2009 Shamrock Shuffle: Welcome to Hell

The expo was crowded and stressful, as always. I don't know why they have an expo for a race that's shorter than 5 miles. Perhaps it is due to the amount of people who run in it? Either way, Judy and I met for brunch on Saturday before braving the wind and the cold to pick up our race packets. I purchased another pint glass for my collection:

Even though the whole corral idea was kinda bullshit (they were doing a wave start, with corrals A,B, and C starting a few minutes before D and then the Open corral), it was still nice to have an assigned corral for once! And to have that broadcast on my race bib:

We were also introduced to yet another new kind of timing chip. It wasn't the standard champion-chip, or that weird D-chip. It was...white and circular. A commemorative chip, if you will? Either way, it is disposable and as of right now, is still attached to my shoe.

Judging by the weather on Saturday, I was pretty sure that I'd have to wear something under my special "team" shirt. So I decided to go with the classic long-sleeve underarmor shirt. Here's the shirt we had made:



I wish I could say that this year's Shuffle was a wonderful heralding of the running season to come, but it was not. When I woke up this morning, I heard thunder. Then I looked outside to see this scene:


Oh yes, today's date is March 29th and what you're seeing is snow. A lot of it, actually. I decided to soldier on, especially since I didn't run 11 miles yesterday. I was wondering if Deena Kastor was still going to run. Honestly, if I hadn't paid and was extremely money conscious right now, I'd have bailed too. It wasn't even the cold or the snow really. It was the thought of running downtown, with all the potholes, sewer covers, and metal bridges that gave me a bit of a worry. I didn't want to screw my chances of running in my half-marathon (less than a month away) or delay the start of marathon training this coming summer. But like I said, I got on the train and headed down to the Loop. On the train I noticed that there were way less people, so I figured that maybe the race wouldn't be as crowded.

I met the rest of my racing posse inside the Chicago Hilton, where a lot of other people decided to meet as well. It turned out to be a good idea, because for $2, I was able to check my bag inside at the Hilton. Money well spent, I say. Leslee's boyfriend Matt was going to bounce around from spot to spot in order to take pictures of us. He got some nice ones of us inside, before we got completely soaked:




Matt also had my camera during the race. He's quite the comedian. Here's a sampling of his work:


At times during the race, my feet were so cold from being soaked through by the slush, that I was again concerned about frostbite. Frostbite is not sexy. Speaking of sexy, all the cute boys were in the A,B, or C corrals. As predicted, I did not see Runner Boy. I did see a couple of special customers wearing shorts. And tshirts.

Special, no?

We all decided that no one was setting any records today (clearly, I'd be coming in second to Deena Kastor), so we'd all just take it easy and chock this up to being another memorable race in Chicago. Once we were about a mile in, I started to regain feeling in my toes. We were also plugging along just under a 10:00 mile! At this pace, I would maybe be able to PR! Last year, I finished in 51 minutes and some change (I think), which knocked over 10 minutes off my time from the previous year. I had no such aspirations this year, but now I was getting a little excited.

It was cool to see so many spectators braving the shitty weather to cheer the runners on. There was cow bell. Ohhh there was COW BELL! Leslee and Judy started picking up the pace before we hit mile 4. I was able to keep up, but was beginning to feel a little short of breath. Jen was slightly ahead of me, between me and Leslee and Judy at this point. As we turned onto Michigan Avenue, I started to feel the effects of plowing through snow and slipping on my sewer covers. And we still had to go over that nasty hill on Roosevelt Road. Leslee and Judy pulled waaay ahead of my at that time, and Jen was maybe a few seconds ahead of me. I could barely move when going over Roosevelt. It was so incredibly slippery, I couldn't have gone faster if I'd wanted to! I made up my mind to push it when we turned left for the finish on Columbus Drive. I kept Leslee, Judy, and Jen in my sights and then floored it on the turn.

Sure enough, I managed to PR at a time of 47:16! According the website, that 5706 out of 13294 finishers. If you're keeping track, that's less than half the amount of people who signed up. And of course, Ms. Kastor finished first out of all the females in 27:15. Literally, nearly twice as fast as me. Damn.

Afterwards, we went back to the Hilton. I was thoroughly soaked. Through the magic of capillary action, my pants were soaked up to my ass. My shoes squished with every step. We tried to squeeze out our socks and pants in the bathroom of the Hilton. I'm sure the staff appreciated it a lot. As we waited for the others to finish, I tried to dry off. The lobby was full of runners, walking around barefoot:

Some people were smart enough to bring a change of pants. I only brought an extra shirt. Silly me.



After the troops had regrouped, we walked to Zapatista for brunch. I had one thing on my mind...BREAKFAST BURRITO. I would be satisfied by nothing else. And I got what I wanted. Complete with chorizo, black beans, and rice. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture until I'd finished eating it:


And I had two margaritas as well. Because I PR'ed of course. Oooooo they were good, too:


Eventually, I made it home, only to stand in my shower for 20 minutes, trying to warm up. Of course, the sun came out after we'd finished and were safe at home. But all in all, I'm glad I did it and didn't punk out.

And in honour of Deena gracing our city again, I made scones when I got home. And those were good too.