DreamBig 2014 - #30 Illinois

STATE #30 - Chicago, Illinois
Rock N' Roll Chicago Half Marathon
Finishers: 13,865

July 17, 2014
I was in suburban Chicago for work all week (and for my 27th birthday yesterday) and I had a master plan about how to get my race pack early Friday morning and then get back to St. Louis. Well, all of that sort of went to shambles and I ended up calling in an earlier flight so I could get back home quicker and deal with some backpack drama. I rented a car at the airport and zoomed down to meet mom at home before heading over to the Parres's to save the world. (This is all a very long story). Mitch and I counted backpacks for a while and then I went home and was exhausted and had to get ready for planning day tomorrow!

July 18, 2014
Crazy, crazy day. Jeremy decided to fly in early as well and we had several big things to do to get ready for the JMac's Back to School Packs on Saturday. I had a quick breakfast in downtown Kirkwood at Kaldi's and then met Mitch, Cindy and Jeremy at Costco where we thanked them for their generosity in providing us with the backpacks for our event. Then Jeremy went with me and we made our way over to Wal-Mart back in Kirkwood to talk to our team of helpers there and pick up all of the school supplies for the event. I'm talking like 3 SUV's full of school supplies. We had to make several trips to Kirkwood High where we had even more people volunteer to unload everything with us. We got hungry and stopped at what will forever be known as "Magic Market" for sandwiches and continued on our mission back and forth between Wal-Mart and the high school. Mitch and Ron finally decided to show up and we organized everything in one of the many weight rooms Kirkwood now has and got everything ready for packing night.

I went home and continued to go go go getting agendas, packing lists, labels, letters all set up for the days ahead. We had an awesome, efficient team meet us up at the gym and we got all 215 backpacks stuffed in under 2 hours. It was awesome to see everyone so focused. I was absolutely exhausted so I head home knowing that the next day would be even crazier.

Assembly Line Magic

Backpack Stuffing Team Champions

July 19, 2014
Backpack day! Well, first the day started with me making Jeremy meet me at the bank at 9:00am to do some paperwork for the foundation. Sorry friend. Then I called Ben, our Kirkwood contact to see if he wanted Chick-Fil-A before I head over to the highschool to start my Type A preparation. After making some lists and checking them a million times, volunteers started to show up to help us move backpacks and get everything organized for the day. The event started at 1pm but it evidently takes a lot to get boys to move backpacks without messing around. We got the video set up, people showed up and then we were ready to go!

Jeremy, as always, gave a great talk about the importance of hard work in school coming before being a student athlete. No work, no play. I think the parents get almost as much out of hearing him speak as the kids do. After he spoke, we let the students and parents come pick up the fully stocked backpacks and then made sure everyone got to meet Jeremy and get their pictures taken. Smoothie King also showed up with smoothies for the kids. Once the crowds had settled, we cleaned up all of the supplies, I said my goodbyes to our amazing team and zoomed off to the airport to catch my flight back to Chicago.

I arrived fairly late due to a flight delay, but caught the train into the city to meet Cooper at the hotel. I was obviously exhausted so once I got to the hotel, we just went downstairs to get some Italian food and then I needed to go to bed early after my hectic non-stop day.

215 Backpacks stuffed and ready to distribute!

Jeremy giving his talk to the attendees

JMac Gives Back Employee of the Month (for Life) - Mitchell Parres

Thanks Big Mike for stopping by! Crazy how much can change since 1st grade!

Jeremy with some of the cute little kiddos!

July 20, 2014
After a rather restless sleep, I had to wake up early and walk to the start of the race to pick up my race packet since I had missed the expo the day before. I told Cooper he didn't need to go with me (it was like 4:30am) but he didn't want me wandering through the city streets of Chicago alone in the dark. We picked up my bib and on the walk home i started feeling absolutely horrible. I think it was my body's way of saying "pump the brakes" but I was here and I was going to run. When we got back to the hotel, I got dressed and then curled up in a ball in the fetal position forcing myself to drink water and take little bites of a Cliff Bar and knew the race would be a slow one, but I would finish. 

