Five Things Friday

Sorry for being MIA, folks. I've been reading all of your blogs but need to catch up on posting comments!

Here's a rundown of some things that I've been up to:

1. New Balance Girls Night Out
This past Wednesday, I attended a "Girls Night Out" event hosted by New Balance. The festivities included a bootcamp-style workout by the lake followed by post-workout refreshments, shopping, music, and photobooths.

Here's the crowd getting their planks on. We look pretty intense, eh?

Check out the view of the skyline and lake in the backdrop!
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Here's a photo of some of the Chicago Running Bloggers clan in attendance:

From L to R: Erica, me, Natali, Jennifer, Agnes, and Maggie
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On a related note - I have never tried New Balance running shoes. I'll have to give them a whirl one of these days. (As if I needed an excuse to buy more running shoes, haha.)

2. DA BEARS
I attended two Chicago Bears events in the past two weekends: the Bears Family Fest, and Bears Training Camp. Both events involved getting to watch the Bears practice.

Here are photos from Bears Family Fest:

Upper left: Player introductions
Left middle: Player warm-up stretches
Left bottom: Fans outside of Soldier Field
Top right: Rose and me in front of an enormous Bears tailgate tent
Bottom right: Some fabulous samples being handed out to fans. (Bethany, this is for you! =) )
Side note: If all events gave out free ice cream like this, I think we would make significant strides towards world peace.

Here are photos from Bears Training Camp in Bourbonnais, Illinois:

Upper left: Player drills
Upper right: Fans lined up down the street to enter the premises
Bottom left: Rose and me in line
Bottom middle: Ladies and gentlemen, your starting quarterback... Jay Cutler!
Bottom right: Remember this photo from Packers training camp which I posted about here? Apparently the use of giant fitness balls by 300-lb football players is more common than I realized. This is the Bears version.

3. Lung Run
The latest addition to my race calendar is the Lung Run 5K and 10K on September 13. I signed up to support Anne and her fundraising team.

I am opting to run the 5K and this will be another PR attempt.

Back story: My goal in 2014 was to PR the half marathon, 10K, and 5K. The 5K is the only one I haven't been able to crack yet. (It's driving me nuts.) I'm starting to run out of targetable races and free weekends in 2014. Therefore, the Lung Run may be my best remaining shot this year to do it.

Over the next four weeks, I am upping the ante on doing speedwork. I know that I can't expect speedwork to create miracles that quickly, but hey - it's better than nothing!

4. Recruiting
One work-related extracurricular that I've always enjoyed very much is recruiting. I like meeting with employment candidates and doing interviews. I also enjoy going to college campuses to do career fairs or any other career development events. It's a really nice change of pace from sitting at my desk all day long in the office!

While I relish any opportunity to recruit on campus, I especially enjoy doing so at my alma mater, of course.

Unfortunately, my last two employers did not afford me the opportunity to do any campus recruiting. However, my current employer has an entire task force set up to recruit at the dear old University of Illinois! I am already planning on heading there next month to help conduct a Mock Interview workshop.

On that note, my nephew, Reid, will soon be starting his freshman year at UIllinois. Adam and I had joked about all the excuses that we would find to mysteriously show up at Reid's doorstep over the next four years. And so it begins... =D

5. Divvying it up
In Chicago, we have a bike-share system called Divvy.

Initially I didn't consider joining because I already have a bike at home. (Although, my bike has flat tires and I've procrastinated fixing them for much longer than I care to admit.) Lately, though, I've had too many instances where I was stuck agonizingly waiting for a bus or train so I could travel two miles. Each time, it always seemed that there were nearby racks of Divvy bikes staring me in the face, plus thousands of Divvy riders gleefully breezing by. Case in point:

Even Mayor Rahm Emanuel Divvys like there is no tomorrow!
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I exaggerate, of course. But in short, I've grown tired of having to rely on public transit for short trips. Therefore, I am finally taking the plunge on joining Divvy.

(Maggie, you should be a Divvy spokeswoman since both Erin and I joined after talking to you! =) )

I submitted my membership form and am eagerly anticipating the arrival of my bike key in my mailbox. It's too bad that summer is almost over because I think Divvy is going to change my whole outlook on tooling around the city. I can't wait to try it!

Happy Friday, everyone!