouped with the others and passed Soarin' and the Grizzly River Run...actually we literally passed on Soarin', we love the attraction, but with the wait time being so long, we decided we would catch that next time in WDW...Claire really wanted to hit Grizzly River Run, unfortunately no one else wanted to get wet, so we skipped it for now, but would double back and ride it later (just Claire and I)...we headed toward the midway area so that we can ride Toy Story Midway Mania. On the way, we got to see the area where they are putting the Little Mermaid attraction....



Of course, before we could get across to TSMM, we got caught behind a...PARADE...it was the Pixar parade, and believe it or not, it was pretty cool...



As we crossed across the bridge, we found the beer place!!! Now, I rarely feel the need for a beer, but it was one of those times...Ry and I had a beer, while Karen and Amanda drank a margarita. Claire and Bella sat quietly while we had our adult time...after our timeout, we walked towards TSMM...as it turns out, Karen and Amanda went and rode California Scream'n while Ryan and I took the girls to TSMM. On the way, I took this picture of where the World of color is going...



Toy Story was great...we all enjoyed the ride, as always...it pretty much rode the same way the WDW ride did...



Once we were done there, we re-grouped (for the moment) to see what was next. Karen, Ry, Amanda, and Bella went to ride the ferris wheel, while Claire and I ran over to Grizzly River. It was the longest line we would wait on all day (45 minutes) and it was well worth it. While we were in line, Claire explained to me that she liked these sorts of rides because you always make new friends...sure enough by the time we got off, we had a nice conversation with another Dad who had his daughter and son with him...of COURSE, Claire had an "I told you so" waiting for when we got off...



The others saw us on the ride and waited for us on the exit...the girls were hungry for a snack, so Karen took them to eat something and then Ry, Amanda and myself went to TOT so that I can see how the DL version compared. It was much shorter, the car never leaves the shaft, but the thrill is definitely still there. That ride is a classic to me and the fact that we had a creepy as hell cast member seat us, that adds to the attraction a ton...

Me and Bro in line for TOT



After TOT, it was decision making time...we were hungry, it was getting dark, we had a limited amount of time left...Ryan and Amanda decided to call it a night. The rest of us hurried back in to the DL to catch the fireworks...normally, I can take or leave fireworks, but Disney does it right. Starting with Tink, the fireworks themselves...the addition of Dumbo (which was incredible to see, it was the topic of the "how did they do that" conversation for the rest of the trip)...and it was a bit of a disappointment for me. I can not take good pictures of fireworks, so I have none.

To wrap your brain around it, here is someone else's brief video of Dumbo...

After the fireworks, we hit up Autotopia, which was awesome. The track seemed much longer than WDW and I do not remember an off-road portion...I may have imagined the off-road bit, at that point I was prett punch drunk. We ended the night at It's a Small World...



I still am a sucker for this ride. Before we got there, I was not sure where I stood on the additions of the new characters from the Disney movies. Some worked, and seemed to blend in with their home countries and some looked like they were just shoved in there...like Ariel. It was pretty blatant. About the best picture I took from the inside was of Woody and Jessie...



At this point, we were cashed...it was time to make our way back to Hollywood...some final thoughts...

--Disneyland and California Adventures in 1 day is a tall order...I wished we had an extra day to hit everything...

--It is impossible not to drink in the history of the place right when you enter...

--Even tho some of the rides are shorter, they do make up for it with the theming, the architecture, etc...the houses that hold POTC and HM were just awesome to look at...

--Churros are incredible...

--I would love to get back once Little Mermaid is done and the World of Color is ready...

--Even though we probably won't get back for a proper DL visit, it would be hard to not sneak a day in...and then complain about not having enough time...

--It makes me miss Disney World and be terribly jealous of guys like Lou Mongello

Well, that is it...next post should be the review of the Chicago Half Marathon...and then the official unveiling of our race before the Disney Marathon and then my tentative running schedule for marathon training...

Disneyland Part 2: The most awesome Splash Mountain picture ever...

Seriously, we could not do any better...of course, Ryan and I are mugging for the camera and the girls are the definition of extreme fright...once we got of Splash Mountain, we had some decisions to make, we wanted to make sure that we hit everything we wanted to at Disneyland while still leaving time for all the cool stuff at California Adventure. Next stop, one of my personal favorites, the Haunted Mansion...



Claire has always been sort of indifferent towards this one...she loves hearing "Grim Grinning Ghosts", but she is not a huge fan of the darkness of the ride...OF COURSE, it stopped during the initial ascent...she was not terribly pleased, but as I told both children, I do not ask for much...just a visit to HM, POTC, and IASW...after that, we headed towards POTC. Rats, it was down...unfortunately for us, it was up and down most of the day, we did get in line later in the day, but it went down while we were waiting.



Due to the time crunch, we had to press on. I guess I will hit up POTC at WDW in January...Next up, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh...I always have enjoyed this ride (even if it did replace Mr. Toad)...was pretty much the same ride as at WDW with 1 small difference...the cars...