We made the long walk back to the race start again around 6am - I think the race started at like 6:30am to try and avoid the heat. It was a rather large race that would wind up and down the Chicago city streets and then come up the lakeshore. The gun went out and I did my best to stay with Cooper for the first two miles and then I could tell I was holding him back so I told him to run along and I would meet him at the finish. It wasn't a super challenging race but since I had just done my race in Maine the weekend before, my body was a bit confused on what I was doing....again.

Hot....just really hot

The race went under the bridges where I'm pretty sure Batman was filmed and then went out and around just turning down random blocks through the city until mile 6 or so. Evidently Alison Andrews was at one of the water stops and I sadly totally missed her - that would have made my day! Mile 6 until 8.5 went south out of town and there really wasn't much to look at but it was progress and getting closer to the finish so that was all I cared about.

Bringing back the hand numbers

Maybe near the finish?

We made a turn and a few loop de loos and then once we got to mile 10, we headed north again along the water back towards the city. This last 5K was supposed to have a club setting so they had stereos blasting music and those inflatable men they put outside of car dealerships that go up and down and wave when air is blown into them (bad description?). It was nice and a change of pace. You could see the city in the distance but it wasn't getting any closer. Somewhere near mile 12, we ran under the convention center and they had lights and music and it actually made me kind of dizzy but it was the thought that counts! The last mile was a slow, hot, uphill climb along Lakeshore and Columbus Drive and I couldn't be happier to get to the finish! I finished in 2:13 which I could care less about. I had finished another decade of races!! 30 down 20 more to go!

Official Race Pic - 30 down, 20 more to go! Illinois - check!

I found Cooper after the race and he had done great! My friend Renee who I had met while working in New York called and found us near the finish. She helped take some pictures and then walked with us to the park to take pictures with the Bean! After pictures Cooper and I went to clean up and get brunch before I caught a flight back to Atlanta after having been gone for almost 3 weeks straight. 

#30 for Ash and I think #10 for Coop!

So happy Renee came to meet us at the finish!

Home sweet home ATL! I had been gone for my birthday so when I arrived back at the house Gregg had surprised me with a spread of my favorite things - cheese, milkshakes and popcorn. Only a boy roommate would think of this....

The birthday spread

30 states down, 20 to go!

#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2014 - #29 Maine

STATE #29 - Portland, Maine
Shipyard Old Port Half Marathon
Finishers: 2,468

July 11, 2014
Today is Dad's Birthday - happy birthday pops! The ironic thing about dad's birthday, is that instead of him getting the present, he nicely let me use some of his Southwest points for my master crafted weekend plans. I was in Chicago leading up to this week and I had a race in Maine on Sunday which left Friday night to figure out where I should stay. Naturally, I realize that New York is sort of close to Maine so I decide to take a flight with dad's help from Chicago to New York to spend the evening with Kali, Ryan and Halie. Kali and Ryan had recently moved to NYC for Ryan's work and I hadn't seen there place in Astoria so the trip was well worth it. I took a cab and met Kali at her place and then we got ready and went into the city with her friends for pizza and Halie Mobley Larson (my sorority little from ZTA at Auburn) came over from her place in New Jersey and met us for dinner. Again, never in a million years would I think I would casually drop into NYC and have two of my best friends in the world get to meet each other over pizza. We had a great night of eating and drinking and just exploring the NYC night life together.

Two of my best friends ever - in the same place!!!

City that never sleeps with Kali

 Just enjoy these next few videos....

