Team DJ Takes Chicago: (Part 2, the Rock N' Roll Chicago 5k)

To read part 1 of my Chicago adventure, click here.

Saturday morning we got up early to get dressed for the Rock n' Roll Chicago 5k. We decided when we signed up that we needed that remix medal! Thankfully the race started at 7:30, so it wasn't too bad. We looked at the outside temps and saw it was in the low 60s. I'm from Miami, so that's cold for me. Plus the AC in our room was freezing, which messed with our brains. I put on my hoodie and we headed towards the start. Once we got outside we noticed the hoodies were overkill. Around my waist it went.

We lined up with perfect time, since our hotel was literally across the street, took some pics, and then off we went. I very purposely tried to be slow. I wanted to save myself for the next day's half, and I knew we'd be walking a LOT during the rest of the day. So we took it easy.

We ran through the museum campus, saw The Field Museum and the Aquarium, and then ran alongside Lake Michigan. It was a gorgeous day. The temperature was good and the sun was out making it all so pretty.

It was nuts, my friend from across the country and I were running side by side together. Pretty amazing.

We ran back through Grant Park, and crossed the finish. Not an amazing time, but not horrible.

Then we crossed the street to find the Bean, and take all of the pics.

The We Run Social meetup was also at the Bean. It was my first WRS meetup. I got to chat with some really cool people. Hope I can make it out to another one!

We rushed off after out group pic, cause it was time to get cleaned up and head out for our food tour! It started at the Merchandise Mart, which was an amazing gorgeous art deco building. We ended up getting some info about the city and its architecture too.

This was a sidewalk walking food tour, so some stops were eating on the sidewalk. The first stop was the Doughnut Vault. And there was a line for this place, so you know they had to be good.

Buttermilk Old Fashioned with glaze. OMG, just amazing.

Our next stop, was the famous Chicago deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's. We got to sit in the restaurant for this one. Part of the reason chose this tour was because we could get the pizza, and not have to make a meal of just that, since neither myself nor Jenn was too sure about it. And I'm glad I did that.

This was the most tasteless piece of "pizza" ever. Nothing had any seasoning on it. But I was hungry, so I ate the bland bread and cheese pie, which it totally what it was.

We walked around and learned more about the city, and took tons of pics along the way.

Our next stop, after seeing some amazing buildings and learning some more Chicago stories, was Xoco.

I was hungry when we got here, and stared in the window looking at what they were preparing. Little did I know that it was what we were going to eat next.

And hands down, this open faced veggie torta, was my favorite thing on the tour.

Our next stop was another sit down in the restaurant stop, Cafe Iberico, and the guide had mentioned that they had great sangria, so we had to get some to accompany our chicken pincho tapa. The onions were so delicious.

And our last stop was a great little local bakery, Fabcakes. We had a chocolate cookie nutella filled sandwich, and it was finished with sea salt. OMG perfect dessert.

The tour was great and more than enough for lunch. After we enjoyed our cookies, we headed to the Field Museum, to see dinosaurs and animals and stuff. We upgraded and got entry into the Jurassic World exhibit, cause, let's be serious, I'm a dork.

It was so cool. they had audio animatronic dinosaurs, a lab just like in the movie, with lots of amber mosquitoes, even "hatched" baby dinosaurs in incubators.

After that exhibit, we went back and explored the museum a little more. The "Sue" t-rex skeleton was amazing.

Now, I haven't been to a lot of natural history museums. I think maybe once in my life, so all of the taxidermied animals freaked me the hell out. If I just imagine they are models, I'll be fine!

We checked out as much as we could, and truth be told we were dead. We headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit and put up our feet.

After our little chill break, we headed to eat some sushi, at a great place that our food tour guide recommended. It was delicious.

Then it was back to the hotel to rest up before our early wake up for the race in the morning. I was so tired, I didn't even post my flat runner til the next morning.

Read about the half marathon in my next post!

Rock n' Roll New Orleans: The race

I don't know how we ended up deciding on doing the Rock n' Roll New Orleans Half Marathon, but we were registered and ready to go before I knew it. We decided to fly (cause no one wants to drive that long after running 13.1). This would be me & Kris's 10th half marathon (that's counting the half of a half that was last year's Wine & Dine), and this time Eddie bit the bullet and was gonna run all 13.1 too, his first half.

