An Amazing Race (Part 1)

Wow. What a weekend. It was a whirlwind, but a beautiful, chaotic victory.  Since my race weekend was quite full of events, I am going to break it down into two posts.  Starting at Friday day.

Friday morning dawned, I slept in and ran ten minutes.  It felt really good and afterwards I stretched out.  After slurping down a smoothie, I rummaged through my race gear, packed, and waited for family and my dear friend Charissa to meet me.  (Charissa has a blog too! Check her blog out at www.runstronglivehealthyblog.wordpress.com)

After everyone arrived, we headed out, bags in hand and hit the road headed to Chicago.

After about an hour in the car, we broke into our Quest Bars. (Charissa and I are their number 1 fans 😉

After two hours, we made it to my race packet pick up place.  We entered into Fleet Feet in Chicago and I immediately wanted everything in sight.  They had Brooks, Mizuno, Asics, New Balance, and North Face running gear, shoes, and products.  Unfortunately, all I wound up buying was a Picky Bar (!) so good and NUUN energy tablets. This was my first time trying both products, which I fell in love with.

After picking up my packet, our stomachs started rumbling, which led us to roaming the streets of downtown Chicago for a restaurant.  Unfortunately, it was harder than I thought.  I wanted something that would fuel me well, pretty quick service, and tasty.  After a ‘long’ search and a couple let downs, our merry little group found Nookies. Fabulous.  You must go.

I order the classic turkey sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries (my favorite.) My mom ordered the veggie burger, so we split the fires, burger and sandwich.  Enter this plate:

Everything was delicious, resonably priced, friendly service, and came quickly.  I highly reccamomend if you ever visit Chicago.  After our stomach were full, we strolled through the streets and took lots of pictures.

Around six o’clock, we left downtown and headed to the hotel which was about 20 miles away from the race.  When we arrived, we unloaded our bags, showered, brushed our teeth and logged onto the wifi to check to see what we had missed.

I was super tired and fell asleep around nine, dreaming about the race that was ‘set before me.’

More to come!

~ Bethany

How do you guys travel?

What are you favorite travel snacks?

Do you like Chicago?

Have you ever run a half- marathon?