Monday, September 10, 2012

Da Bears and Shea McClellin

In case you don't yet already know, I was born and raised in the Chicagoland area. This means that I cheer for certain sports teams on a regular basis. I'm not here to talk about baseball though. It is time for my favorite time of year... Football season! I'm a Bears fan and have been since the beginning of time.
At the Bears game with my friend Steph in December 2011

When watching the game yesterday with my husband, I got a little overly excited when Shea McClellin would make any tackle or play. Why? Because I know him! I met him and he was really nice. I met him over the summer when the folks at the Chicago Half Marathon were doing a promotional event with some Chicago area bloggers. We got to meet and have an open discussion with Chicago's very own first round draft pick! It was a pretty exciting day and I have a feeling the excitement will continue throughout the season!
Maggie and I with Shea
Shea was really nice, humble and down to earth. I think it was really great that he took the time to come out and talk with us Chicago running bloggers. He talked about his family, football (and how much running he does in practice), and the big move from a small town in Idaho to Chicago. He's really excited to play with some of the great defensive players we have here in Chicago and I'm looking to see him develop as an asset to the team in the season to come!

And a big congratulations to everyone that completed the Chicago Half Marathon over the weekend! I was sad I didn't get the chance to run it as we had a big family wedding the night before (yes, we've had 3 big family weddings this year). If I didn't have a wedding the night before, this might have been my chance at a redemption race. Oh well, there are other half marathons for that. :) Hopefully next year my schedule will allow me to run this race. If you did run this race, what were your thoughts? Feel free to link up to your race recaps! :)
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2 comments:

  1. MaggieSeptember 10, 2012 at 9:38 AM

    I thought the race itself was great. The course was nice (nice views of the lake and the skyline, but mostly an easy out-and-back on LSD, so few turns and you can zone out), the course support was great (I didn't carry my handheld because it wasn't hot, but I felt there were enough water stations), the crowd was great - it's a pretty big race! 14,000 finishers, so around the size of RnR, I think. Post-race, in addition to the normal water, bananas, pretzels, etc, you get pizza! And beer, but I didn't go for the beer yesterday.

    The only downside is it's a little hard to get to. Even though I was coming from the south burbs, and the race is on the south side, I drove to the West Loop to carpool with some other bloggers (the driver works at the U of C and knew where to look for parking). I know Amanda says free street parking is easy to find if you get there early enough, but I didn't want to risk it and I had to drive to the West Loop anyway for the post-race brunch. I know they also offered shuttle buses from downtown and the north side, but based on posts on the FB page, it sounds like those were a huge headache for some people. So, I would recommend this race if you can carpool with someone who knows where they are going, and/or you get to the race site by 5:45 to find parking (the race started at 7am).

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  2. Yo Momma RunsSeptember 18, 2012 at 3:14 PM

    That's so cool you got to meet him! It does make watching football more fun to feel a personal connection to the players.

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