Sunday, October 22, 2006

Chicago, it's a helluva town

[Updated below]

So a couple of weeks ago, Bullock and I went to Chicago to see a couple of friends of his. We had *stunning* weather and walked all over downtown from the Navy Pier to the museum campus. But we also decadently splurged on a huge and outrageously expensive (for us) meal at Topolobampo, Rick Bayless's fancy restaurant (we got reservations months in advance). (If you go, I recommend the tasting menu -- and they will redesign it for vegetarians or people with dietary restrictions -- though the matching wine tasting menu isn't a very good deal. Still, it's nice to be able to try different wines and have them suit your food.) At any rate, I'm sure those decadent calories outweighed all our walking and museum touring. But oh, it was sooooooo good!

My brother Fast Fizzy, on the other hand, is in Chicago today, and he's not eating a rich meal and sitting around with his belt-buckle undone. Oh no. Guess what he's doing. Yup, that's right, he's running another marathon, the Lasalle Bank Chicago Marathon. (He will soon have 6 to my 5.) I won't live-blog it like I did his past races, except that I will update this when his final result is in. He's hoping to average 7 minutes/mile and finish in 3:03, which would be a PR for him (currently his PR is 3:06). So far, the only results I have are for his time at the 10K mark, and that puts him at an amazing 6:43 pace -- though he does have a tendency to start fast. If the wind and the rain don't wear him out, he could break 3 hours. Go Fizzy Go!

Holy crap! Fast Fizzy broke 3 hours! He finished in 2:57:48, with a pace of 6:46 minutes per mile. Way to go Fizzy!!!!!

8 comments:

Heo said...

I don't get it. Why are you guys always running? What's chasing you? Should we alert the authorities?

OK, my aversion to running aside, Good luck Fizzy!

Dr. Virago said...

Te-hee, HeoCwaeth! That reminds me of the time my diss advisor said to me, "I couldn't run a mile if the devil himself were chasing me."

meg said...

That's amazing (that FF broke three hours, not that nothing is chasing the Virago family) -- bravo!

I would also say that it's amazing you had such a great meal at Topolobampo, except that it's been 7 or 8 years since the deeply-disappointing meal I had there.

Dr. Virago said...

Meg -- well, I *was* disappointed with the state of the bathrooms there, and the paella wasn't anything to write home about, but the rest of the meal was really, really lovely. Plus, I got to eat two things I've never eaten before (always a plus): sable fish and corn fungus (not in the same dish), both of which I loved. And my chicken in pistachio sauce was to *die* for, and it's hard to make chicken exciting, so that impressed me. What a bummer that you had a deeply disappointing meal there!

Heo said...

Woo-hoo, Fizzy!

Anonymous said...

Just a reminder to the blogworld that Fast Fizzy and I are waaayyyy older than Dr. V.

He accomplished this at 52 and 7/8!

Unknown said...

That's fantastic - Congrats to Fizzy!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you everyone for your support. I almost cried after I finished. Racing is both mentally and physically draining, but all the work paid off.