Donut Tasting - Brady

Are there two more beautiful words in the English language?

Saturday morning Kevin and I, along with some friends, went to a fall donut tasting party at a place called Glazed & Infused.

Oh my goodness.

Here were the flavors:

And this is what a dozen looked like:

My favorite was the "Pumpkin Old Fashioned," which looked like this:

There was also apple cider, of course:

And, weirdly, a DJ, who I do not have a picture of.

I ate way too many donuts and sugar-crashed, hard. I even ate some of the samples I took for my parents to eat on the train. (They came up to Chicago for the Northwestern/Indiana football game, which was a blast.) I was sleepy, headachy, and a little queasy for the rest of the day.

But it was so worth it.

Marathon Support Crew - Brady

Well. I've got it bad. I watched that stupid video Kelly posted of the Chicago Marathon and now I wish I was running it.  (I also just read this super inspiring book Born to Run that my dad gave me for my birthday, and that's not helping things.) I want to sign up for another marathon asap, but I might hold out for Chicago next year. 

In the meantime, I'm making it my business to be super fan #1. From my own experience racing, I know how awesome it is to be cheered for, even by strangers. I remember once Kevin's dad came out to bring the two of us Gatorade during a training run around Lake Wawasee, and I almost cried when I turned the corner and saw him. And sometime you should ask Kevin how he feels about the store Target (they had encouraging signs at the halfway point during Grandma's Marathon, and I think they made him a customer for life). 

Two weekends ago my sisters had an 18 mile training run on the schedule. I decided to bike down to their turnaround point (way down near 30th street on the Lake Shore Trail) with snacks, water, Body Glide, all the essentials. I was also able to meet up with them on their way back, about 4 miles from the end of their run, and then again when they were d.o.n.e.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Waiting for my sisters at the nine-mile turnaround. With supplies. 

Waiting...

Here they are! Looking fabulous after an hour and a half of running! 

Meeting point #2.

Here comes Amy to the finish line! 18 miles done! 

Time for brunch!

Only a few more weeks until the big day. Can't wait, ladies! I'll be living vicariously through you.

Excuses, excuses... - Kelly

I could give a million excuses for why I've been so absent on the blog recently, but instead I'll just share three...

1)  I've been training for this:



2)  I've been spending lots of hours getting used to my new team and responsibilities here:

3)  I've been enjoying an active, adventurous summer you can read more about here, here, and settling in here.

Next time I won't stay away so long. :)

I'm back! - Brady

I think I can say that I'm 100% back to running normally now. A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for my first race since my broken ankle. The Hot Chocolate 15K on November 4th. A 15K is about 9 miles. I figured this would be a challenging distance to work up to post-injury, but not super intimidating and that training wouldn't take over my life. Plus, I really love this race. The cold weather...the hot chocolate waiting for you at the end...the great swag they give you.

(Does anybody want to run this with me, by the way? As of now I'm flying solo, which is fine, but I'd love some company!)

I started my training today. Previously, I'd run up to 4 miles, so I figured two months before the race I'd start adding one mile to that per weekend and then do some shorter runs during the week. Today I reluctantly headed out for a five mile run. And I killed it. I averaged about 9 minutes, 50 seconds per mile, in the humidity, after having a couple of drinks last night. This is as good or better running than I was doing a year ago, before I got hurt. Although it was sweaty, hard, and I'm still rocking a beet red face, I felt no real pain during the workout (although I'll be stiff tomorrow in my ankle, I have no doubt).

Whoo hoo! Now we just have to get Kevin well.