I’ve been fighting a head cold with headaches and earaches off and on since the Chicago Marathon. On Thursday last week, the sickness upped it’s game and came at me full force with increased  aches & pains and a swollen sore throat.  I cried “uncle” and called the doc for meds.  They didn’t work their magic immediately and I continued to get worse.  I didn’t think I’d be running the Veterans Half Marathon because on Friday I couldn’t get out of bed until about noon.  The race was three hours away from home and I didn’t know if I could even drive that far.  I would have stayed home had the kids not been driving me crazy I not planned a fun day with my mom on Saturday.  Soooooo, I hauled it up and out of bed on FRI afternoon, drank my Spark and hit the road with my lovely angels fighting in the backseat in tow.

On Saturday, I was actually feeling decent so headed over to the Veterans Half thinking I would just run like the wind after being sick, not hydrating, and not eating for two days.  Yeah, I ran like the wind all right. 

Before we get to the running part ….. I was able to pick up my packet on race morning.  Super cool in my world.  Even cooler, the packet pick up was in a large heated tent.  The static temp was nice at around 43 degrees on Saturday morning but the wind had been howling all night and well, it didn’t stop when the sun came up.   I was also feeling “slightly” chilled from being sick and I was shivering before I even left my car.  I found FREE parking a block away from the start, dashed from my car to the potty, then to the warm tent where I was happy to wait in line for my packet.  While in line, I also met Kasey, a fellow Team Tough Chik member who was running the full in order to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs.  She crushed the full, got a new PR and qualified to be a “maniac”.  Great job, Kasey!!!

Then the start went off with the boom of a cannon and I took off like I was going to win.  Fortunately my brain caught on pretty quickly that my body wasn’t quite up for a hard run.  I was pretty empty on the energy front.  My legs weren’t heavy because between life, work and being sick, I hadn’t ran all week but I was just empty.  So I settled in and focused on covering the distance.  I soon realized that the distance and my lack of energy were not my only issues, but that wind came back full force as soon as we hit the country roads outside of town.   No trees or houses for windbreak, just us and the open road.  This photo is early on as we are headed out of town.  This particular road is smooth and flat, which wasn’t the case with all the roads.  However, the race director did an excellent job of marking the course so that was never any confusion as to direction or the distance ran.  Loved the all the stars on the road!!!

I used to run a lot of miles on country roads so am very familiar with way the roads slant for water runoff, wind, hills and also those fresh country smells which accost you when you least expect.   I was ready for all of that and have ran similar country races, like the 13.1 Valpo, which is also known for high winds.  However, Veterans was just a battle for me.  I felt like I was constantly running uphill and against the wind.  I kept hoping for that same wind to eventually PUSH me but that never happened.  Thankfully, I saw a few friendly faces spectating who helped me out a lot.  My friend Adella even made a “Go Amanda” sign.  Thanks, girlie!  And she managed to capture this amazing photo of me looking angry and as if I might hurt someone like a graceful gazelle. 

I finished in 2:03 and was super thankful that I hadn’t signed up for the full version because I don’t think I had it in me.  Despite the wind and my lack of energy, It was a great race.  Very well supported with plenty of aid stations handing out gels, water & Gatorade.  Loved the hospitality that the race officials, volunteers and local law enforcement showed to all the runners.  It took so many people to put this race together and they did an amazing job.  I’d definitely consider giving it another go in the future.  It’s a small race but I was never alone.  The full marathon had 206 finishers in the double loop course and the half marathon had 257 finishers.  They also offered a 5K which brought another 168 runners to the event. 

Love good swag?  Check out this cool full zip, unisex jacket.

I already tested it out on SUN for hill repeats with Aby.  After struggling up a few hills on Saturday at Veterans, I’ve decided that I REALLY need to work on my hills.  So Aby went with me to show me how it was done.  How does she fly up and down the hills so fast? 

We managed 10 hill repeats, each up/down was approximately 0.25 miles.  Fun.  Okay, not really.  Even Aby was begging to stop after #3 but who gets better after 3 repeats?  LOL!

I hope you had an awesome weekend. 

** Run With The Wind ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **