Active:Water Fund-raising Page
Last week I was a bit anxious for the trip to Chi-town. Monday started with the girls waking up at 2:30 in the morning and not feeling like going back to sleep. Aimee and the girls eventually fell back asleep but I did not and I zombied my way into work. One of the first things I did was take an extra day off making last week a two day work week! Focus was in short supply knowing what was coming up that weekend.
I approached my professors about my two days of class I'd be missing and they were surprisingly accommodating. In New Testament I had to turn in a half page paper Friday but he allowed me to email it to him. In Greek New Testament the prof let me take a test Thursday, that we planned on taking Friday. Thursday I took the test and was not exactly focused. I ended up not understanding a few questions and bombed it. I finally understood the questions halfway to Chicago. Another thing I realized on the trip was that I didn't email my New Testament professor the paper. Just so I don't leave anyone on the edge of their seat my NT prof didn't mark me off any points for turning my paper in a couple days late.
On to the trip!
Early Friday morning we dropped off the girls at my mom's and embarked on our 7 hour journey to the great city of Chicago (after I forgot some stuff and we had to go back to Kaydees house to pick it up). The time went by pretty quick. When Aimee and Kaydee weren't sleeping we played some good car games, got some grub and Kaydee learned that Mount Rushmore is in the United States. My wife has had similar moments involving the location of major cities. Maybe it's just a Keim thing? ANYWAY! We took the rural route as opposed to the turnpike. It took an hour longer but it was less miles and we didn't have to pay any tolls.
Chicago! We made it!
Our only stop in Chicago on Friday was the expo. For anyone who hasn't run a race or been to an expo it's basically a trade show for running companies. At the expo the runner picks up their bib, timing device, race shirt, S.W.A.G. and purchase whatever treasurers they'd like.
Picture of the race shirt.
The experience was a bit overwhelming. I've run races in Cleveland, Columbus and Canton but this expo was about the size of Canton. It felt like we were the only people paying attention to where we were walking too. I don't know if it was the crowds, driving in the city or everyone walking right in front of me but I didn't enjoy the expo. I went in and bought some merchandise, picked up my bib/shirt and left pretty quick. Not before a forced photo opp by my wife.
She was trying to help me enjoy the experience. I don't blame her at all. I'm just not great with crowds (unless I'm running in them).
We left the expo and I happened to not notice any of the signs saying I had to pay for the parking before I left the garage. I thought there would be an attendant to pay. Little did he know... So after taking some laps around the parking lot and finding a place to pay we left and headed to the hotel. The ride to the hotel happened to be during Friday afternoon rush hour!
Our ten minute drive to the hotel was about thirty minutes, chalk it up to poor planning. As I wrote in previous blogs the hotel was paid for partly by a generous donation from a friend. Weeks later the same friend paid for the rest of the hotel so it was completely free!!
A couple months ago our car took a dump and all the money we had saved for the trip was gone. Every last penny. An amazing thing happened though. In the final months so much extra money came in that we ended up having more than we expected. Truly a blessing! Praise God!
Because of this blessing we weren't worrying about finances during the weekend. Everything was separated out so we knew how much we had for everything from parking and gas to shopping and eating.
Saturday was our big day in the city. We followed the Garmin GPS thing into the city and at one point it had us going the wrong way down a one way road. Awesome! Fastest U turn I've ever done! After this "experience" we found our parking garage and were happy to be on our feet.
If you don't know me personally I'm kind of a hat aficionado so our first stop was at the New Era flagship store (I'm not sure how it happened but our parking garage was right next to it..). Any guy who has been shopping with a significant other knows the feeling of standing there, for what seems like forever, while your loved one walks past the same rack over and over again. In the New Era store that was Aimee. I made my choice, finally, and we left. Aimee even bought something.
We went to most of the cool lakefront landmarks. The bean, buckingham fountain, waterfall wall things and so on and so on. I won't post all the pictures that we took since most of you probably clicked on this link from my Facebook. All of the pictures are on there or Aimee's page. We would have liked to go up Sears tower and go to the Navy Pier but there isn't enough time in the day and I didn't want to completely wipe myself out the day before running a marathon.
The city was a bit busier than normal. The night before the marathon was a big college football game between Miami (FL) and Notre Dame. We saw fans everywhere we went. Other things we did while in the city:
Women shopped
Took pictures
People asked us for money (one guy just about cornered me for it)
Jamba Juice
That night we met for a team dinner with a couple other runners for Active:Water. Aimee, Kaydee and I had the pasta and what not while everyone else ordered pizza. I was a little jealous, I won't lie. The pizzas looked great but I'm a bit paranoid and didn't want to try something new the day before a race. Luckily they ship pizzas everywhere in the country so I will have one of those pizzas soon.
We headed back to the hotel after a pretty busy day. I had no problem falling/staying asleep that night, to my surprise considering what was coming up. I did wake up once or twice because of a wedding reception that was happening at the hotel. Heard a lot of drunk people outside.
That's all for now. I'll share about the race itself next time. It won't take a month either!
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