Shamrock Shuffle 2010

For those of you who were lucky enough to be in Chicago last week, the weather was outstanding. Weather like that is the reason Chicagoans put up with the brutally cold winter.

Friday afternoon as I walked down Navy Pier to pick-up my race packet, I had to remove my fleece because it was so warm that I was actually beginning to sweat. So, it seemed to be a practical joke when I received the 'Yellow Alert' from the race officials about the weather. But sure enough, Saturday it snowed and by race time the temps were hanging out in the low 30s. Unbelievable.

Luckily, the Shamrock Shuffle was run with nearly 25,000 of my closest friends. This meant that despite the chilly walk to the start, that there was enough body heat in the start corral to keep us warm. And by the time 9:20 rolled around I was warmed up and ready to run.

Much of the race was run on parts of the Chicago Marathon course, and turned out to be a great way to preview the route. Running the streets of Chicago turned out to be a lot different than running the mostly smooth and flat lakefront path. Never before had I noticed the steepness of the bridges. And the ability to see the roughed up patches of pavement from a runners viewpoint definitely provided a different perspective on how challenging this course may turn out to be.

Surviving potholes and dodging puddles I managed to careen myself up the last bridge to the finish line. Once again, I didn't break any speed records, but I did finish almost exactly on my training pace of 13:45 min/mile. As it turns out, 8k is just enough beyond 5k that I had no interest in attempting to run it straight through. So I stuck with my standard 3:1 run:walk ratio and just enjoyed the day.

And enjoy I did. After finding my way out of the giant crowd of finishers, I jumped on the train and headed straight for my favorite Bloody Mary establishment. Rocks in Lakeview. Now that's a good start to Spring.