At long last the day arrived and Mom and Pop took me to the airport. I had a quick layover in Atlanta, where I'd meet up with Kris & Ed and then we'd head off to New Orleans. My first flight went good. And then when we arrived, they shuffled, and shuffled, and shuffled the gate, and made us really late. Atlanta is a HUGE airport and I RAN (after taking the shuttle to the correct concourse) to catch my next flight. I literally ran to my gate, but I made it. I think I was the second to last person on the flight.

We finally landed in New Orleans, and I waited for Kris and Eddie to get off the plane, where we hugged, and set off for a great weekend in the Big Easy.

Since we got to New Orleans on Saturday morning, and dropped our bags at our hotel and headed to the expo. We were able to walk there, which was great. We were hungry, but wanted to grab our bibs first. We got our bibs and some pics. We shopped around a bit, but we were getting hangry, so we headed out and started walking back.

Eddie had a recommendation to go to Mother's and our uber driver from the airport agreed on that too. We stopped at Mother's for lunch. OMG, what deliciousness. Our uber driver recommended the roast beef po' boy. And that's what Kris and I got. Amazing, seriously it's all about the debris. So freaking good.

We headed back to the hotel to get our room and rest a little. We also got our race gear ready.

After some rest, we headed out for an early drink and some dinner. We also found a cute little place for a coffee, before we headed back to get some sleep before the race.

And as always, that race morning wakeup came all too soon. We were all dressed up and headed out to the start. It wasn't too far a walk there from the hotel. And the great thing about race morning, is that the only ones out there are the runners, so just follow them and you'll get there.

I had on a long sleeve top, but had a tank underneath, cause I knew I'd only need the sleeves for a little bit. It was chilly for me.

We waited for what seemed like nothing (and I really mean that, not the loooong wait times like at runDisney), and the corrals started going off. About 30 seconds to 1 minute in between. Loved that! Soon enough corral 17 was off and running.

We ran through the central business district, around the circle and up St. Charles Street with all the big houses. It was so close to Mardi Gras that the houses were all decorated already. The houses were amazing and they really go all out on the decor. By about mile 3, I was hot, so I took of my long sleeves, tied it around my waist and ran in my tank. So much better. I was feeling good and it was a little cool-ish, which made it all the better.

We did a tour of the Catholic schools on the course. First the elementary. Then we passed the high school, which looked like one of those movie schools with a really old building. I half expected to see nuns crossing with rows of uniformed kids behind them. Then we hit the college, Loyola. Just gorgeous. One of those old campuses that looked like it has been there forever, has tons of traditions, and too many secret societies. LOL

Here was the turn around and we headed back up to the St. Charles circle and cut through another part of town. All along the course there were different bands playing which was super cool. Had to get a pic of these guys killing it on the bagpipes.

Now we headed towards Jackson Square. We ran right between the square and the river, and could see St. Louis cathedral. And the super long line at Cafe Du Monde first thing in the morning.

We headed through more of the French Quarter, full of more bands, Mardi Gras decorations, and we were holding a pretty good pace. My hip, which had been acting up since before Christmas was bothering a bit, but doing pretty ok. I always seem to struggle a bit after mile 10, so I thought nothing of it.

We headed out of the French Quarter and headed to the park, and the finish line. Right before we headed in, my IT band was screaming. I guess that's what I get for not taping it. Soon enough we were heading into the park for that last 1.1 mile. I was a little hobbly with my IT band pain, but dammit we were almost done.

As usual, we saw the finish and ran all the way there. But this time it was definitely more of a sprint. And it did its job, cause BOOM, half marathon PR... 2:43:17!

With that we got the bling, some snacks and sat to eat and chill for a sec. Then we headed over to get our beer, saw the headlining band, and headed to the shuttles back to the start.

The shuttles were so well organized. We were on a bus before we knew it. Then back to the hotel for showers, cause damn, that gross stinkiness.... and out to get more food and explore the town.