Second City, Third Marathon

Last week I made what, at the time, seemed like a brilliant idea. I signed up for the 2012 Chicago Marathon. I have a wonderful group of running friends I met in New York, one of whom actually came to run the St. Louis Marathon with me last year. She is also a huge fan of the Chicago marathon and has run the race every year since starting to run marathons - maybe 2006 or 2007? Every year she coerces various members of our running crew to join her in "the second city" and race Chicago - some years it's awesome, and some years, like apparently in 2010, it is a boiling sauna of misery.

At any rate, now that I am back in the Midwest, I thought to myself, "self, you're not that far away from Chicago and you never get to see your old East Coast friends, let's run Chicago and reconnect and check out this amazing marathon." So I registered.

And then, a day or so later, it hit me like a dang mac truck. The race is in October...so I will have to start training in July/August. In Saint Louis. Remember running in the heat? I try not to. But it's too late now, non-refundable active.com purchase, it's too late now.

Do you prefer running in the heat or the cold?
Any racing buyer's remorse out there?
Will you be running Chicago?!??

Be careful what you wish for...

For all of September and the majority of October, I was shaking my fist at the lingering 80+ degree weather in St. Louis and anxiously checking weather.com in the hopes that the 5-day forecast would show updates on stomping in boots, layering in cashmere, and snuggling in scarves.

Well I definitely got what I wished for. The first weekend of October, I headed out west to Manitou Springs, CO for the wedding of a dear friend. And it snowed. Really, Colorado?!

the north pole: where I felt like I was

oh hello, scarves!

the pool I couldn't go swimming in

The following weekend, I headed to Chicago, a favorite city of mine that I hadn't visited since 2007. I had forgotten how accurate the moniker "The Windy City" is but was quickly reminded about two minutes following my arrival. Sweet succotash, it's like living inside of a tornado. I mustered up all of my strength and courage to go on a run along Lake Michigan and I am not exaggerating when I say that once or twice, I almost got swept up right into it!

on the other hand, I can't do this in STL

not the ugliest view I've had on a run!

While I am enamored with Chicago and all that it has to offer, I was actually looking forward to returning to sunny St. Louis. However, if any of you have been watching the World Series (and if you haven't, don't even bother telling me because we are done), you will have noticed that it is actually 40 degrees and raining here. 

So now I get to wear my scarves...but am I really happy about it?