This last week has been very exciting for me because my sister delivered her baby on Tuesday. She is absolutely beautiful. Here name is Rosemary Elenbaas but I like to call her Rosie. Here are the details of her birth.
Birth Weight: 6lbs 8oz
Length: 20 inches
Time of Arrival: 11:10am
You can also check out the blog that Pete and Leah made to share pictures. Here is the website http://theelenbaby.blogspot.com/
Also I thought you might want to see some pictures as well, so here goes.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Chicago Marathon - Did I mention it was cancelled
Well the marathon is over and I survived. I was on of about 25,000 other people to make it through hours of unbearable weather, poor conditions on the race, lack of water, lack of paramedics and ambulances, and an all around bad marathon. This is one race I won't soon forget.
I ran the Chicago Marathon with a group of 20 other former or current volunteers. We flew from all over the country and raised money to support our volunteer program. Many others came to support us as well. I think in all about 60 people came for the marathon. It was great to see other volunteers and do the marathon together.
The night before the race. We had mass together and then had a huge pasta dinner. We received our race jerseys for the next day and got ready for the big morning. I woke up around 5:30am, had breakfast, and we headed down as a group to the race course.
It started out nicely. Yes it was already warm by 8am in the morning. I think it was already in the 70s but hey I wasn't going to let that deter me from finishing my 3rd marathon. By mile 2, I knew that I wasn't going to hit my running goals for the day. I wanted to try and run the marathon in 4:30 or under, but I knew it wasn't going to happen. I was already extremely hot and slowing way day because of the heat.
The first two aid stations were almost impossible to get water. There were so many runners trying to get the water and Gatorade that it wasn't even worth trying. I didn't witness this, but one of the other girls running with my group saw runners drinking out of the fountains in Lincoln Park. Yes we were that desperate to get water so early in the race.
I started running the race with two other volunteers, but I decided I couldn't keep up with them. I was having stomach problems and if I tried to run much faster I am sure someone would have found me puking on the side of the race course. So I slowed down. It was probably the best decision I made the whole day because it helped me finish the race. I ran miles 4-10 by myself which wasn't terrible but I was getting lonely, hot, and feeling dehydrated. At mile 10, I found some of my friends from Loyola and with them was my friend Maggie. She was supposed to run the marathon with me but injured her knee about a month ago. She was feeling better and I was begging her to run with me so she did. Maggie ran miles 10-19 with me...yes 9 miles. I was impressed and grateful because I had really low motivation at this point.
During these 9 miles, it was becoming increasingly harder to get water and gatorade at the aid stations. They started running out of cups so I just carried a cup with my along the route to guarantee I would at least have something to drink out of. I mistakingly threw my cup out and at another aid station again there were no cups...so what did I do. That's right I picked up a cup off the ground. Yes I was that desperate for water.
At every aid station, I was grabbing water to drink and probably two more cups to pour over myself. At the 30K mark, I started noticing tons of ambulances and fire trucks. I have never heard so many sirens in Chicago at one time...not even during the two years I lived there. I was getting concerned with all of the sirens but kept on running. Around the 20 mile mark, police stationed around the route started making announcements that the marathon was canceled. All the runners around me were just as confused as me. We thought they were joking. Marathons can't get canceled after they started. But it was true. The race director had decided to cancel the race because high temperature and because of the medical needs along the course. They city was running out of paramedics and ambulances and there was one fatality during the day.
The cops were telling us to stop running because the race was over. I was so confused and couldn't believe they would just tell us to stop running because it was over. The more I ran the more serious it got. Fire Fighters started opening up hydrants to spray the runners and cops were driving through the race course telling people to stop running. At this point, I decided what's the point. I was running by myself and hot. I actually met a woman from Australia named Kathy. We decided to run together to help motivate ourselves to the finish because we both lost our running partners. Kathy and I ran to mile 22 and decided to start walking. The water supplies were few and far between and we both had ran marathons before so it wasn't so much a loss to us to know this would be a slow marathon for us.
I also didn't mind walking because I was hoping that one of the other Lasallian Volunteers would catch up to me. I didn't really think that anybody would, but it was worth a shot. At about mile 25, I happened to look to my right and my roommate, Sara, ran by. It was probably the best thing that happened to me all day. We talked about finishing the marathon together but we didn't think it would actually happen. Sara actually motivated me to run the final mile and we finished together. I thought finishing my 3rd marathon wouldn't matter as much as it did, but this marathon was probably the most meaningful because it was the hardest run I have ever had.
Our whole running group finished the race and nobody had to receive medical attention. The marathon was rerouted at one point after it was canceled and a few of our runners were put on the rerouted course that took them about 20 miles instead of 26.2.
All in all it was a pretty rough day and the city of Chicago will probably be defending themselves for awhile for all the things that went wrong that day. Lack of water, resources, and medical support causes problems when you have a race on such a hot day.
