A Little Chicago Air Show Follow-up

As I said last Monday, I was in Chicago a little over a week ago for the Air & Water show.  Of course, it proved to be a good time for me and a few others, including my blogger pal Emily (who you may remember from when I ran China Town in 2014).

No, we didn't run a race together while I was there.  Are you shocked?  Sorry to disappoint you.  Instead of running, we sat on the beach and roasted in the sunshine.  Well, that ... and we watched the Angels fly by a few times.  Heh.

In addition to a good time at the show, I just have to say ... my husband and I had pretty awesome views from our hotel room.

Yep, that's the view from the top floor of the Omni Hotel in Chicago, both AM and PM.  We got that view for free thanks to my husband, who spent half his spring in Boston for work in 2014, thus earning him some free nights and VIP status for premium room upgrades.

Anyway, while I had lots of fun in Chicago, I also in advertantly came up with two new blog posts, which you will be hearing a bit more about in the next few weeks.  Until I get those posts written and published, here's an overview:

First, the good - Brussels Sprouts Salad from Doc B's Fresh Kitchen. 

I don't know if you've ever heard of this place or eaten there; I myself had never heard of it until I was on Yelp looking for a lunch option nearby our hotel.  When I stumbled across this place, I thought ... hmm, seems interesting.  It was definitely good - I left full and totally in love with what we ate!  After I came home, I tried to re-create my entrée, and I think I had about 80% success in matching it to the restaurant.  So, look forward to that post in the next week or so.

Second, the bad - my Nike+ GPS watch died. 

On Saturday morning, I actually got up early at the hotel with high hopes of going for a run on the Lake Shore Path.  Unfortunately, I was foiled in doing so as it was SUPER HOT and humid even at 6am, which pushed me to the hotel's workout room instead.  But, even if the humidity hadn't forced me there, I would have ended up in the hotel's workout room anyway, because somehow moisture got to the LCD screen of my Nike+ GPS watch and ruined it.  BOO!! 

Truth be told, I had suspected something was amiss way back when I ran the a 5K on the 4th of July (remember how foggy it was?), as my watch had fogged up on the INSIDE at that race and never really cleared after that.  My guess is some moisture got in there at that race and just never dried back out, eventually penetrating the LCD screen and frying it. 

Aside from the moisture though, the watch hadn't been picking up satellites very well anymore, so I guess I can't really be surprised that it finally mapped it's final mile.  Regardless, it is kind of unfortunate timing, as I am just starting to ramp up my mileage for the TC 10 mile and was really starting to rely on it again.  And, I hadn't been planning on purchasing a new watch any time soon, since they are kind of expensive.

But, luck would have it that GPS watches are much more affordable these days than they were when I first bought the Nike+, and they are being made smaller as well (part of why I chose the Nike+ to begin with, as it was one of the smallest options available for around $100 when I bought it).  So, despite saying I would just use MapMyRun for awhile and go without a watch, somehow I found myself the proud owner of a brand new Garmin Forerunner 10... which, actually, I so far kind of love.  Like way more than the Nike+.  Which is funny, because I thought I would never top the Nike+, but even the guy at the run store looked at me and was like ... "You got more than a year out of your Nike+?  You're lucky!!  I didn't think anyone was even using them anymore they broke so often!!"


So ... there you have it.  That's the cliff notes version of Chicago, and a hint at what you might see in a few future blog posts (though the GPS one might be awhile, as I want to use it for a few runs first).  Stay tuned!!