The Daily Feed: Sites We're Searching 10/16

Credit: Danielle Walquist Lynch at flickr

Maybe it's the weather--it went from sunny to dreary and grey. Maybe it's the marathon I'm recovering from--legs are fine, brain is fried. As a result, I seem to only have the energy to sleep, stare blankly at the TV and click links online. Here's what I've been reading in the last 24 hours:

Who doesn't love a feel-good story? Maybe this one about the Chicago Marathon's final finisher will melt your heart. Thanks ABC Local, you won me over.

No wonder I'm always so tired after the Recruit class's warm-up. It mirrors the moves featured in Health Central's The 7-Minute Workout, which could be comparable to hours of moderate activity.

Five Ways to Recover from the 2013 Chicago Marathon

You're chafed. You have blisters in places you didn't think could get them when you run. You're voraciously eating everything in sight. You need an extra five minutes to stand up and hobble to the door and you dread the stairs. Congratulations, you just ran a marathon!

Just like that, the 2013 Bank of America Chicago Marathon has come and gone. The crisp bib you received less than 72 hours ago is a crumpled mess. The last finisher crossed the finish line while you were sleeping. And you can't use the I'm-training-for-a-marathon excuse when you have to bow out of Friday night social events. But before you completely put 2013's marathon to bed and get back to the daily grind, you hopefully took today off to recuperate. Here are our marathon recovery picks.

Who We'll Be Watching at the 2013 Ironman World Championship

Credit: Marian Doss at flickr

Forget college football Saturday. October 12 is all about Ironman, at least if you’re an endurance athlete…or know one. The best of triathlon’s best are in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, for the 2013 GoPro Ironman World Championship where professional triathletes and qualifying age-groupers will swim 2.4 miles from Dig Me Beach, bike 112 miles on the Queen K, and run 26.2 miles to finish on Ali'i Drive. You’re not thinking about your alma mater winning a football game (Go NU!), you’re wondering who will be crowned Ironman World Champion, and you’re cheering for your friends, family, coaches and training buddies.

I'm supposed to be gearing up for a Sunday marathon, yet I'm completely guilty of watching more videos, reading more tweets and staring at more paradise pictures about the Ironman than the Chicago Marathon. Maybe it's because I'm so used to running Chicago and my only chance of competing in Kona is to luck into a lottery slot (or hope that I have the race of my life and everyone else flops). All I know is that when the cannon goes off at 12 p.m. Chicago time, 7 a.m. Hawaii time, I'll be on my computer following some of these Ironman triathletes with Windy City connections.

#TBT Chicago Marathon 2000 to 2005

There’s something special about running the Chicago Marathon. The fall weather that can swing warm or cold. The spectators, your neighbors, cheering every step of the 26.2 miles. The magic of running on home turf—or maybe it’s just the running in general. I should know—I’ve run the race 13 times (14 come Sunday). What was a one-and-done turned into a yearly ritual that I thought I’d stop after five, then 10. But I've hit those and I'm still running, so maybe 15 is my magic number (but can you really stop a streak?).

It’s the course, the crowds and good ol’ Chicago that bring me back again and again, even if I get less fired up to race almost every time I toe the line. The flipside: fewer nerves. Plus a lot of finisher medals and tours of Chicago neighborhoods I only run through once a year. And a scrapbook of photos mostly of what I missed while I was running, like Paula Radcliffe’s world record performance in 2002, the crazy costumed runners who are faster than me, and the wheelchair and elite leaders.

Call it an effort to fire myself up for Sunday’s race, a “throw back Thursday,” or a trip down memory lane, I dug through the photo archives (confession: I begged my mom to do it) for this collection of Chicago marathons past.

Chicago Marathon 2013: Five Athletes to Watch

With a field of 45,000 runners, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is one of the world's largest races. You don't need a qualifying time to enter, only fast fingers when registration opens. You get to run through a world-class city and see neighborhoods tour buses sometimes skip over. You have a course that's known for being flat, fast and PR-producing.

This year when the 36th running of the Chicago Marathon gets underway on Sunday, October 13, there are more than a handful of elites to keep your eyes on over the 26.2 miles. Sure, each runner has a story for why he or she is running, and here are five that you might find interesting.

The Daily Feed: Sites We're Searching 10/2

Smoothie goodness, yum! Credit

You know those days where you just want to kick back, relax, and read? Yeah, I'm having one of those days, and I'm totally blaming it on travel and taper.  But hey, at least I'm getting some good reads out of it. And it's keeping my mind off the impending marathon that everyone else is talking about and I prefer not to stress over until I have that race bib in my hand.

Here are some of those reads I couldn't get enough of.

• How many cups of Gatorade are sipped at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon? How many states and countries are represented? What's the average age of these marathon runners? Crain's takes a by-the-numbers look at this race that's less than two weeks away. (Note: you might need to register to read the full rundown).

• That once-in-a-hundred-years flood that roared through Boulder, Colo, and the surrounding area a few weeks ago did more than ruin houses and businesses, displace residents, close some roads, cancel some events, and spur valiant volunteer efforts. It destroyed some of the city's popular cycling routes like Jamestown and Left Hand Canyon (routes I rode three years ago at triathlon camp). This Bicycling post can show you what's still open and what's gone.

• It hasn't even been 48 hours since the federal government shut down, yet it's affecting people in a way that no one probably saw coming. Like running and racing as Runner's World pointed out.

• After several failed attempts, I'm not into making my own smoothies. But this recipe from Women's Adventure makes me want to try again. After all, it'll probably take me just as long to drive to Jamba Juice as it would to rev up the blender. Plus I love beets, blueberries and kale on their own.

• Guilty as charged. Are you making any of these mistakes when you do yoga? Yoganonymous called me out!

• I have a streak of running the Chicago Marathon 13 years in a row (14 if I can make it across the finish line on October 13). But that's one day out of the year, not the 365 that some streakers have under their belts. Kudos to Tim Cigelske for running and drinking a beer every day for three years--I couldn't do it.

What links have you been loving? Share them with us!

Photo grabbed from Richard Masoner/Cyclicious at flickr.