We flew into O'Hare on Friday to be collected by Meredith and Rob. With much ire about the many toll roads of Chi Town, we made our way out to the suburbs, where we were crashing college-student style with Ali & Joe. While frugal, it wasn't the most logistically savvy plan, however it gave us an excuse to hang out with Ali (even if it was only watching television at the end of the day).
On Saturday, we drove into Chicago (via non-toll roads) for packet pickup. There were horror stories of wait times over an hour from the day before but, despite the line being the length of the parking lot at Soldier Field, we were through in twenty minutes. I bought some warmer running gear at the expo and we were on our way in an hour.
We figured we might as well see some of the sights while we were there, so we went to Millenium Park & then walked over to Navy Pier. We declined to retrace the winding journey between the two and instead took a cab ride back and paid a small fortune for parking.
Rob's stepbrother & stepsister were also running in the race and his dad & stepmom were there to watch. We actually ran into them getting coffee. Cody and I negotitated the train system back to the suburbs to meet Ali while Meredith and Rob went to dinner with his parents. To avoid more parking fees, they valet parked the beat-up, dirty '99 Mazda at their hotel...with the brand new BMW & Lexus cars.
The next morning, we had to leave the apartment at 5:15 to make it for the 7:00 race. Inexplicably, overnight the road had been reduced to one lane, causing a huge traffic jam for 5:30 on a Sunday. Hours later, the cones were gone. Some demon was just trying to cause drivers' blood pressures to soar. In our car, at least, it definitely worked.
Fortunately, Rob had volunteered to be the soccer mom. Or maybe he'd just declined to run the race, but it worked out the same either way. He dropped us off near the start line at 6:45 and also served as our gear check, saving us one headache.
I'd been pretty warm during the race (down to short sleeves, shorts and no gloves) but after it we were happy to meet up with our designated soccer mom for our extra clothing.
Lemur came to watch our race with his lady friend on their second date. Brave. We told stories for hours, pretty much getting the worst ones out in the open. If she wasn't scared away by those, the constant "South Park" quotes, and the "that's what she said jokes"...
We were pretty worn out by the time we got back to the apartment. We said goodbye to Ali (who was getting up for work at 5:30 AM). I wish we'd spent a little more time with her while we were there, but maybe we'll need to plan another visit...although we'll be seeing her for her wedding in May.
We went to breakfast in the morning with Meredith & Rob and took the scenic (non-toll) route to the airport before heading home.
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