2014 Recap

This year flew by! It seems like I just wrote my 2014 goals a few weeks ago. Running wise I had a good year. Lets start off the new year by looking back at recap of my 2014 running year.

2014 Races

May 9-10: Cape Cod Ragnar 

I had a blast doing my first Ragnar with people I did not really know. The hills of Cape Cod were a killer. I did not know what to expect, but it is a tough, challenging and fun experience.

May 31:The Original 5K

My first 5K ever! Usually this is were a lot of people start, but I ended up going a different route. I did not know what to expect, but I wanted to run a good race. The gun went off and I ran as hard as I could and it felt really hard. I guess I did not expect a 5K to be difficult. It ended up being a good race and gave me the confidence fr the rest of the running season.

June 6-7: Chicago Ragnar 

This ended up being a challenging Ragnar for a few different reasons. The first reason it ended up being difficult is the heat. We were not prepared for it to be as hot it got and the first few legs were rough for all of us. The second reason it ended up being challenging is because I had a wedding to attend on Saturday afternoon! I am thankful the group ended up working with me to get me to that wedding on time so i could enjoy it;even if I were extremely tired.

Chicago Marathon

This is by far the race of the year for me. I changed my training program and went with the Hansons Marathon Method. The plan gave me a lot of confidence and despite my longest run being 16 miles, I felt extremely prepared for the race. Race day confirmed everything I thought and I felt great. I loved the program so much that I even convinced a few of my other friends doing marathons to use it. Not hitting the wall is a great feeling in a marathon. I am looking forward to my next challenge.

Thanksgiving Day: Evanston Flying Turkey 5K

Another 5K! I did this with a few of the students that I help coach at the high school I work for. This is definitely the coldest race I have ever done. Despite having a great running year up until this point, I had not really trained for anything since finishing the marathon. This is another race where I just ended up running as fast as I could and seeing how it goes;it went well! Things seemed like they would go wrong because my shoelaces came untied within the first few minutes of the race and I got really annoyed, but I had to keep moving. The race ended up with me finishing third in my age group.

2014 goals

Beating my race times from 2013

I accomplished this with my marathon this year.

2013-3:47:40
2013-3:15:12

Now I have a 5K PR-19:54

I did not do a half-marathon or 10-miler,so I will try to beat those times in 2015.

Run with others more often

My running community and friends definitely grew. I ran with others more, but this is something that could definitely improve. I did most of marathon training solo, but when I got a chance to run with others, it felt good.

Stay healthy 

This happened for the most part! When I say for the most part, I mean that nothing seriously went wrong that forced me to take time off.

More races

This kind of ended up happening with adding the Ragnar's and 5K's to my race calendar in 2014. This is also due how things are going financially and sometimes I could not justify paying for races when other things needed to be taken care of.

Read more blogs

I still need to be better about this. There is a lot to learn from others runners.

2014 total mileage: 1886

Ragnar Tips

How do you get over fear of missing out on the next upcoming Ragnar after doing your first one? Answer: Get convinced by one of your Cape Cod Ragnar teammates to do the Chicago Ragnar. I did not expect to be back in the saddle so soon, but here we go again.


Back in the day (a.k.a-three weeks ago), the thought of doing my first Ragnar scared me. I did not know what to bring, if I would get lost, how to dress and so on. The more tips I read, the more comfortable it made me feel. Here are some of my tips on how to handle your first Ragnar. These tips are in no order of importance.


Tip 1: Don't over pack


This is an important tip because it is important to remember because, there are other people who bringing their things and there will not be a lot of space in the vehicle. I felt like I packed pretty light  for my Ragnar, but I ended up not using a lot of things.


List of things I suggest bringing:


Dri-fit gear or gear that is anti-microbial


Shoes (your running shoes and comfortable shoes like flip flops or sandles)- If there is a strong
chance of it raining, you could bring two pairs of running shoes.


Baby wipes (may be most important item)


Nutrition items like Gu or Cliff Bars


Big sandwich bags to put wet or smelly clothes in.


Comfortable clothing to wear when you are not running


Something that can help with over packing is communicating with your teammates on who is bringing what. My Madison to Chicago team met recently and we ironed out some important details on what to bring and who will bring it. If everyone brought a lot of the same things, there would too much of it and it would go to waste.


Tip 2: Don't expect too sleep much


Sleep is something that really, just will not happen a lot. Any sleep that you get during a Ragnar is a bonus. I am not someone who can fall asleep anywhere, so this is something I expected and handled pretty well. There are a lot of people out there who really like their sleep and I do not blame them for that. They will just have to prepare to catch up on that after the weekend. Personally, it probably took two to three days to get back on a normal sleeping schedule.


Tip 3: Get out of the van as much as you can


It is exteremely important to stay loose to keep your body ready for the next leg. I had a little routine I did before every run to try and keep myself loose. If you are a runner who has a routine like this, do it before each run. Ragnar is not a normal running event and it is important to try and keep it as normal as possible. I am not saying that doing these things will completely eliminate soreness, but they definitely will help. With that being said, bring a stick (I suggest the Type A or C roller from Addaday) or foam roller to use before or after runs.


Tip 4: Now is not the time to be anti-social and have fun


This is not the event for anyone who is anti-social. Or I should say, someone who is not ready to break out of their shell. There is a lot of time in the van with your teammates and sometimes, it will be with people who we may not know very well. Get to know your teammates and have a good time. It really is a great event and one that is meant to bring people closer and learn more about them. On the last Ragnar (Cape Cod) and on this Ragnar (Madison to Chcago), I did not really know many of the people on my team. They were not complete strangers, but over the course of the weekend, I got to know them a little more.


There are a ton of other things that could be said, but these are the most important to me. If you are reading this and doing Madison to Chicago, have fun!


What are your Ragnar tips?

Ragnar short #3

What a weekend! Our team is currently heading back to drop off our vans right now.  There are a lot of beat-up, determined runners in this van right now; most of which are sleeping while I am updating a short blog post.

Unofficially, the team finished in the neighborhood of 28 hours. We thought we were way behind our projected time, but it ended up being real close. It is real interesting to be on a team for once when running a race. Many think running can be is strictly an individual place; running a Ragnar is not one of those times. Each runner needs each of his teammates to get through the legs.  There comes a time when those legs do not want to work and the words of twitter friends and your teammates keep you going. It has been a really fun experience.

I did not really know what to expect when going into this thing except a lot of running in a short time period.  A lot of my friends tolde a lot of fun things and it really lived up to expectations. My. Friend friend Brittany is the only person I really knew going into this., but I feel like I made new group of running friends.  Running this race made love the experience of running even more. It is hard to put into words, but I have an example.

During the first leg, which is one of the hardest things I have done in a long time, a lady nearly caught up to me. Kills(passing a runner) are really popular during relay races and  sometime during the last  three miles of my leg, I nearly got passed. I really tried not to let this runner change the way I raced this leg, but it definitely motivated me during a tough stretch. At one point we both stopped for water, wished each other good luck, and then continued running. She never caught me(whoo!), but we found each other after our leg and thanked each othe for motivating each other. I never saw her again and I will probably never meet her, but I probably will not forget that moment because of how cool it felt.

I will leave it at this for now. Once I am not tired and busy from the weekend, I will upload a recap or two and some pictures.  Thank you to everyone who cheered me on from afar. I guess I can say I am a ragnarian now.