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