After Pooh, we took a look through New Orleans Square...found the Club 33 door!!



Soldiering on, we made it to the Jungle Cruise...I love everything about this ride, always have...the corny jokes, the "animals", the back of the waterfall...The interactivity of the ride keeps it fresh for me.



From here we chose to split up, I took the kids to get a snack, while Ry, Amanda, and Karen went to ride Indiana Jones...while the kids enjoyed their pretzels we hung out and enjoyed the scenery. Up until that point, we had not waited more than 20 minutes for anything...it was nice...Once Karen was back from the ride, I rushed over to the single rider line to give it a shot. It was a pretty good ride, same concept as Dinosaur at AK. It seemed like the timing was off, we never got to see the boulder and I think we missed a bit of the "choose your adventure" bit at the beginning...over all, I did not enjoy it as much as Dinosaur...

Before heading to CA Adventure, we wanted to run through Tomorrowland real quick. The girls wanted to ride the Astro Orbiter, while Ryan and I wanted to chill out for a second and get a drink...



We ended our first round of Disneyland with another couple of favorites, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain...both rides seemed very similar to their WDW counterparts although Space Mountain was a lot smoother and seemed faster.



and me, I was a Level 4 - Space Scout...yes, it was because the ride stopped while I was able to continue to shoot at things, but nonetheless, I was happy with my score...




Next up...Ca Adventures...Back to Disneyland for Fireworks,Tink and Dumbo...

Long Overdue Disneyland Recap Part 1

So, as most of you know, we spent a week on the west coast...spending the first few days in California to visit my brother Ryan and my sister-in-law Amanda, then driving from LA to Las Vegas to visit my Dad. All-in-all, it was a great trip, you should have already seen the pictures I put up a few weeks ago. I wanted to focus on the Disneyland portion, long story short, I thought it was great. Obviously, it is much smaller than WDW, but they packed a lot into that area...

We parked in the Mickey and Friends parking deck...which was well signed...



As I look at the pictures now, it should have been easy to remember where we were, but since we got there at closet to opening and left at closing...I am surprised we made it back to Hollywood in 1 piece. After leaving the parking deck and taking a short tram ride to the ticketing area, we were ready to make our decisions. Ryan and Amanda were going to be making the purchases due to they are CA residents and get the CA discount. The question was how we get in the both parks (Disneyland and California Adventure) for the cheapest amount of money...we made our purchases...2 park hoppers for the kids, and a separate CA Adventure ticket for Karen and I...wasn't the cheapest, but they would not let us upgrade our free tickets that Amanda got us...we still saved close to $150 rack...which is always nice...



Once in the park, we got to take in Main Street...THE Main Street, the one that Walt walked up and down regularly. I normally take pictures of the Main Street windows...and I am pretty sure I did, but as a I roll back through my photos, I am not seeing any of them, I guess they will show, anyhow...after picking up a coffee for Aunt Amanda, and some breakfast for the girls, we were off to see the castle. Before hitting the castle, we took several pictures of the Partners statue...



Then the castle...



After we took all of that in, it was time for some rides...we started with the Matterhorn, mainly because we were not sure we would be able to talk the girls into it later. After they saw a few cars come out and heard the screams, they had some big eyeballs...but I calmed them down with stories of the basketball court inside the mountain and whatnot...



Well, we got in our course, Claire opted to ride with Amanda, while Karen and Bella rode together...Ryan and I took our own cars. The minute we started the ascent, which was in the dark, I thought holy crap, the girls are going to be so pissed. For me, it was a great ride, kind of jerky, but it is an old coaster...it is to be expected. After Matterhorn, we pow-wowed to decide what we wanted to make sure we got to...BTMR, of course, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, POTC, all had to be done...I am also a sucker for the dark rides...One of the things that I wanted to get to was all of the Fantasyland dark rides that they do not have at WDW, Pinochio, Alice in Wonderland to name a few...unfortunately, due to time, we were not able to get on those...this is the closest I was able to get to AIW...



From there, we decided to get fast passes for Splash Mountain and then go get in the standby line for BTMR. BTMR and Splash MTN are the girls favorites from WDW, so we were very excited about both of them. One thing we noticed about the rides at DL vs. WDW was they were much shorter (not less fun, of course!!), but just shorter due to the space they have in the park. BTMR went fast meaning it was a shorter ride and much faster than its WDW counterpart. I am accustomed to taking pictures and video while riding the WDW version, but I was not able to do that this time. Here is a picture of BTMR, along with #1 Dad, didn't tell you there was celebrity sightings, did I?



This is all I have right now...Part 2 will come tomorrow, starting with Splash Mountain...

Everybody PR'ed in Chicago...

Back from Chicago...will post the whole story tonight, but I finished at 2:55, Mom finished at 2:58, and Karen finished at 2:44...was a great trip...here are the pictures.


Chicago Rock n Roll Half Marathon