We’re not running this race this year, but we ran this race last year. So we’re here to give you the lowdown.
Where it be: In old McKinney at the Tupps Brewery.
How it works: You and your partner run a 5k. They combine your ages and finish times. They determine winners based on those combined times/ages.
What’s the course: Basically an out and back with several turns along the way.
We always matchy matchy.
What we think: We had a few problems with this race. First and foremost, the course was almost a quarter mile long. And don’t tell us that it was our Garmins. It wasn’t. It was long, and that sucks. We knew it was long when we hit the halfway point and still had a ways to go before the turn-around. Just look at the stats in the first picture of this post. That said, it was the same for everyone. But hopefully they got it fixed for this year.
The next problem – No free beer after the race. We mean, come on! It’s held at a brewery for crying out loud. Not even one free beer? If you want a beer, you have to pay for it. And personal opinion: we don’t really like Tupps beers. They are all so hoppy. Not our style. That said, the brewery itself is pretty dang cool. Nice location to chill out at.
How’d we do: We finished 2nd overall!!! We weren’t too far behind first place, but unfortunately that team had the overall race winner – somewhere around 16 minutes, so that’s how they won. But hey, we got another trophy!
Getting our trophy.
Oh yeah, one last issue – Each team had to come up with a team name. Ours was “Team S&M, Bringin’ The Pain!” Clever, right? Well when they announced we had come in 2nd, they wouldn’t announce our team name. They thought it was too NSFW. Sheesh, that’s living in the Bible Belt for ya, lol. It was innocent – S&M stands for Scott and Marsha. And 5k’s are painful, so that’s where we got the name <wink wink>.
Oh yeah again, one last issue – We asked our friend Alex to take our photo. He did this:
Yup, he selfied.
Actually, we don’t have an issue with this – we do it to people all the time. Even strangers who ask us to take their picture. Haha, such characters we be.
What’s the conclusion: It’s an OK race, hopefully they got the distance worked out. We hope everyone has fun running it!
Yes, you read that right. We’re going to be getting married at the race….or should we say IN the race! That’s our plan. We will run the first 26 miles, then pause our Garmins Suuntos, because at Mile 26 we will take our vows, then run the final point two to the finish line. So yeah, we’ll become officially official during the race. Eeeek!
We were all thumbs during last year’s Phoenix Marathon.
Before we get to the hows and whys and whos and such, let’s quickly mention how we got engaged. It was during a run, duh. You can read that story HERE. Or if you’re feeling lazy, just watch the 1 min vid we put together of the engagement run:
On to the plans. It’s all very on the fly, as far as wedding planning goes. But we knew a couple things – we didn’t want to wait long to get married, and we wanted to do it while running. Running brought us together. So naturally, we want to make it a part of our big day.
Who is going to officiate? Well, that was a tough one. But then we were reminded that Scott’s uncle lives in AZ…and he’s ordained! Sweet! Unfortunately he will be out of town that weekend. Not so sweet. But his daughter (our favorite cousin) said she would get ordained and do it. Super duper sweet!!! Ain’t the internet grand?
Sippin Margs With Cuz
And what about a wedding party? Well, it’s always going to be a party as long as we’re around, but if you mean the actual members of the party, then we got that covered too. Our Best Man and Maid of Honor will also be running the race. Yup, the world famous Helly On The Run and her hubby will be doing the honors.
I’m your Huckleberry. Modeling shades in Tombstone, AZ with the Bermz.
Now, they are racing the race to try for a BQ. After all, it’s a great race to go for that. Marsha qualified at this race just earlier this year. But we’ve been injured since then, so we’re not in any kind of shape for racing, so we’ll be taking it easy. We just hope Helly & Ben’s tired legs will still be able to carry them back to meet us at the wedding!
As for guests of the wedding…We had discussed eloping. But then Marsha said, “Scott, you can’t elope.” But then Scott replied, “Don’t call me a cantaloupe, you melon head.”
Awesome jokes aside, we’re expecting a handful of close family and friends to be able to make the trip. We understand that doing a fairly rushed wedding out of state makes it challenging for people to get to. But that said, we feel very honored to anyone who will be there. We even hear via the twitters that A Fast Paced Life will be on hand (and feet as she’s running too)!!! And of course, the cheering race spectators will hopefully send us off in loud fashion!
Will Marsha be considered a “runaway bride”? We suppose that’s a good thing in this case.
And for those who can’t make it to the Valley of the Sun, we’ll be having a second location reception a couple weeks later back in Dallas. Where? At a brewery of course.
More like Nine Wedding Bands, amiright?
But there’s more details on that to come. In the meantime, we’ve got a wedding to plan!
Thank you YourStoryInvites for creating these awesome custom bib invites!
How bout you? Any chance you’ll be at the Phoenix Marathon (we’re looking at you Colby)? Or maybe the Dallas reception? Will you run with us (26.2, 13.1, 10k races, or just the last .2???
