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Quick trip to Jagiellonia

Neighborhood: Avondale
Bar Name: Jagiellonia
Address: 3634 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL

Met up with a buddy today and we decided to try out one of the bars in his neighborhood since we always go to my neighborhood to explore the different bars in Wicker Park. We grab a quick bite to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and have some really good tacos and then decide to try out a bar we always pass by when I’m in his neighborhood… problem is, this bar just happens to be closed for some reason even though the bar hours clearly state M-Sun 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM. My buddy mentions he knows of another bar closer to Milwaukee but as we begin walking there we see a red sign that says “Sports Bar” and we decide to try this bar out instead. We walk in and at first we see absolutely no one in the bar and then we look to the left and there are 3-4 people huddled in the corner quietly chatting with the bartender. We grab a seat by the pool table and notice there’s a Blackhawks game on and Spring Training baseball game on, however no one is paying attention to the TV’s. The bartender asks us what we’d like to drink and we notice there are 3 choices on tap, Okocim, Carlsberg and PBR. I’m about to order a PBR but I change my mind at the last second and decide to go with an Okocim, some sort of Polish beer according to the bartender. My buddy gets the same. Okocim ends up being fairly decent.

Anyway, my impression of this bar is that it reminds me of the kind of bar you find at a bowling alley, it’s fairly old and it has really dim lighting and has the cliche pool table and jukebox in the corner. Can’t say I’ll ever actively decide to go back to this bar with plenty of other options available in Chicago but maybe if I happen to be in Avondale again and want to go to a bar I’ll try this place out again.

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2012 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Recap

As the NY Marathon was cancelled this year and I didn’t want to waste all that training plus I was fund-raising for Team World Vision, I decided to run the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 3, 2012. The weather was around 35 degrees Fahrenheit and it was fairly crowded at the start line but as the race progressed, it really thinned out. It was definitely a weird race as they didn’t block all traffic and there were quite a few intersections where there were cops stopping traffic to let the runners through. I remember at one point, a lady was using her phone and didn’t see the cop and nearly hit him and the cop screamed, “GET OFF YOUR PHONE!”

I started with the 3:40:00 pace group but they started out a lot faster than I was planning on starting so I fell back to the 3:45:00 pace group who actually started out rather quick too. I decided to spend the first few miles just getting comfortable and finding a pace that I was comfortable with. Around mile 5 I caught up with the 3:45:00 group and then decided to keep going at a 8:15/mile clip or so. I caught up to the 3:40:00 pace group around mile 12 and ran with them through 15 before I decided to try to go faster. I was keeping a good 8:10-8:15/mile pace before mile 19 where I must have done the tangents wrong since I was 0.15 miles over and this resulted in the 3:40:00 pace group passing me. I tried to keep up but by mile 21, I hit a mini-wall and for the rest of the race I was really struggling. It didn’t really help that it started hailing/sleeting at mile 23 and started to drizzle/rain at mile 25.

At mile 25, I was in pure zombie-mode just trying to get to the finish line as it was getting cold due to the rain soaking my dri-fit running clothes. I picked up the pace but my calf muscles kept cramping up every few steps which became really frustrating. Mentally I was drained but I was trying to fight through the fatigue to just finish the race. I can definitely understand how Marathon’s can be a mental toughness game. For me, since mile 21 I was exhausted and remembering Chicago last year, around mile 16 I just basically quit, however this year, after 7 months of training I wouldn’t have any of that. I definitely did slow down after mile 21 and I took longer to restart running after each water station but overall, my pace slowed 20-30 seconds only which I was pretty happy with.

I really tried to shoot for under 3:40:00 but just couldn’t, however I was able to finish at 3:40:xx which was awesome. It was a PR of 25 minutes roughly and came out to be about a 8:25/mile which was about the pace of my training runs during the summer. Crossing that Finish Line never felt so good, haha.

Franklin Kuok Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Results

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Behold! My 2011 Chicago Marathon Times!

So after over a year of waiting, I was able to finally get my 2011 Chicago Marathon times from my Garmin watch. All it took was me getting the brilliant idea of e-mailing Garmin the actual file and asking them to fix the file. Last year I just simply asked a question as to why the file wasn’t uploading correctly but never actually gave them the file.

Here were my individual mile splits:

Franklin Kuok 2011 Chicago Marathon Split Times

I can now definitely see why I hit the wall after Mile 16. I ran miles 7-11 way too fast, especially Mile 11. I also exerted a lot of energy at the beginning since I started in the Open Corral and was stuck with the 10:00/mile pace group. It’s really interesting to see actual individual mile times and I remember at Mile 21, right around Chinatown I was just drained. Miles 21-25 overall were not pleasant, I remember those being quite painful and exhausting. I’m surprised that I had any energy left at the end to finish the last half mile at an 8:00/mile.

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Team World Vision – 2012 NY Marathon

This year I’m running for Team World Vision in the NY Marathon as I believe World Vision is an amazing organization that helps provide hope for thousands of Children in Africa.

My goal is to raise a little over $1,000 for World Vision. As I’ve already raised $500 for the Chicago Marathon, I’d like to try to raise a little over $500 for the New York Marathon. I am so very excited to be running for Team World Vision as I know all the money raised will be changing lives forever in Africa. If you’d like to donate, you can visit my personal page on the Team World Vision website.

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3rd Chicago Marathon Finished!

10/10/10, 10/9/11, 10/7/12 – all done!

What a great race! I love this Marathon! Today’s weather was the best in the past 3 years (~35 F at the start, finished around ~52 F). However, I think a lot of my friends were not ready for it as most of us by halfway had some muscle tightness given that it was such a warm summer and no one was expecting this kind of cold weather. It was actually cold throughout most of the race and I’m glad I wore a long-sleeve plus a t-shirt.

I went to a World Vision dinner the other night and was totally inspired and I’m going to see if I can raise a few hundred dollars for the NY Marathon I’m running in November. For those that don’t know, World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization that helps children & families in need. So definitely consider Sponsoring a Child to make a permanent difference in their life!