Stefan's Insights

Thank you Daisy

        Team South Side Salazars – You are awesome. Congratulations on running the Chicago Marathon !!!

Preparing for and actually running the marathon has been an awesome and very inspiring experience. It has not been easy, but well worth the effort ! During the training, I have learned a lot about running, my bodies reaction to this kind of physical stress and healthier living in general. I feel generally much more healthier, fit and energetic than before. MAUI – I flew into Maui on Friday afternoon and had a day to rest before the race. The evening before we had a pasta party to load up on carbohydrates. 1:30am on Sunday morning, my eyes opened – minutes before the 2 alarm clocks and the wake up call I had scheduled. All clothes, gels, and other things laid out the night before, I went about getting dressed and loaded up with all equipment (6 rows of shotblocks black cherry, 10 salt packs, 4 water bottles with gatorade, shoes with running tag, running shirt with running number securely attached, YO STEVE in big letters written on it !, sweat arm band, running hat, 70 sunscreen (...

This is just a quick post to provide a link to the pictures: Click here for pictures (use runners / runners) . And I will post more  impressions, stories and experiences soon !

Image by super-structure via Flickr This Sunday all the getting up early on a Saturday, all the running and sweating is reaching its ultimate destination – the full 26.2 mile MAUI MARATHON. Find all information about it here . I am ready for it. I am not running training runs this week to give my body a rest. I am preparing my running stuff, gels, shot blocks, salt packs, etc. etc... This is also a great opportunity for everyone to support me in my efforts by donating to the AIDS Foundation Chicago ! < Click here > Wish me luck and no sunburn :-) ! Thank you !!!

Image by Michael248 via Flickr First of all – Chief O’Neills is a great place to have a party ! Thank you all at Chief’s for your help and support ! Given that there is a lot of things going on at work, I struggled to get to my own party on time :-). I just made it to the official start at 7pm – being greeted by my working colleagues who already were there enjoying themselves LOL. I checked in with the owner, the event coordinator and the staff to make sure everything is ready to go, set up my door table to give out the little ticket stubs in return for a donation. The staff had put a little round glass vase on the table – which turned out to become the donation container :-). I laid out the drawing block and the different color markers I bought, to allow people to draw and doodle about this event or about running in general. The band came and set themselves up on the little stage in the room I had available for this event. This room was perfect.. it was in the middle o...

I couldn't run with my regular running group this Saturday, but caught up Sunday morning with my 23 miler. Started at 31st street (which is the 6mile marker), ran down to the 1 mile marked (end of lake shore drive), back up north to North avenue beach (12mile marker) and back to 31st street, where I added just another 1/2 mile south and back to complete the total of 23 miles. For all you runners, I ran the first 12 miles on a 4:2 interval, and 11 miles on 2:2. No shin splint pain (new running style!), no blisters (double-lined socks), legs a little sore. Lessons learned - dont forget salt packs (important after 15miles), and !!! put sun lotion not only on face and arms, but also on the BACK of your legs (i ran 11 miles straight north) - got sunburned on the backside of my knees LOL ! Now I am back on my running schedule and am looking forward to run with my group again.. Thank you to all of you who provided donations so far - your support is highly appreciated and makes the effort ...