Randomness du jour

Mizuno Wave Rider 15 Review
I took these out for their maiden voyage run today!  These shoes are great - I love these shoes!  They are very responsive and supportive with an incredibly smooth toe-off.  They feel very lightweight and flexible, and the cushioning is spot-on.  I can definitely understand why people are huge fans! 

FAQ: Can I go out and buy another three or five pairs of these for future use?
Answer: An emphatic NO.  I swore off any new running shoes for a long time.  I'm a woman of my word.  Reluctantly.

I-L-L I-N-I
I'm headed to the dear old University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, my alma mater, for a MAASU retreat this weekend! (For those of you that aren't familiar, MAASU stands for Midwest Asian American Students Union, and I serve on the board of advisors.)

Over the weekend, all of us advisors and our new executive director will be staying with one of the advisors, Shane, who works at UIUC. The funny thing was that as we were working out the logistics and determining what to pack, you could easily tell which of us are the runners.  One of the other advisors, Julayne, and I both immediately asked Shane about his treadmill and the runnability of his neighborhood.

By the way, I thought "runnability" was a word that I had just made up.  But for all you competitive Scrabble players out there, it is a real word in the dictionary!

CARA Lakefront 10-Miler
I signed up to run this race, which is organized by the Chicago Area Runners Association (CARA) and takes place on April 28. This race is promoted as a fast, flat course, and many have said it's a great race to get a PR.  So imagine my surprise when I get an email saying that this race has now become the hilliest race in Chicago.  Apparently there is one giant hill in Chicago called Cricket Hill, and the course had to be rerouted to go over it because of construction on the original course.

How does this happen to the most flatland runner known to woman kind (that would be me)?

D-Day
Registration for the 2012 Chicago Marathon opens next Wednesday (February 1)!

Surprisingly, I'm actually not very nervous about pulling the trigger on what will be by far the most expensive, challenging, and training-intensive race I've ever run.

However, I AM visualizing staring at a computer screen that says, "Are you sure you want to register?  Are you really sure?  Is someone triple-dog-daring you?"