Here are some pictures from the day....enjoy (If you can't see the photos if you get this in an email, just go to my blog to see them).
I ran the Chicago Marathon with a group of 20 other former or current volunteers. We flew from all over the country and raised money to support our volunteer program. Many others came to support us as well. I think in all about 60 people came for the marathon. It was great to see other volunteers and do the marathon together.
The night before the race. We had mass together and then had a huge pasta dinner. We received our race jerseys for the next day and got ready for the big morning. I woke up around 5:30am, had breakfast, and we headed down as a group to the race course.
It started out nicely. Yes it was already warm by 8am in the morning. I think it was already in the 70s but hey I wasn't going to let that deter me from finishing my 3rd marathon. By mile 2, I knew that I wasn't going to hit my running goals for the day. I wanted to try and run the marathon in 4:30 or under, but I knew it wasn't going to happen. I was already extremely hot and slowing way day because of the heat.
The first two aid stations were almost impossible to get water. There were so many runners trying to get the water and Gatorade that it wasn't even worth trying. I didn't witness this, but one of the other girls running with my group saw runners drinking out of the fountains in Lincoln Park. Yes we were that desperate to get water so early in the race.
I started running the race with two other volunteers, but I decided I couldn't keep up with them. I was having stomach problems and if I tried to run much faster I am sure someone would have found me puking on the side of the race course. So I slowed down. It was probably the best decision I made the whole day because it helped me finish the race. I ran miles 4-10 by myself which wasn't terrible but I was getting lonely, hot, and feeling dehydrated. At mile 10, I found some of my friends from Loyola and with them was my friend Maggie. She was supposed to run the marathon with me but injured her knee about a month ago. She was feeling better and I was begging her to run with me so she did. Maggie ran miles 10-19 with me...yes 9 miles. I was impressed and grateful because I had really low motivation at this point.
During these 9 miles, it was becoming increasingly harder to get water and gatorade at the aid stations. They started running out of cups so I just carried a cup with my along the route to guarantee I would at least have something to drink out of. I mistakingly threw my cup out and at another aid station again there were no cups...so what did I do. That's right I picked up a cup off the ground. Yes I was that desperate for water.
At every aid station, I was grabbing water to drink and probably two more cups to pour over myself. At the 30K mark, I started noticing tons of ambulances and fire trucks. I have never heard so many sirens in Chicago at one time...not even during the two years I lived there. I was getting concerned with all of the sirens but kept on running. Around the 20 mile mark, police stationed around the route started making announcements that the marathon was canceled. All the runners around me were just as confused as me. We thought they were joking. Marathons can't get canceled after they started. But it was true. The race director had decided to cancel the race because high temperature and because of the medical needs along the course. They city was running out of paramedics and ambulances and there was one fatality during the day.
The cops were telling us to stop running because the race was over. I was so confused and couldn't believe they would just tell us to stop running because it was over. The more I ran the more serious it got. Fire Fighters started opening up hydrants to spray the runners and cops were driving through the race course telling people to stop running. At this point, I decided what's the point. I was running by myself and hot. I actually met a woman from Australia named Kathy. We decided to run together to help motivate ourselves to the finish because we both lost our running partners. Kathy and I ran to mile 22 and decided to start walking. The water supplies were few and far between and we both had ran marathons before so it wasn't so much a loss to us to know this would be a slow marathon for us.
I also didn't mind walking because I was hoping that one of the other Lasallian Volunteers would catch up to me. I didn't really think that anybody would, but it was worth a shot. At about mile 25, I happened to look to my right and my roommate, Sara, ran by. It was probably the best thing that happened to me all day. We talked about finishing the marathon together but we didn't think it would actually happen. Sara actually motivated me to run the final mile and we finished together. I thought finishing my 3rd marathon wouldn't matter as much as it did, but this marathon was probably the most meaningful because it was the hardest run I have ever had.
Our whole running group finished the race and nobody had to receive medical attention. The marathon was rerouted at one point after it was canceled and a few of our runners were put on the rerouted course that took them about 20 miles instead of 26.2.
All in all it was a pretty rough day and the city of Chicago will probably be defending themselves for awhile for all the things that went wrong that day. Lack of water, resources, and medical support causes problems when you have a race on such a hot day.
Here are some pictures from the day....enjoy (If you can't see the photos if you get this in an email, just go to my blog to see them).
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Race is Finally Here
Sara and I ran our final two miles before the marathon tonight. We thought there was no better way to cap months of training than...well running like Rocky did :)
We finished our two miles right in front of the Art Museum, jogged up the steps, and celebrated at the top. Denis was kind enough to join us and take pictures which you can see below. We are rather small in some of the pictures but I think you get the point.
See you at the finish line
Mari
We finished our two miles right in front of the Art Museum, jogged up the steps, and celebrated at the top. Denis was kind enough to join us and take pictures which you can see below. We are rather small in some of the pictures but I think you get the point.
See you at the finish line
Mari
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