Novelty Races

Training is monotonous.

In high school and college I ran on the track and field team. I enjoyed it, but the problem was that in order to train yourself to run, you run...and run...and run. I was glad when I would have time off to practice high jump. My last year of track I suggested to my coach that I would like to do the decathlon; half because I had a bunch of talents that weren't being utilized and the other half because practice would be different every day.

After graduation I needed to find a way to stay in shape, but running seemed to be the only easy way to do it. Just what I wanted to do, run more.

It was at that time that I read an article in the paper about an upcoming race. It was called a 24-hour relay. Teams of up to 10 would take turns running a mile at a time and then pass the baton. You had to stay in the same order and if anyone dropped out the team would have to continue on without him/her. This race was just what I was looking for, it was running but there was a twist. You weren't just constantly plodding along like a marathon (I don't think I'll ever buckle down and do one of those), you were running for a team. We finished in second place by running 209.6 miles, just about 21 miles per person.

The idea of seeing how how far you could go in a given time period was interesting to me, it wasn't just about speed, it was more about endurance and out thinking your competition. Last summer I did two 24-hour races on my bike (individually). I did 221 and 191 miles respectively. In the first one I only spent 13 of the 24 hours on the bike but I learned so much from that race about cycling that I fell in love with it.

With the Sea to Sea looming this coming summer I am starting to get a little bored riding all the time and there aren't too many other types of races to get my mind off of cycling in the winter, but just when I was about to take some time off a new race crossed my path.

Growing up in Chicago, I had always heard about stair climbing events on the news, and thought that I would love to do that. Last year I looked up Hustle up the Hancock and signed up. I had no idea how to run a race like this or train for it. The Hancock is 94 floors tall. I did some training, but was wary going into it. I surprised myself by finishing 104th out of 2700 participants, definitely encouraging. So this year I decided to do another one called Tackle the Tower. The format is slightly different because the Oakbrook Terrace is only 31 floors tall, but I decided to do the option of going up it 3 times and taking the elevator down in between. That is coming up February 10 so it will get my mind off cycling for just enough time.

I've never liked specializing in one thing, I like to have my abilities be perfectly fluid from one aspect of life to another. I'm hoping this will someday land me a spot on the TV show Survivor.