Zach Runs Chicago

I met the  Berenstain Bears  before the race I ran the Start Early 10K yesterday morning. My review is up at Newcity with more of a description of the race. Overall it was an okay race, mostly on the Lakefront Trail. As I said in my review, I was pretty disappointed by the attitudes of several of the volunteers in the race day registration booth. I've only volunteered for a few races , and I know it can be mentally and physically exhausting, but if you're out there representing the group that you're volunteering for you should at least make an effort to smile at the people participating in the event. You might as well not volunteer if you're going to make the organization look bad. Seriously though, the rest of the volunteers were great.

I'm still working on my Vine skills but I thought this one from the Start Early 10K this morning captures the feeling of endlessness at the finish line of any race: Isn't the finish line kind of like that hallway in Poltergeist: You speed up and it just stays the same distance away. And in the case of my Vine above, there's a little kid that you just can't catch.

Last year was the first year I ran the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle and it was a great experience . But I think that this year was even better. Maybe because I knew what to expect, maybe because I haven't been getting to run as much lately and this was a welcome reminder of how much I love it... I'm not sure. My Newcity review has more on that. Anyway, here's the starting line: First off: Since I found out about the Media Challenge last year as well (which my team didn't win), I was looking forward to getting a second chance at this. The Media Challenge is a little competition that the race organizers do, pitting local media outlets against each other for a $2500 prize (which will be donated to the charity of the winning team's choice). Since Newcity doesn't have enough runners to comprise a team, I joined my friend Dina Bair's WGN team (I was also on her team last year). The team with the fastest average pace for the first four runners wins.

All last week I was in New Orleans working with the St. Bernard Project on a house in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was an incredibly rewarding experience but also eye-opening... and all those other things that experiences like this are. I'm well aware that there's no way to talk about it without sounding self-indulgent so I'll just stop there. If you want to donate to the St. Bernard Project (they need all the donations they can get) you can do that on this First Giving site . And if you're ever in New Orleans I think St. Bernard Project even does just day-long volunteer assignments so you can help out for just one day if you have extra time. But the main point is that while I was there I got some running done in the mornings and the city is pretty awesome to run through. Especially down South Carrollton Avenue where I was staying because there's a green space in the center of the street where the streetcars run. I guess that's where runners usually run (inste