Zach Runs Chicago

Alright runners - the Humana Rock 'n' Roll Chicago Half Marathon is back in Chicago on July 19th. And, in fact, this year it's basically a running festival from Friday through Sunday (July 17th-19th), with the expo on Friday and Saturday, a 5K on Saturday and a 10K and half on Sunday. And this year if you run the 5K on Saturday and then either the 10K or half on Sunday you get a special "Remix Challenge" medal . Because these kinds of "challenge" gimmicks always work on me, I'm now registered for both the 5K and the half. I'm not saying you have to do both... but... If you're ready to register today, it's $20 off because of the Blackhawks' win last night: Discount code: CHIWINS Valid: 6/11 And if you're waiting to register and want to save $15 on the half, here's some info that might be helpful: Discount code: SAVE15 Valid: Between 6/13-6/15 Registration link: http://www.runrocknroll.com/save15

It snowed all night. And it snowed all morning. And, as I write this, it is still snowing. In short, it's pretty snowy out there in Chicago right now. This morning - along with a number of other people who didn't know whether to be excited or concerned about all the snow - I ran the  Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis . And as the title of this blog implies, it was way more than just a typical Chicago road/sidewalk/Lakefront Trail race:

This morning my wife and I woke up around 6:20, and not just to get the most hours out of our 6th anniversary. We were celebrating by running the United Run for the Zoo together. She's been pretty busy with school over the last several months so this is the first run she's been able to do with me, which was pretty exciting. We took a bus to the starting line and walked around the zoo for a little while - we had plenty of spare time since packet pickup was so well-organized. We were going to walk over and see the polar bear (I pretty much always say hi to the polar bear, the sun bear and the lions when I run through the zoo in the morning), but instead we just said hi to this big pacing cat. He really seemed like he wanted to take part in the run:   ...or maybe he was just weirded out by how many people were walking around so early in the morning.  After getting our bibs and race shirts (which are pretty impressive, by the way) we checked a bag and then headed over ...

So with a few hitches in our travel plans (attempting a pick up at the corner of Chicago and Michigan at 6:45 in the morning was a little more difficult than I anticipated) my professional running team (I don't use the term loosely at all ) hit the road to Plainfield for the inaugural Fast Cat . And we managed to expertly miss the Plainfield exit the first time around, make a few turnarounds (again, we're professionals), and get to the Plainfield North High School race grounds with about half an hour to spare for the 8:30 starting time. Parking was no problem (as Chicagoans that's an important thing to note) and picking up our packets was also easy (luckily). The starting line was a spray-painted mark in the school parking lot that we stumbled upon by accident when we noticed a lot of people were congregating around a certain area. Logan and I got into the starting pack while Bill waited on the sideline (he ran the 2nd leg of the 10K relay). ...And they totally ended up des...

Several weeks ago I got signed up for the Fast Cat 10K in Plainfield this weekend. And since then I've been hounding two friends of mine to register as well (partly because it's sporting a super-cool race name, partly because of the promise of a nice, flat course in the suburbs... but mainly because I don't have a car and need a ride there on race day). Anyway, they agreed to do the 10K as a 2X5K relay (which is a great race option that I can't remember seeing in any other races - good call Fast Cat organizers!). It seems to me that not being runners, these guys earned themselves some promotion by signing up for this... they deserve all the cheers and encouragement they can get! And to help make that possible, I wanted to make sure people will be able to recognize them when they're running. So, here's the fearless relay team: And yes, Logan always runs without a shirt on and Bill always wears a stupid glasses/mustache mask So as part of the registration the...