just kidding...

So, remember my last post just 2 weeks ago when I was bragging about the nice weather (65 degrees at 8pm!) and so excited that spring is finally here ?  Well... as usual this time of year mother nature was just kidding. Simply teasing us with a couple of nice days here and there, getting us excited about being outside, motivated to go running, thinking about starting to break out the golf clubs, and then... BAM! I woke up the morning of our scheduled long run by the rattling of our bedroom window and as I got up to get coffee was instantly frozen as I had, in my excitement for spring, shut off all of our radiators. As I stared out into the windy, cold, cloudy day dreading the run ahead of us I heard Garret shut off his 5th or 6th snooze alarm. Normally, I might be annoyed as we had planned to get this run done early. However, Saturday standing in my freezing cold kitchen waiting for my coffee I was actually excited to hear numerous alarms being snoozed. Perfect opportunity. If he sleeps just long enough, pushes that snooze alarm one too many times I know the alarm will shut off completely and maybe we won't have to do this run altogether... maybe tomorrow the weather will be better... maybe.... but I was wrong. Somehow (for once) he actually got up and we got ready to go. Right before we went out the door I decided to check the hourly weather, "just in case" it was supposed to rain.  In my mind I was hoping it would show tons of rain all afternoon so I could somehow back out of this. To make matters worse as I was opening my computer to check I get a overly cheerful text message from my mom, "13 miles done this morning and not a drop of rain !" I had all kinds of things I felt like texting back at this point... but somehow held back. Checked the computer to find only a 30% chance of rain over the next couple of hours. Damn. I was not getting out of this.

Out the door we went. Two blocks away from our house we turn the corner and a HUGE gust of FREEZING cold wind hits us in the face and my already bad attitude got considerably worse. It was at this point I realized I had to give it all I had if I was going to get out of this run. I began begging Garret shamelessly to not do this run today. Can we please do it tomorrow? Listen, the weather will be better, this is terrible, etc. I tried everything but he made me keep going, reminding me how good we would feel about enjoying the rest of our weekend if we finished.

And for the first 8 or 9 miles I believed him. The wind was pretty terrible and it WAS freezing but it was OK once we started going... for awhile. Until we were about 5 miles from home, just south of navy pier, when the rain started. And the wind picked up. And the temperature dropped 10 degrees. And there were crazy tourists trying to drive 5-person bikes in my way. And I started asking Garret if he had any money on him so maybe we could get a cab home.... again, he said no. A couple miles later, where we thought we were at mile 13 or so I check my watch out of sheer boredom and to give my mind a break from shouting obscenities at the weather. I was HORRIFIED to see we had been running for over two and a half hours, there is absolutely way we were only at mile 13 (close to our goal of 14) but we had definitely covered about 15 miles or more at this point. When we mapped our run, like so many things that day, something went very very wrong.  I immediately said I was "putting and end to this" and we speed-walked through the freezing rain to the nearest Starbucks.

A warm beverage never tasted so good. We then spent the next 20 minutes ducking in and out of stores to keep warm on our way back to our apartment. Somehow we survived, definitely makes my top 5 worst runs of all time list and I could NOT be happier it was over !  Though its funny to laugh about now, I am definitely more nervous about all the training runs to come... this should definitely be interesting.

Please please please let spring be back next week.

spring !

We had friends in town all weekend for a birthday, so after a weekend of celebrating we were a little (OK, a lot) worried about finishing this weeks long run. Also, since we skipped last weeks long run (oops!) we knew we would have to do it no matter what.... and so after a rough start we ended up having an awesome 11 miler.  I always think its so nice having a good run when you expect it to be so bad as you get your feet out the door. We ran a lot further north than we usually do and found a beach we never knew existed, so the run was productive as well. Also, I should mention while all of you in Michigan had snow, we were completing this run in about 65 degrees, and after months of running in the freezing could I could not be more excited for spring !

Matt's Training

My training has consisted of working out with the Mendon High School Varsity Girl's track team that I coach.  I have been doing my speed work with them and then doing my distance runs on the weekends.  One downfall I have found is that the coach can't keep up with his runners and now have to get over pulling an abdominal muscle, but fear not I will be healthy soon and back to my 10 mile runs. I am looking forward to running in Chicago with Louise, Sara & Garret. Stay tuned for more posts.

Welcome to our blog!

This is a blog by Team Alec so you can follow us as we train for the Chicago marathon this fall. As of now Team Alec consists of Matt Dague, Louise Bakker, and Garret DeNolf and myself (Sara DeNolf).  All of us will be posting as we train over the next six months.

As you probably know we are all running on behalf of Alec for an organization called "Run for Our Sons," a charity raising money for research and support of families impacted by Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. For more information on this charity or how you can get involved by supporting us financially you can do so at our fundraising page here.

We look forward sharing our training with you !

Team Alec