Since the Rock N’ Roll 1/2 Marathon I’ve taken it easy, but not really by choice. I had two morning runs scheduled an easy recovery run Tuesday and 40 min run Wednesday. The weather didn’t cooperate (i think Al Roker was getting me back for smoking him in the RnR). Running in the evening wasn’t really an option due to work obligations. It was really disappointing.
But today I got some time in! I went out on a 3 mile run this the morning, nice and easy along the lake and through Burnham Harbor. The weather was nice and it wasn’t too humid. Sammy even fell asleep in the stroller! My legs were a little stiff from not running for a few days, but it wasn’t too bad.
After the run, I was at work checking email and noticed that the Elvis is Alive 5K was happening in the evening. It sounded like a lot of fun so I texted my wife Tracy to see if she wanted to run it, She did and Dave Wallach from Pace of Chicago was also going to be there, so we planned on meeting up and running together.
I cut out of work a little early, rushed home to change an get Sammy in the stroller and we jogged over to the Yacht Club, Tracy was stuck in traffic so she was going to meet us there. I was weaving in and out of the Lollapolooza set up and eventually made it to Monroe and LSD, right across the street from the race. Just as we got the walk signal, 6 police cars whipped in to the intersection and started blocking the road and holding me and about 100 other runners on the side walk with no explanation.
For about 10 minutes we sat there until we were told that President Obama’s motorcade was coming through. We waited and waited and waited, everyone checking their watches to see if we were going to miss the start. Obama was no where in sight and one guy who was tired of waiting sprinted across the street and was very quickly grabbed by a few officers and arrested. Yikes!
Eventually the motorcade passed and we were free to cross with just minutes to spare before the race. I found Dave, Tracy found me and we started to run! It was a slow moving race, which we didn’t mind. My legs felt a lot better than thy did on my AM run. We came up the back stretch of the run and picked up our pace a bit.
We saw the finish line in the distance and Dave said “we have 1:10 to be under 30 mins”
We kicked it to high gear, I was emptying the tank as we approached the hugh FINISH sign. It was then we realized there was still about a 1/4 mile to go!!!
NOOOO! We definitely saw the finish line, what didn’t see was it’s exact placement, we slowed down to a jog again, made the ACTUAL final turn and then finished strong. 32:49 according to my Nike+. Tracy and Sammy finished soon after.
We all had a great time and I ended the day with two good runs. Today is going to be a rest day, and Saturday morning I’ll be running the Cancer is Colorblind 5K.
Have an good Friday everybody!
Phil Castello 
Thanks for hanging with me. Next time, we make sure we look for the finish before we start!:) Great to meet the family!!!!