Shamrock Shuffle - 8K - Run8k


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Chicago, Illinois
United States
Shamrock Shuffle
30F / -1C
Precipitation
Total Time = 38m 38s
Overall Rank = 1483/13294
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 52/1324
Pre-race routine:

Went out for a friend's birthday last night and ended up staying out much later than intended so this involved me dragging myself out of bed on just a few hours sleep and forcing myself to eat some breakfast and get it together.

It was snowing on the way in to Chicago and it was a really wet, heavy snow. The longer I drove the worse it got. I parked at UIC and took the train into downtown where I stayed dry inside McDonalds as long as I could. Everything was a sloppy wet mess. I called tripletmom and made plans to meet up with her and Joe (jhouse I think?) at gear check. I never did find them, but I found Laura's (Whizzzzz's) sister and BIL and hung out with them until it was time to get in the corral. Jim and I walked over to A corral and he took off to warm-up right as I found my friend Eileen and another guy we did a trail run with a couple years ago.
Event warmup:

Stand around in the corral with Eileen and Smoe talking about the weather.
Run
  • 38m 38s
  • 4.97 miles
  • 07m 46s  min/mile
Comments:

This was a train through race for me as I get ready for my marathon in a couple of weeks. I knew I wasn't in shape to run a PR like I did last year, but I had hoped for something near that time up until this week. By the time we started running this morning though, I had decided to be happy with whatever I could pull off. I don't know my splits because my Garmin was acting funny. It shows 7 laps for a 5 mile race and none of them make any sense. I know the first couple miles were fairly slow and after that I picked it up a bit.

Around the second mile an older guy in a Boston Marathon jacket started running beside me and asked me who Ingrid was. I have a co-worker who collapsed last weekend, has been unresponsive ever since, and was taken off the ventilator this weekend and placed in hopsice care until she passes. I had put her name on the back of my jacket. As I explained he fell in in step beside me. He asked me a couple more questions, but mostly just ran quietly next to me. I also saw Smoe in the last couple miles and he started pacing off of us too.

Even though I had picked up my pace the second half and was working pretty hard, I could tell Boston Marathon Man could've run a lot faster. For whatever reason he didn't and I am quite grateful. I was a little unfocused for this race and he was the main thing keeping me fairly strong. He stayed right with me up until the end, and then I lost site of him before the finish. I turned around to find him and thank him after I crossed the line and it was like he disappeared into thin air. Poof. Not a trace of him.
What would you do differently?:

Be better trained for a shorter distance race that requires a little more raw speed. Not go out until WAY after my bedtime the night before the race.
Post race
Warm down:

I found Smoe right away after the finish. We walked a little bit of cooldown and then I headed for gear check where Tammy (tripletmom) found me. We met up with Joe and headed over to his place to change into dry clothes (my shoes were squishing water they were so soaked). Then we headed to Bar Louie to meet up with some other BTers.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

The things in "What would you do differently?" and Mother Nature.

Event comments:

This race is about as organized as an event this large can be. Although it's really crowded, I still like doing it. The weather was a mess this year, but I still had fun and would definitely sign up again.




Last updated: 2009-01-26 12:00 AM
Running
00:38:38 | 04.97 miles | 07m 46s  min/mile
Age Group: 52/1324
Overall: 1483/13294
Performance:
Course: All throughout downtown Chicago.
Keeping cool Good Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4