Happy Memorial Day!!!

On Saturday, my running group Big River Running Company held an event in St. Louis to benefit two local runners who had unfortunately been in accidents. The first is Brigette Schutzman, a runner at St. Louis University who suffered severe brain injuries in a car accident Dec. 31, 2007. Schutzman spent six weeks in a coma but has worked hard to walk again. She re-enrolled at SLU in January but will finish her degree closer to her parents' home in Indianapolis. She continues to dream of running again. The second is Mike Rathmann, a track star from SLU High School (6^th at state in the high jump), who suffered a freak accident during a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks. The organizers at Big River assembled a field for Saturday's elite mile race with the goal of breaking the four-minute barrier for the first time in Missouri in more than 45 years - this field included many of the top area runners and also 2008 U.S. Olympian Leo Manzano. Leo ended up winning the race, running 3:55:29 which is the 3^rd fastest time in world this year!!!! Congrats to Derek Scott from Elite Indiana and Tommy Schmitz from Wisconsin for also breaking the elusive 4 minute barrier on this perfect night to run!

Sunday, went to church in the morning with the family, then pretty much napped most of the day away (recovery mode from the rough Saturday night out). Finally made it to Lakeshore by later afternoon, and got in a run. Tentative plan was a 7 mile pace but didn’t feel the pressure to hit pace, since I pretty much hit that in my long run the day before, and was definitely feeling some heavy legs. Weather was cooler and WINDY. Started out the first mile with Anne headed south on Lakeshore towards downtown, and we parted ways shortly afterwards. Picked up the pace, and felt pretty good but later realized I was running completely downwind the first half of the run. Turned around (starting to get tired), and completely ran into a fierce headwind. Struggled through mile 4, and started looking for people to draft off of. Actually caught up to and passed quite a few bikers, which was a huge confidence boost, so picked up the effort for the next couple miles. Completely crashed at the 6^th mile, had to walk a little bit and get a drink of water. Finished at ok pace, legs were done. Total run: 7 miles. Splits were all over the map: 9:30, 7:36, 6:53, 7:01, 6:51, 8:12, 7:31.

Afterwards, ate dinner at Café Ba Ba Reeba, a tapas place located in Lincoln Park. Just an incredible meal, one of my favorite restaurants, and ate enough to satisfy an army. Hung out with some friends pretty late drinking sangria, probably too much :) This morning, dragged my lazy butt out to Lakeshore again for a final run – couldn’t get my Garmin to pick up a satellite signal fast enough, so just took off heading north on Lakeshore. Weather was cool and breezy, and my legs felt pretty tired. Started out around 7:30 pace, but then a cute girl threatened to pass me so had to pick it up a little :) Turned around, actually ran into a fraternity brother on the trail so spent a few minutes catching up. Last mile was probably around 8 minute pace – legs were completely toast at this point. Total Mileage: ~4-5, I’m guessing 7:45 average pace?

Mmmmm, tapas :)

Doing some shopping downtown before heading back down south. Was a great weekend to get up to Chi, and was thrilled to get in runs every day. Last week turned out to be a good running week – 35 miles, but runs got harder at the end so need to be good about easy running days. Tomorrow’s speedwork will be tough: 3X2 miles, haven’t determined projected splits but will report about it soon. Happy Memorial Day everyone!