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Wings for Life Run: Where are the zombies?

June 3, 2015 By Danny

When I first heard about it, I thought it would be like running from Zombies.

There were no Zombies. But there was running, lots of running.

At a race expo in February of 2014 I approached a booth with wings all over it. The volunteers in the booth told me about their race, Wings For Life World Run. There was no distance to the race. You just started to run and 30 minutes after you started the finish line would start behind you and chase you. Your race ends when the finish line, a chaser car, catches you. I decided the chaser car was probably driven by Zombies.

The race was happening simultaneously in over 35 locations across the globe. All at the same time. I was complaining about our 7am start and the guy quickly pointed out how much worse it was in Denver and Los Angeles.

Cool…but it would be better with zombies.

The guy agreed, and offered to take my entrance fee and my advice all at the same time. I paid up, went to the race which was biking distance from my house, and had a great time. There were the big TVs up showing the racers all across the globe on a live feed. I just ran until I couldn’t anymore, not for any set amount of distance, and it was just fun.

I decided then that I would do this race each and every year, but at a different location.

For 2015 we had initially planned to go to Poland to run in Poznan, but we ultimately had to cancel that trip and stay closer to home. Somehow we ended up choosing the race in Niagara Falls, Canada. We roped a couple of friends into joining us and off we went for a lovely weekend with a giant waterfall and some scheduled running.

The race itself is also interesting for yet another reason. All of the fees go to support spinal cord research. Let me repeat, all of the fees go towards research. The race itself is sponsored and run by Red Bull and some of their corporate friends. This year they told us they raised €4.2 million.

The run itself went smooth enough. I saw Niagara falls with my friend early in the morning when nobody was there hogging the views. I ran my butt of when I saw that chaser car behind me. I managed to run a little further than I ran in 2014. I met a Red Bull BMX athlete, competing a few weeks from now in the X-Games. The crisp air felt nice and we all spent the rest of the time relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

This years winners ran 79.9km (male) and 56.6km (female). I ran 14.4km. That seems a decent distance for outrunning zombies, some of them anyway.

Now the question remains, where are we going next year…and will there finally be zombies.

For more information about the Wings For Life Run, please visit: http://live.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/en

How to Finish a Half Marathon When You Haven’t Trained

March 1, 2012 By Jillian

It isn’t a trivia fact I’m particularly proud of, but I’ve completed two half marathons now with very little training. A sprained ankle (the first one) and laziness, I mean a busy life, kept me from my intense training routine the second time around. The most I ran before either marathon was six miles, less than half the total distance. So why do it? Because running that far makes it totally appropriate to eat and sleep as much as you want after the race.

Just kidding.

It’s the incredible sense of accomplishment from crossing the finish line.

Here’s my secret to making it to the finish- be stubborn. Let me explain.
Step 1:
Hopefully you have at least registered for a half marathon that a) starts early in the morning or b) a lot of your friends are running. Both A and B make for the best case scenario but either A or B still increases your chances of finishing dramatically. Early in the morning is best because frankly if you are groggy for the first 3 miles the race will go by a lot faster. Friends and family are helpful because they help quite literally pull you along and will smile even when it takes you five hours to finish the half marathon.

Step 2:
Be stubborn. Sure, it may have taken me twice the time it took you to finish, but I had severe diarrhea during the race and had to pull over seven times. (Ok that part unfortunately is true, but you see where I am going with this- let nothing stop you). Motivate yourself- when you get to mile nine and you’ve hit the wall, remind yourself that if you’ve made it to mile nine you WILL finish. I try to choose someone near me at mile nine and tell myself that we will finish together. I don’t let that person get too far ahead of me and more often than not I finish ahead of them, yup I’m competitive and stubborn.

Step 3:
Bring sport beans/gu/concentrated electrolytes. I like the sport beans because I can pretend like I am eating candy. Just like a five year old I am motivated by candy, or err sport beans. Only two more sport beans before I finish this mile…

Step 4:
Walk when you have to. When you get tired, and you will… remember it is ok to walk. Shuffle if you have to instead of jogging, but keep the body moving. If you stop it is all over. At the Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon I could barely run at the end I was SO tired. But I kept moving like a snail. And like that little engine that could I made it to the end and even had some energy to sprint (thank you sport beans!)

Step 5:
Visualize something else. I try hard not to focus on time or how much distance I have left. Miles 5-8 are the hardest for me so I try to think of something else. I imagine myself swimming towards a boat in the far distance; I make up a story about someone running ahead of me and focus on keeping up with them, or (nerd alert!) I try to list out all the prime numbers from 1 to 1,000 and reward myself with a sport bean.

Hopefully you’ve done a little bit of training before the half marathon and aren’t going in completely unprepared. If you are completely unprepared skip 1-5 and go directly to step six- pray before you run.

