Skip to main content

Jingling the Bells in the Rain

Since I had been keeping a close eye on the weather reports over the last few days I was a little disappointed this morning at how accurate they all turned out to be:

45 degrees and raining.

I was talking to another runner on the way to the starting line and remarked that the only change in the prediction for this morning was from a 70% chance of rain at 9am to an 80% chance of rain at 9am. She looked at me for a second and then said, "Well it's 100% raining right now so I don't think it matters anymore."

Touché.



But despite the weather (which ended up being a blessing in disguise as it cleared out the course of non-participants) this was still a fun race and I had a great time running it... even if I saw Pete from The Lakefront Trail blow by me in the first half mile. He ended up in fifth place so I don't feel too bad. I think it's pretty safe to say that he blew past a lot of people!

I got a pretty bad stitch in my side at about mile four that slowed me down dramatically - probably because I started out way too fast (I passed mile three at around 22 minutes which is much too fast for me). I think I ended up around 49 minutes, so I definitely paid the price for starting out so fast.

I think I covered most of what I have to say about this race in my Newcity review so I'll leave it at that.

It started raining a few minutes after I finished and I got soaked walking back to catch the Clark bus... and I was worried about getting rained on during the race.

Comments

  1. Nice summary. I love the 100% raining comment! I may have preferred "icy snow". At least it would be more seasonal and fit in with the race theme better. I will have to say "hi" next time we are in the same race together! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 7 Chicago Race Shirts (and a Hat) of 2012

Remember when race shirts were pretty much guaranteed to be over-sized white cotton, seemingly designed so that you could wear them once (if you really wanted to show that you ran the race) and then probably never again? One side had the race logo and the other had about 20 sponsors. And the long-sleeve ones had little cuffs at the wrists to make sure you got that nice puffed sleeve look that no one has ever asked for. These days it seems like almost every race is giving out running shirts rather than old-school cotton, and mostly I'm thankful for this change because it seems like they spend more time picking an appropriate color and working on a legitimate design rather than just slapping their logo onto some cotton for you (although I did get a few race shirts this year that went with that style... surprisingly enough, those shirts aren't in my closet anymore). Anyway, pretty much every race includes a shirt. Some are awesome, some are terrible and some are just... shirt...

Winning a 5K and Being "That Guy" - P.A.A.W.R. to Empower 5K in pictures

Some organizations are not quite ready to organize 5Ks. And Pan-African Association (a group that provides "services and programs that benefit refugee and immigrant individuals and families") is one of those organizations. They have a great group of volunteers, an ideal location for a race and plenty of other well-organized family activities around the race (including dance lessons, kid's races, etc.). And though this was the second annual P.A.A.W.R. to Empower 5K (Pan-African Association Walk & Run to Empower Refugees and Immigrants), there was very little in the sense of "organization" around the 5K, which was scheduled to start at 10:30 (see schedule below) but didn't get going until 11:10. (seriously? 40 minute delay? yes, seriously). The "official" race schedule But before I start describing the bad parts of this event and sound like the Type-A runner that I am, I'd like to talk about all the good stuff. And there's plenty...

Your Guide to Chicago City Chase...

Before 6 hours of city chasing ...based on the challenges we did (and didn't) complete. If you did City Chase this year then maybe this list will remind you of the challenges you chose to take on (assuming there was some overlap). If not, maybe this will inspire you to take it on next year. If you're into the element of surprise (which is part of what makes City Chase so fun) then don't read any further (spoiler alert and all that). I won't be listing all the specifics about any of the challenges so there should still be some mystery around the challenges but this list should definitely give you a leg up if you're just looking to know more before you take this thing on yourself. For a review of the event as a whole (not a detailed recounting of this year's challenges) check out my Newcity review . Anyway, here we go. Since we picked up our packets and whatnot at one of the locations earlier in the week we didn't have to arrive at the starting lin...