Hot Chocolate 15K

In the beginning of October after running a 5K I decided that I wanted to try to run the Hot Chocolate 15K at the end of the month. I had thought about doing it a few months before but hadn't signed up yet and it was getting to crunch time....here it was the beginning of the October and I would have less than 4 weeks to get ready for a 9.3 mile race. 

I told myself that if I survived a 5 mile run that first week that I would sign up for the race. I survived it so it was on! The following week I ran 6 miles and the week after that I bumped it up to 8 miles so that I would only have to tack on 1.3 miles for the race. Last week was too busy so I actually didn't get to run between my 8 mile training run in MI and the race on Sunday (whoops!). I also was throwing up on Thursday night for an unknown reason- one minute reading Izzy a book, then deciding that I needed to put it down to head into the bathroom- so I wasn't 100%. The day before the race I ran around after the kids and planted 90 daffodil bulbs so I wasn't exactly "resting." 

Okay, so no more excuses.

Sunday morning was COLD. The temperature was 35 degrees, but it felt like 31. I stayed over at my parents place Saturday night so that I could sleep a little later and my mom was nice enough to drop me off at the race start. Too bad gear check was four blocks away, but I guess the walking was helping me stay warm? I was so sad to leave my jacket and nice warm gloves at gear check, but hit the bathroom again before heading to the corral. Race time was at 7:30am, but because I was in Corral E I had to wait for the other corrals to start and you wait four minutes in between corrals (great race-wise because you are not running around people at the start but bad when it is cold out!). I had to go to the bathroom again even before the race started.

For the first couple miles I was simply trying to warm up. Fairly soon after the start we ran on Lower Wacker Drive which is a road beneath Upper Wacker Drive. It is also where a lot of homeless people sleep as it is covered; I felt bad as we ran past because what a way to wake up- with tens of thousands of runners running past you. I was happy to see the bathrooms so that I could pee again before mile 2 and then the 5K runners peel off around 2.8 miles. Soon after I took off my third layer as I was starting to get hot. I was running 1/2 mile and then walking for a minute as I have been doing during my training runs. Around mile 3.5 I thought that I saw my boss and his wife run past me but it turns out it wasn't them. 

It was evident early on that the time on Lower Wacker Drive had screwed up the GPS on my Nike+ app so it started to tell me .15 or .20 before I would hit a mile marker that I had gone another mile. I got so angry at the app as I was running because it was telling me that I was farther along than I really was. I stopped at every Nuun station to pick up some fluids and ate some M&Ms at one point too (I skipped by the marshmallow aid station as I remember that not going over very well in a previous race). I walked up every hill (thankfully there were not too many) in order to save my energy, but also because for the first time during a race I was having hamstring issues. At three different points on the course I had to stop to stretch my hamstrings.

When I saw the 10K marker I got super excited- I only had a 5K left! I got a little annoyed when we met up with the 5K walkers with less than .5 to go in the race. They were jumping around and had tons of energy and it just annoyed me after running almost 9 miles at that point. Plus they were in my way! :-) I was happy to cross over the finish line and finally stop running!

5K time- 39:25

10K time- 1:18:32

Finish- 1:57:16

Because I had to edit my distance in the Nike+ app (it thought I had run 9.67 miles), my splits are all gone (they were wrong anyway), but my average pace was 12:35/mile. I was happy to finish in less than two hours, although I did run the race slower than I did three years ago. But hey, not bad for only ramping up my mileage this month and for being sick a few days beforehand.

After grabbing my jacket and warm gloves from gear check then making the long walk to the post-race party to get my fondue and hot chocolate, I headed to my parents for a nice warm shower and a delicious brunch of blueberry waffles and fruit. I ended up with more than 30,000 steps over the course of the day as I ran after the kids when I got home!

15 months old

1 year, 3 months old

Height- 2'8.5" (88%)

Weight- 27 pounds, 11 ounces (96%)

Diapers- Size 5 diapers during the day, Size 5 nighttime diapers

Milestones- What a big month for Wes. He started to give high fives and blow kisses. When we ask for hugs and kisses he runs towards us. The kisses are open mouth but unlike with Izzy, there is no tongue involved which is nice. :-) He seems to really like to give CP kisses because CP's goatee is scratchy. He knows so many words these days even if he can't vocalize them himself (socks, shoes, book, outside, dog, pig, cat, sheep, cow, truck, train, light, banana, strawberry, fruit, milk, water, etc.- too many words to write down at this point). It is helpful because now we give him easy commands like "Wesley can you put that book in your room? Can you give Daddy his shoe?" Etc. and he will actually do what we are asking. It also makes reading to him at night more fun because I will ask him "where is the cow?" and he will point to it. Physically he is starting to jog more, although some times it results in face plants to the sidewalk.

Language- Words so far- "dah" for dog, "uh oh" when he drops something, "ma ma" for milk, and "ah da" for all done. No new words this month, but he is using sign language a bit more (milk and all done)- just when I was about to give up on him! He lights up when you ask him if he wants to go downstairs or outside. If you ask him where something is- like a shoe- he will throw his hands out to the sides and look for the object.

I had just asked him "Where is dinosaur?"

He usually finishes dinner before everyone else and to keep him busy we ask him "Where is mommy?" (points to me) "Where is Daddy?" (points to CP) Etc. He thinks it is hilarious.

Favorite Toy- This month wes gravitated towards Izzy’s stable of horses or a few small cars we have around the house. Although I warn Izzy a lot about small toys and not leaving them on the floor for Wes, he really doesn't put much in his mouth. A few of the fake food items that Izzy has that go with her play kitchen but that's it. I stay vigilant, but I also joke that I think that he eats enough so he doesn't feel the need to put stuff in his mouth. :-)

Favorite Book- He is also obsessed with the "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo" book. If we could read it to him 10 times a day, he would still want us to read it more often.

Sleep- Wes is a great sleeper from about 7:30pm to 7 or 8am. He is down to one nap a day, generally starting around 12:30 and lasting for about two hours.

Clothes- Still in 18 month clothing but may move up soon.

Eating- Wes has gotten less adventurous although he did enjoy an Indian spinach/greens dish that we thought would be too spicy for him. A lot of the time he uses his hands to windshield wipe food off of his high chair tray (which Buster loves) and only eats dessert (fruit). He also loves milk, yogurt, cheerios, eggs. This month he started to try to use utensils and while we always need to help him, it's cute to watch him try. He loves feeding Buster when he can from the high chair...generally Buster is really good about being gentle but Wes has cried a bit when he gives food to Buster and he doesn't have an open hand...then gets surprised with some teeth.

Big fan of ice cream

Teeth- No new teeth this past month.

Illness- Wes came down with another bout of Hand Foot & Mouth this month. I happened to be driving back to Chicago from Indianapolis for a work meeting when we got the call from daycare. Right now he has a pretty awful-sounding cough but no fever so hopefully he gets over it soon.

Misc- Wes seems more into music than Izzy was at this age. We have an electric piano that Izzy sort of plays with...Wes will spend a good 15 minutes with it pressing the different buttons and thinks it's hilarious to push the "demo all" button which plays songs for you. He tends to just like the first song (ABCs) so he will press the button over and over and dance to the song. He also likes to pick up things that make noise and shake them.

A boy and his beast

He loves his Buster and also loves pushing around his dinosaur when we are outside. Thank goodness we live near a train station and under a flight path as Wes gets his train and airplane fix quite often.