This weekend is the Chicago Marathon. For all y’all running it, we wish you the best of times! We ran it in 2015 – our first marathon together – and absolutely LOVED it! This post gives you our advice…take it if you want, give it back if you don’t.
RUN FOR CHARITY:
Both of us ran this race on behalf of charities. M raised money for the Special Olympics, as M’s brother has Downs Syndrome. S raised skrilla for Alzheimer’s Association, as S’s G-pa passed away from it. This is a great way to run this race if you don’t want to go the lottery route…Or if you just want to do some good! Combined, we raised a few thousand dollars!
EXPO:
This is a bit of a beating. The site is quite a ways from downtown. There are shuttle busses. The ride is long, but at least we had good company.
The expo is pretty crowded and overwhelming at times. But they do have free beer, so hooray for that. Brews are needed to deal with the crowds and commute.
SHAKEOUT RUN:
This is fun. A day before the race, tons of people met at The Bean. We took selfies and got a little 2-3 miles in along the shore. Then more selfies, duh.
THE MARATHON:
Get there early. A crap ton of people run this race. You gotta navigate people to the tune of 40+ large to get to the porta-johns, gear check, and corrals.
They paint a line on the street throughout the course – this line is the shortest distance of the race – try to follow it. It will help you hit your tangents.
Everyone says the race is “pancake flat”. Mostly true, but like grandma’s mashed taters, there are a few lumps in it. Mainly the bridges over the rivers. Don’t be surprised by them*.
1st half of the race is downtown and mainly in the shade from the skyscrapers**. This is a good thing. Helps keep it cool. 2nd half of the race is on the outskirts of town. It can be sunny and warm. This was not a good thing. Be ready for it.
Those same tall buildings that shade you, also jack with your GPS**. Everyone, we mean everyone, around us had inaccurate mileage on their Garmins. Mile alerts were beeping at random times. Don’t worry about it, just run your race and don’t obsess over your watch.
Crowd support is AMAZING! Nearly 2 million people cheering their Windy City heads off. And the ethnic neighborhoods have themes – dancing lions in Chinatown, mariachis in Little Mexico and drag cheerleaders in Boystown. Soak it in.
Do. Not. Go. Out. Too. Fast. It’s easy to do in the shaded and boisterous first half. We both made the mistake of thinking we could go faster than we could in the beginning. Suffice it to say, we did not have negative splits this day.
There is a hill*. At. The. Very. End. Of. The. Race. “Pancake flat” they said…yeah, not at the end it’s not. Be ready for that stoopid hill.
Enjoy the after party – beer, music and really really tired people make for a good time.
After you recover a bit, spend the next couple days sightseeing sightseeing sightseeing!
Billy Goat Tavern – It’s ok to be a tourist, you earned it.
OUR CHICAGO STORY
Personally, we learned a lot running this race. It’s one of our best and favorite marathons ever! We both PR’ed by 20 minutes S: 3:48:28 & M: 3:45:50. Our only regret was that we did not run together. We were assigned different corrals, but we should have found a way to start together. And after seeing our splits online, we realized we would have been right next to each other, just like in training.
We spent the entire 26.2 miles looking for each other. It was an amazing race, but we were sad we didn’t share it together step by step. After that day, we promised ourselves we’d never run separately again. Since then, we’ve run every half and full marathon side by side.
That said, when S crossed the finish line he immediately stopped, turned around and desperately hoped to see M. But there were 40+ thousand folks in this race. How could we possibly find each other in that mess? But about 30 seconds later, it happened: M crossed the finish line we had the biggest hug. We were happy we had a good race result, but happier that we had found each other.
Reunited & free to be dorks again.
This race also brought us our best good friends in the whole wide world of sports…
First, M got to meet S’s college bud, Rexy (who is fast AF – she ran this race in 3:05). And even though she lives in the great state of Ohio, we’ve all become very close. That’s what happens when good chill people come together. LOVE HER!
SightBeerseeing the day after.
Second, we got to meet in person for the first time, the ever so internet famous HellyOnTheRun!
Her and her Hubby have since become our bestest friends ever…our “ride or die”. They even made us Godparents to their sweet little Benny! Can you believe that?!? Some people who we first met over the internet are now so important in our lives. And Chicago was the first in-person meeting. Destiny.
And with this motely crue of misfits, we spent the next couple days frolicking around Chi-Town. It was the. Best. Time. Evah.
GOOD LUCK to everyone running Chicago this weekend, YOU will ROCK IT! And who knows, it may even change your lives for the better forever.
96 floors above the city. Great way to end the trip.
Questions: Do you have any tips for running the Chicago Marathon? Do you have any questions about Chi-Marathon? Have you ever met someone from the internet in person?
Run•Drunk•Love 