Chicago Trip

Friday: We came in late last night and went straight to our hotel. Today we slept in and that felt amazing. The bed was comfortable, it was quiet and there was nothing to get up for… Oh well actually, the hotel breakfast closed at 9 so I guess we had to get down there for that. We decided to go in our pajamas. Talk about embarrassing! Tons of business people, runners, and others all eating there fully ready. 😊  

 We eventually got ready and headed to the Chicago marathon expo. It was way crowded today so I can only imagine how tomorrow will be. We didn’t stay too long, just long enough to get the free handouts and my race bib. 

 We were able to figure out the train and bus system (thanks to Corom) and got around pretty nicely. I am very impressed with the  transportation system here. We got around everywhere with only paying $25.00 and we never had to wait. The train came every 5-10 minutes. 

 We walked around the city for just a little while. We walked to the starting line and finish line area. There was a nice little park there. I didn’t want to do too much walking around today. 

 We did head over to friends of ours for the evening. We have never met in person…We met through our blogs and have been communicating/friends for a while. We visited, ate the famous Chicago pizza and had a really fun time. Sarah and Rock… We wish you and your little one lived near us! We would have some fun times together. Well Corom and Rock would probably get into trouble. 😉 Your parents are amazing and we thought you guys were so much fun.  Thank you for having us over.   We left and returned to our hotel around 10. I had a great night of sleep! 

Saturday: I slept in and then went out for a 6 mile run. It felt great and I was able to breath really well! Beautiful morning out and I saw so many houses decked out for Halloween. I couldn’t resist not taking a picture (more for my girls sake… Gosh I miss them). 

 We ate a great breakfast at the hotel (met a lot of runners from around the country and world). Chicago marathon I guess is kind of a big deal. 😉 We decided to walk to the train station (instead of taking the shuttle there). We took the wrong sidewalk and ended up on the freeway… We ran down the field and hopped the fence. Corom fell and hurt himself. I could not stop laughing! So funny. 

  We decided to go to a movie to be able to relax. I wanted to take my mind off of the race. We ended up at this really nice movie theaters. We were already a little late (20 min late), so we quickly ran in. We didn’t see anyone at the ticket booth and decided to go into the movie. We soon realized we had the balcony seats to ourselves. Yes, at this point we didn’t pay. We watched the movie (Martian) first and as we walked out realized that we went through a VIP door. We did go to the correct place to pay for our movie after. The ladies were confused when Corom kept trying to buy a movie for the 11:00 a.m. Showing when it was almost 2. I will say he messed around with them but that wouldn’t surprise anyone that knows Corom. They were grateful that we did come back to pay… We shared a hamburger from Kings restaurant and then headed back to our hotel. I am getting way nervous!   I was able to get a 20 minute catnap in. I put the headphones in, listened to the piano guys and nodded off. We packed our things for the night and all my race stuff, then headed into downtown to be closer to the starting line. We met up with Janae & Ken, Kathryn & Bill MacLeod, Emily Jameson & Jasmine Sessions for a “Utah” dinner. Janae, Emily and Jasmine are also trying to Qualify for the Olympic trials. It was nice meeting up with friends from home. (None of us made it but we all had fun.) The restaurant sent us to the business conference room… We had a pretty good laugh! I ate chicken parmesan… So good!  The group below these 2 picture was a Costa Rica team. They are staying in the same hotel we are staying in. We became friends with them pretty quickly. Corom served his LDS mission in Costa Rica. We will be going out there soon… They want to meet up and take us around on their running routes. They were a fun group.  After dinner, Corom and I made our way across the city to Abbey & Ryan’s house. We have never met them… My friend Stephanie knew Abbey through her Jamberry (nails) business (they have never met in person, either). Abbey and Ryan volunteered to take us in after a post Stephanie posted on Facebook. 🙂 They were awesome! That is something Corom and I would do. I slept well there and had a nice early morning wake up alarm…

Sunday: Race Morning! I Would rather not run on a Sunday (and I have only one other time) but 99% of the qualifying races are on Sunday’s.  I already wrote about the race so here is after the race. I do have to say though that I am rather embarrassed that there were times during my race when my watch would beep the split and it would be fast, so I would actually slow down a bit thinking I had to save “energy”. Oh and if I did qualify for the Olympic trials… I would have received $2500. Bummer, right?  Fun times. 😏 

After we headed out from the race tent, Corom and I hurried to the train and found their local LDS (Mormon) church. I just threw on a skirt over my shorts and a nice shirt over my top… Corom changed quickly, too (obviously in the corner). 

  It was actually held in an elementary school. Sacrament meeting was really good…  Throughout the meeting, I would think of the outcome of my race (all the training and just everything else) and tears would come down. I couldn’t help it! 😂 I think people thought I was feeling the spirit or something because they would turn back and smile at me. 😉 But in all honesty, I am grateful that we can go anywhere and find somewhere to go partake of the Sacrament. It is the same everywhere. 

 We left when sacrament meeting was over, so I changed…  We headed back to Abbeys and Ryan’s place for a quick shower… We all went out to dinner (our treat for taking us in). It was the least we could do. They were a fun couple.   Corom and I walked around for awhile. We had to see the famous Chicago Bean…  Then we had fun with this guy here… He was a good kisser!   Corom still had his rental bike from the race earlier… Instead of paying another $10 for a 2nd bike, he had me sit on the seat while he stood and pedaled. We had so many looks… Probably jealous that they paid for an extra bike. 😉 Corom rode hard while I had to hold my legs in the air. I think we were both struggling but laughing so hard. Well I was laughing while Corom was breathing hard. 

  Overall, we had a great time there. I was grateful corom came out with me. We had a great time meeting so many people and building lasting friendships around the World. We ate tons (mostly from our hotel and we would take hotel food to our rooms for later)… Yeah we are cheap :/. We were able to see a lot of things and I even met the high school cross country team on one of our occasions out. They were running in circles around this little park. My cross country team… Be grateful! They said most of their runs (long, short, speed) are around this park so they can stay out of traffic, etc.  
Monday: We slowly got ready this morning… Another great hotel breakfast and then shortly before lunch, we headed over to some outlets for a little shopping. We both hate shopping but had to pick up something for our girls. We ate there… I got their pizza again. It is some good pizza!   While we were there, we met another nice gentleman from China. We talked with him for a little while and then he asked if him and I could be in a picture together. He was so sweet. 

 
We packed and left for the airport… The fun times of traveling back home. The airport was so crowded and busy. It made me a little stressed. You have Corom here who could care less about anything… He was making fun of me and taking my picture. Yes that irritated me even more. 😉 I am smiling in this picture because we finally made it to our gate after 40 minutes of the security check line.   On our flight (with about 1 1/2 hours to go), you see all the flight attendants and then one of the pilots come out. The smoke alarm went off up front (just a warning alarm). I will have to admit I was a little uneasy and tried to pick up on what they were saying. Well I guess someone went into the bathroom to have a little smoke… Yeah Not so sneaky!  

 The girls had a fun weekend with their grandma (G-goat) Hughes. They went to the movies, the park, the store to pick out treats, church, etc. Thanks Sarah for taking the girls for us. It was nice to know they were being taken care of.