July 12, 2014
The next morning we had planned to do brunch but no one work up. Kali loves her sleep. I had a flight from NYC to Boston at noon so Ryan (Kali's fiance) drove me to the airport and sent me on my way. I arrived in Boston around 1:30pm and picked up my car to drive the 2 hours up to Portland, Maine. I do some work every now and again in Exeter, NH which is right across the border from Maine so I was fairly used to this drive. Of course I stopped at the Nike Outlet because I just had to....you never need a reason for deals.

Oh good...Maine's open.

I got to Portland around 4pm and went right to the expo to pick up my packet which was on a Pier with a band and food and it was like a carnival. I didn't stick around too long because I wanted to explore some more, but it was an prerace party set up had I been with a group. I decided that it would be fun to drive the course to get a feel for what I was getting myself into. This is also quite difficult when you are navigating alone. I stopped a couple times to take some pictures of the water and surrounding scenery. The course only had a few ginormous uphills and the entire thing was super scenic so I knew we were in for a good race.

The top of one of the big hills would be well worth the view

I decided to wander the town and look for postcards and dinner. The town is gorgeous and I wish I had more time to explore. I ended up picking up a turkey burger and then decided to drive the coast a little more...when I ran across a place called Benny's that I just had to stop because it was so cute. And I mean... who wouldn't eat fried clams right before a half marathon. Isn't "fried" technically a carb?

So with way too much food in tow, I headed to the Westin where I would be staying for the night and kicked up my feet for the night after my walking tour of Portland.

I realized fairly late that I probably needed breakfast and water for the morning so I ventured out to find a Walgreens to pick up some supplies before heading to bed.

July 13, 2014

The race was starting very early to avoid the heat and my hotel was a good mile or so from the start. It was still cool, so I left the hotel fairly early and as I walked others started emerging from neighboring hotels to join me in my trek to the start line. The race started on the pier and it was a fairly decent sized crowd of about 2000 all lined up on the boardwalk.

The race took off at 7am and headed back down the main street towards my hotel and then looped up and around Benny's and through the mansions of the West End neighborhood for the first 4 mile before heading back down towards where we started. Continuing through downtown, we started the ascent up the hill I had mentioned previously near Mile 6 and I knew if I could get to the top, the scenery would be a welcomed treat. I have an odd gift for uphills on my good days and it felt good to activate that stored up power and cruise past people struggling on the hill called Mount Joy. 

Once at the top, we followed the road along Casco Bay where we were able to look down and see islands, ferries, sailboats, lobster boats, and paddlers. As I left the first half of the course behind me, I started on the second half which ran on a trail along the Back Cove, a 340-acre circular tidal basin, which was basically a 3.5 mile stretch with spectacular views of the Portland skyline. The only really hard part about this was that the basin was ginormous and the entire loop you could see how much further you had to go. I never realize how far 3 miles is much less 13 miles is until you see it from a bigger picture...or drive it in the car. 

Running along the longest basin trail ever

It was starting to get hot and a few medics were having to help people on the trail but I just stayed in my groove and kept drinking water. Once off that mentally draining loop, we jumped on another trail that took us along the Eastern Prom trail that passed by the old Grand Trunk Railroad swing trestle bridge AND by a sewage treatment plant. While stinky, there was a long concrete wall along the trail that features some of the city’s best urban art because it is a sanctioned area where graffiti artists can go wild. This area was all concrete and had nowhere to hide from the sun and people were dropping like flies. I just did my best to stay positive and knew the end was near. 

Graffiti Wall near Mile 11 - and the sewage plant

The race finally jumped off the path and finished at the Ocean Gateway Terminal near where we had started. It was an adventure getting to the finish line through the windy finishing tunnel but it was, as always, a great feeling to be done and survive the hot sun! My time was fairly in the average zone under 2:10.

Heading to the finish!

Official Race Pic - 29 states down, 21 more to go! #DREAMBIG

I got my treats and had a nice group of ladies take my picture before running another mile back to the hotel so I could quick change and head for the airport to fly back to Chicago for another week.

Snapchat check in!

29 states down, 21 more to go!

#DREAMBIG