A family that trains together...

I ran 29 miles this past week. My calves are sore and I have blisters on my feet, but it's worth it. That cost of soreness and blisters really isn't too much considering all the benefits - fitness, fun(ish) and I love that I'm running for a great cause - clean water. Who doesn't need/crave/love clean water? But another unexpected benefit for me is being able to experience this with the support of my family.

Base training for most of the other runners on my team started in mid-April. But I had more of a "base" to build, so my training started way back in January. It's already been 8 full months of early mornings and treadmills and running magazines. But my husband has been supportive the whole way - making sure we have plenty of the right foods to eat, keeping gatorade in the house and cheering me on, all while managing the kiddos. With two little ones - that's no small feat. He plays with them and handles morning routines on longer run days. He's even been known to rub my feet. Once. (But it was amazing and I'd really like it to happen again someday. Soon.)

My kids are awesome at being supportive too - in their own kid ways. One of my favorite parts of a run is the when I come back home after running and my 4-year old daughter asks me "how many miles today?" She's so excited that she says, "Wow! That's awesome!" no matter how many miles I tell her (even when it's "just" 3 miles). My little guy squawks and squeals when I come home, and runs feverishly around my legs and the living room - he likes to be a part of the excitement too. I didn't realize how good this was going to be for our family to do together. We even started a countdown calendar (shown here) for race day - the big day is now in just 41 more days (I'm a day late posting this picture). It's starting to feel like it's actually going to happen and race day will be here before we know it.

I thought that doing this with kids was going to be so much harder. It's not always easy, but it's so fun to have this family thing that we can do together.  They make this whole process of training for a marathon a little less grueling. (And a lot more cute!)

16 miles, intense fog & a mild case of heat exhaustion

I probably had some dehydration too. But to be fair, it was totally the weather's fault. Sweat can't cool you down if it can't evaporate...

A quick photo of Lake Michigan I snapped while running on Saturday.
The fog was thick and made it hard to cool down. :(

Saturday morning's long run was particularly long. The first few miles are always hard. But they usually get easier as my legs and breathing fall into a mindless rhythm. This didn't happen Saturday. At mile 6, I accepted that it wasn't going to get any easier. At mile 10, I started feeling light-headed. At mile 10.5, I told my running buddy that I had to chillax a bit. We slowed our pace wayyyy down.

We ended up walking (serious speed-walking) the last few miles to try to cool down a bit. The fog lifted - kind of. The sky started to clear. We talked about how much we wanted a tall glass of ice cold lemonade. And remembered why we were doing this huge, seemingly insurmountable thing in the first place - so that everyone can have clean water to drink, to cool down, to get clean. So that everyone (especially kids) can have all the things we so desperately wanted as we slugged it out on the running trail.

I got in all 16 of my miles and took my chills and headache home. I rung out my clothes, showered and continued on with my life of mothering my adorable kiddos while trying to take it easy, drinking plenty of water and gatorade. It's been a few days and I'm back to my old self - feeling healthy and ready for a few more miles bright & early tomorrow morning...

planning around the elements

picture taken from http://chicagoweathercenter.com/blog

So I find that I obsess about weather now more than ever. Running outside for hours at a time will do that to you, I guess.

Between working full time, raising a couple of kids and supporting the husband in his duties, it's hard to find the right time to get my miles in. Most of the time, I'm getting up at 5:30 am - or even earlier - just to log the miles on my training schedule. And on days that it rains - or weeks when it's more rainy than not (like this week) - it's even harder. Mostly because I WILL NOT run in the rain again. We did a ten miler in the pouring rain and honestly, once is really enough. I'm done with that game.

Which begs the question - how do you get your miles in when the weather doesn't make it easy? Any advice besides slugging it out on the treadmill?

Balancing life and finding the time to run all these miles feels so much harder this time around. I don't have the flexibility to just go later - so it makes waking up early a necessity. And when it rains, that just throws everything off. So that puts me back at praying for sunshine and obsessing over weather forecasts. Here's to hoping they're wrong about Thursday...

Chicago Marathon FAQ

Below - listed in order of frequency - are the questions I regularly field in regards to my upcoming marathon.

Q: How long is a marathon? It's like 20 miles, right?
A: Um, yeah - it's 26.2 long, grueling miles to be precise. Please remember that last point two is pretty important.  (A few of the miles might not be absolutely terrible, but I won't know that for sure until race day.)

Q: When is the Chicago Marathon?
A: October 12, 2014. Or - maybe an easier way to remember it is 10-12-14. (your'e welcome for the easy memory trick {winks})

Q: Have you ever run a marathon before?
A: Yes. When I was a much younger version of myself - just over ten years ago. I ran the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon in 2004. That was FOREVER ago.

Q: Yeah - so you knew what you were getting into then...
A: Well - kind of. I did this the first time when I was in my early twenties and my body could bounce back from anything with an ice pack and a nap. This time around, my body is ten years older, healing takes quite a bit longer and I'm also constantly chasing around two young (and wonderfully amazing) small kiddos so naps aren't really a thing for me. So I kind of knew - but then I didn't. (Yes, I realize this isn't really a question - but I'm including it anyway...)

Q: That's cool. What are you running for?
A: Sanity. Alone time. Fitness. But I can get those things running around the block. I'm running a full-out marathon with Team World Vision because I also want to help provide clean water for kids in Africa. Clean water = education, sanitation, health, opportunity. You can partner with me by supporting me on my fundraising page. Or by sponsoring a child. (Just write "Amanda Bratschie - Chicago Marathon 2014" in the notes section.) I sponsor a child from last year's marathon when I friend ran it - it's been a great family experience. I highly recommend it!

Q: Are you losing weight?
A: HA! I love you! Thanks for noticing all my effort and hard work! But, no. I haven't lost a filthy little ounce since I've started this whole ordeal. I have, however, been trimming up. Just not sure where the weight is going (because scales don't lie, right?). I'm really hoping that the tides turn soon and I'll start shedding the lbs at some point during the next 55 days of training.  Help me talk my scale into showing some progress, and if you're trying to gain weight, I'll try to lose it where you can find it.  ;)

On the blog again...

So - I've been training for the Chicago Marathon since January. You read that right - about 8.5 months. And I've come a long way. Like, really. I'm doing great. But I wish I had captured some of my progress on the way. Hence the idea for this blog. I'm kinduva blogger any old way - so it makes sense.

Also - I'm really hoping to get more people out there cheering me on AND possibly get some new child sponsors for World Vision too. That would be AWESOME! (If you want more info, just click here. If you sponsor a kid, just write "Amanda Bratschie - Chicago Marathon 2014" in the notes section.)

Lastly - I just really want somewhere appropriate to share all my running stories. You don't want to hear 'em? No problem. Just navigate away. You've been warned. ;)