Bucket List: Half Marathon

October 11, 2011 By Jillian

Is something that starts with the word “half” a worthy challenge for my bucket list?

Eight weeks before the half marathon I went out for a morning jog and came home on crutches. Somewhere between Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake (circa 2007) I missed a large chunk of coconut on the sidewalk, tripped over it and a loud pop interrupted my up-beat Pandora radio station. Crying in pain, I fell into the grass gripping my ankle. Fortunately there’s a lot of foot traffic in my neighborhood at that hour, and within a minute a guy on roller blades with his dog leaned over me. Danny came with the car and away we went to the hospital for X-Rays. In and out in half an hour, I hobbled to work with a temporary cast and crutches. Six-eight week recovery the physician said. See an orthopedist next week he suggested.

A sprained ankle humbled my first half-marathon training. So much so that prior to the race I had only done 4 miles since the incident with the coconut. I played down expectations as much as I could in the final two weeks. I probably won’t even finish I told my coworkers, secretly hoping that I would, but knowing full well that it was unlikely given that running still required a brace and a significant amount of pain killers.

The morning of the race we left the apartment before dawn, piling into my aunt’s van we cruised Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive dancing in the car to Michael Jackson. By the start I was relaxed. I’ll see you guys at the finish I told everyone, encouraging them to run their own race. Ever the gentleman, my cousin Julie’s husband stayed with me for the first two miles until I stopped to walk and shake him. I didn’t want to be embarrassed if I needed to stop the race.

My tempo was upbeat and before I knew it I was passing mile marker seven. I was in shock for deep down I truly didn’t think I’d make it. Light footed up an exit ramp to an overpass, I passed another first timer with tears streaming down her face. With encouraging words and a pat on the back, I emotionally pushed her up to the overpass and down to the first aid station. Mile markers 8, 9, and 10 passed uneventfully and I realized I was going to make it. Even if I stopped to walk, I was going to make it.

That realization passed with a deep sense of accomplishment, pride and peace. It’s a strange feeling to realize before you actually complete a task that you are, no matter what, going to achieve your goal. Personally, the realization that not only was I going to finish, but that my time was going to be respectable was incredibly emotional. For nearly a decade I’ve suffered from chronic stress fractures in my shins. Despire any number of medical and physiological treatments, my shins require constant care and attention. They have held me back in the past and for a long time I’ve been fearful about doing significant distance on them. For me running a half marathon was more than just covering 13 miles. My shins have held me back time and time again in the last 10 years, running the half marathon was the first time since being diagnosed that I didn’t feel their burden.

At the end, it wasn’t easy. Un-lady like thoughts buzzed through my head through mile 12, which was marked every .25 of a mile. Each quarter of a mile felt like an eternity and when I finally saw the finish line I was ecstatic. Without much fanfare (the cheering section was lost in the crowd!) I crossed into the welcome arms of a volunteer who held out water and a banana. Regaining my composure I quickly posed for a victory picture, and then another and another and another before getting out of the runners coral.

This was a very personal accomplishment for me, and one I’m very proud to cross off my bucket list. I’m not sure what’s next off the list. Perhaps something fun like skydiving?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Toomas Hinnosaar.

Travel Running

September 13, 2011 By Danny

Growing up I was never particularly athletic but at some point, something changed, and I became a runner. I’ve now run three marathons and have logged thousands of miles. The weird thing is….I don’t much care for distance running; it generally hurts, takes up a lot of time, and makes my clothes smell.

Lately I’ve gotten back into running but only for short distances, usually 5-10 kilometers (3-6mi) at a time. I enjoy exercising, but going out and running non-stop for 2 hours excites me about as much as a dental appointment…just because I do it, doesn’t make it fun. Before this weekend, the furthest I’ve run in the past 3 years was approximately 8 miles. A far cry from those 26.2 mile marathons I used to race.

This past weekend Jillian and I traveled to Chicago to run the Chicago Half Marathon. The race was 13.1 miles along the lake shore and mostly skipped the sites of Chicago that most tourists would be interested in seeing. The run was almost completely flat and didn’t provide for a large amount of spectators. Other than running the same race as Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno, and the Chicago deep dish pizza provided at the finish line, it was amongst the least exciting races in which I’ve ever taken part.

But it was probably my favorite.

This time I didn’t train hard and I really didn’t know how quick I’d do the run. I was at the start line with four other family members who were mostly in the same boat as me. Jillian’s sister, Becka, helped pace me for most of the race, but after that I was on my own. But at the start I was with people. At the finish I found all those fellow runners again. My five AM wakeup call was a team effort and the night before had the feeling of a couch-surf mixed with a chocolate-fueled teenage slumber party. Pre-race we joked about laxatives and how poorly we’d do rather than race splits and pace groups. Post race we all enjoyed bagels and football together and when I was restless it wasn’t too difficult to convince others to join me and the big dog Hendrix for a walk along the lake. This race was my favorite because for the first time it was vacation first, race second.

