Shamrock Shuffle'd!

Sunday dawned gray, cold, and drizzly for the Shamrock Shuffle, my first-ever 8K (~5mi) race (and just my second competitive race ever, after a half-marathon last summer). The weather was disappointing considering the near-summery weather we enjoyed all last week, which broke unfortunately just before race-day. But we sucked it up, layered on some running clothes, and headed out to join the masses running Chicago’s streets.

We knew that this would be quite an experience, as the Shuffle is a huge race, capped at 40,000 runners. But I don’t think we quite knew just what the popularity of this race meant until we ventured outside – immediately after exiting our building, we nearly ran into another girl decked out in running clothes. She noted the gear-check tag on our bag and asked if we were doing the Shuffle. So literally seconds after we made our way onto Chicago streets, we were in the company of other runners. They were everywhere! There were a number of runners waiting for the el, and more and more entered the train with every stop. It was pretty funny, early Sunday morning on what would normally be a pretty empty train, crammed in with all kinds of runners wearing funny green outfits. I imagine it was quite the spectacle for the unsuspecting non-runner commuters.



Anyways, we made our way to Grant park with the rest of the crowd. Steve and I started in separate waves – he was in the first wave, and I was in the second one which was scheduled to start about half an hour later. Originally I was a little bummed that we wouldn’t get to hang out at the start line together. But it worked out pretty well with the cold weather, since I was able to hang out with Steve near his corral for awhile until just before his start. This meant he could keep an extra sweatshirt on for longer. After he took off, I took our stuff to gear-check, before lining up in my own spot. I’d been worried about the cold temps especially for the pre-start period – big races means waiting around a lot before you actually get to the start line, and it was cold! But luckily the rain stopped, and I wormed my way into the middle of the crowd so the wind chill was minimal.

Finally I made my way to the actual start of the race and the running began. I have not been doing much running over the winter, and I was nervous that I’d be out of shape for the race. But there is something about being among a huge crowd of people and running down the middle of big downtown streets that is seriously energizing. I ended up running a fair bit faster than my normal pace! In fact, I shaved 40 seconds off my mile time, overall! It was hard work pushing myself, but I made it. It was definitely fun to be among so many other runners, especially those decked out in crazy outfits – saw guys in kilts and girls in bright green tutus over their running tights. The first mile went by quickly. Second mile wasn’t horrible, but at about the halfway point I was feeling pretty tired. Third mile was slowest for me overall, but I motivated myself with the landmark of making it to mile 4, where Steve said he’d try to wait for me (calculating that he’d start ~ 15 min before me, and I would take about 15 min longer to finish since he’s fast and I’m slow). I was happy that I did manage to find his face in the crowd cheering me on :) Then it was just one more mile left to push through. Unfortunately that last segment included a fairly long “hill” ~ I know it’s wimpy by most hill standards, but I’ve been spoiled by Chicago’s flat landscape so even that little hill over the bridge into Grant park felt really hard! But, I made it across the finish line. Steve was waiting for me with my extra sweatshirt, which I needed at that point – it was cold after I stopped running!

So, it was a good race – I beat my goal by 5 minutes! Steve beat his goal too, and finished in the top 5000 out of 25000 runners! He’s so fast :) I’m really glad that we stuck to it and that the weather didn’t keep us from running. The race also got me excited to get back into running this season. Can’t wait for the summer days of long runs by the lake! I am also thinking that all the sprint work in my spinning class may have activated some more fast-twitch muscle fibers, helping with my speed… if I keep it up, maybe I will be able to shave some more time off of my half-marathon time. It can be frustrating feeling like I am slow, but it’s nice that I have a lot of room for improvement ~ I get to feel a sense of accomplishment every time I get a bit faster! It definitely helps my motivation for exercise. What motivates you, when it comes to working out?