If it hadn’t been for the race I think most of us wouldn’t have been traveling this weekend, somehow though the race brought us together and it was worth the trip all the way around. On the pavement, I pushed harder than I ever had in the past, but once I finished it was time to relax and enjoy the pizza! I don’t expect I’ll ever again train for a big race again but because of this weekend I do expect to sign up for far more of them.

And if anyone is curious, I ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 6 minutes. That’s means each mile took me, on average, about 9 minutes and 40 seconds. I didn’t train particularly well. My first marathon, exactly twice the distance I ran this Sunday, for which I trained 6 months to run, saw me finish in an even 5 hours…you do the math!

Review: Vibram Five Fingers

April 14, 2011 By Becka

If you missed our first post on barefoot running, you might want to check it out before you read this product review!

I actually have two different models of the Five Fingers, the Sprint and the Bikila. Both of which I love, but for slightly different reasons.

My first pair of Five Fingers was the sprint. I originally purchased them as part of my leap into the barefoot running world and was a bit skeptical of the individual toe design. Right out of the box they were easy to get on, just slip in your feet and bam you are ready to go, no laces, no fighting with the fabric, just one quick Velcro strap. The first thing I noticed was the lack of cushion or any sort of arch support. They really felt like a slightly heavier pair of socks than shoes. It did take a bit of getting used to for the toe spaces and having fabric and a seam between each toe, but after a few minutes I was comfortable.[Ed note: Wearing toe socks, like the injinji seems to make a difference!]

Some of the great features of the Sprint are that the inside has few seams which means, less rubbing since I go without socks. The only rubbing I noticed was on the seam near my instep. I did get a bit of a rub on the first few outings but once the shoes were more molded to my feet I was fine. Since the shoe is essentially fabric and rubber, over time they take on the shape of your feet, and fit much more like a second skin than a device.

What about smell? Fortunately, the Sprints hold up great in the washer! You just pop them in and hang dry, the fabric wears great, and dirt lifts almost fully out making them look brand new again. The only lingering sign of use is the smell. These puppies really keep that sweaty foot smell. While this is of course not a pleasant thing, while on or even not near your nose the odor is not apparent.

I put about 800 miles on them before they really started to wear and needed replacement; there is actually a small hole in the bottom sole! The sad thing is the fabric still looks great.

Now for the Bikilas. I was super excited when I first heard about the Bikila since it is designed for running. Basically the changes from the Sprint, are the addition of a top layer of fabric (so the shoe covers the whole foot), treads were added to the sole for better grip while running, reflective tape was added, and the sole also had a more rigid rubber piece added under the arch (not traditional arch support but something).

While in general the feeling is similar between the shoes, I found the Bikilas are not as flexible and second skin feeling as the Sprints, especially fresh from the box. The fabric was quite stiff which made it actually difficult to get the shoes on initially which was a big deterrent for me. Over time the fabric stretched and this became less of a hassle, but they had a much longer break in period in comparison (about 10-15 wears Vs. 2-3 wears). In addition I actually felt slightly less ‘barefoot’ in the Bikilas, they are heavier than the Sprints and more shoe like with the light arch support than ‘barefoot’ like. Don’t get me wrong they are far from a traditional shoe!

Where the Bikilas really have the Sprints beat is in the general warmth of the shoe and the grip. The extra fabric over the foot and the additional thickness makes a huge difference; no snow even crept in this year (not true with the open design of the Sprints). I also find myself slipping less and feeling more stable wet pavement in the Bikilas which turned out to be a bigger deal than I thought.

The Bikilas also appear to be lasting longer in term of sole wear (I am going on close to 1000 miles in them, and they aren’t quite at replacement time) ; this is likely simply because the sole is thicker with the treads vs. new materials.

So which to choose? Well, it depends. Overall both Five Fingers are fantastic and allow for flexible use for a variety of activities. For just running, I think I will stick to the Bikilas for the most part, but for other activities, I find the flexibility and fit of the Sprints are better, so if you are looking for a more all around travel, yoga, running, climbing shoe, I would go with the Sprints or their fraternal twin the KSOs and stay away from in specific use designs.

Happy Running!

We received no compensation for this review. It is based on solely on the author’s experience. Feel free to check out our other travel, adventure and outdoor gear reviews.

Wings for Life Run: Where are the zombies?

How to Finish a Half Marathon When You Haven’t Trained

Bucket List: Half Marathon

Travel Running

Review: Vibram Five Fingers

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