Zach Runs Chicago

Last month Fuzzy and I drove out to the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center in St. Charles for the first leg of a three-part race series . This first leg - inauspiciously named "Trail Race #1" - was a winter race that I've run twice in the past (though at the time it was named the " Hickory Knolls 5K Trail Adventure "). But last month it wasn't just a standalone race - it was part of a series of increasingly long (and difficult) winter runs. This race series is called the Fox Valley Winter Challenge Trail Series and this morning we headed to the Oakhurst Forest Preserve in Aurora for the second race in the series (yes, Trail Race #2). Unlike Trail Race #1, this race's basecamp didn't have a nice heated indoor space to hang out in beforehand - instead there was a little picnic shelter with a fireplace (going full-blast) where runners gathered before the race started:

Here's the official press photo taken just before the race yesterday morning: I'm usually one of the taller people in a group picture, but when the guy right next to you is Israel Idonije you tend to look pretty small. Also, I'll be totally honest: since the only sport I really know anything about is running, I had no idea who he was until someone told me! But he's a super-friendly guy and seemed genuinely happy to be there - and it was interesting to see the contrast between professional athletes: he definitely has a totally different body type than the elite runners! Also, as I mentioned on Friday, the run we did at the expo did end up on ABC7's 6 o'clock news . You can see me around the one minute mark getting ready to pass Abdi... he managed to fend me off somehow. Oh, and apropos of nothing, I meant to mention this yesterday, but during the race I noticed some great signs when turning the corner at Grand and State. Today, I saw them posted on luluemon'...

Starting line this morning (looking forward and backwards): Got to start with the elites this morning as part of the Bank of America Media Challenge, which was a pretty incredible way to run the Shamrock Shuffle for the first time! But it also meant that even though I ran a PR (37:34) I literally did not pass one person the entire time... which was equal parts humbling and inspiring. I did, though, get passed by a joggler , a leprechaun and a guy in a green man suit. In the VIP tent afterwards I got to see Abdelaaziz Atmani and Julia Lucas announced as the male and female winners of the race: And unfortunately, my media team didn't end up winning the media challenge (as tweeted earlier by a fellow media member): Well-played Nina and Team Lead Stories, but we shall meet again. Meanwhile, check out my race review for NewCity! Also here's my favorite picture from right after the finish line - a giant wall of bananas:

As a writer for NewCity magazine , I'm excited to be running the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K this Sunday, but I'm really excited to be running as a member of the press, which means that I'll be part of a very cool new feature of the race this year: the "Media Challenge." As part of this challenge, all the media participants (~33 of us) have been divided into three teams who will compete on race day for the fastest team time (the times of all team members will be added together and the lowest time wins). Here's a description from the site of what the winning team gets: "The Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K, Chicago’s traditional kick-off to the spring running season, will donate $5,000 to the Chicago Park District on behalf of the winning media team. Nike, an Official Level Sponsor of the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K, will award a matching donation of $5,000, providing a total of $10,000 in support of local youth running programs organ...

At the finish line of the St. Paddy's Day 8K on Sunday there was no shortage of people handing out flyers for future races. I've almost always found the Mitch Hedberg joke about flyers to be absolutely true: "When someone tries to hand me out a flyer, it’s kinda like they’re saying, 'Here—you throw this away'" but this old-school form of advertising actually worked on me this weekend... ...possibly because I was high from just finishing an 8K and two of the races (namely C4Miles and Bastille Day 8K ) will be taking place in the exact same place as the race I had just finished (in front of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum). So now I'm registered for the C4Miles and thinking about the Bastille Day 8K as well. Not sure what's up with the Bastille Day 8K site, though: it looks like they might have launched their old-school flyer campaign before getting their new-school website up and running properly. But I guess the thing I realized is that so...

Ran the St. Paddy's Day 8K this morning. Lots of green everywhere. And no one even seemed hungover. Incredible weather and really well-organized race that started and finished at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum . The results are already posted. And my review is already posted at NewCity.com . For some reason there weren't any 22, 36 or 151 buses running north this morning so I ended up running to the starting line with my wife (about two miles), which actually seemed to help my run by giving me a nice warm-up beforehand (and gave me a chance to say hi to the Sun Bear and some of the big cats - my favorite animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo). At the end of the race you could type your number into a row of computers and get a print-out of your results (below) which was pretty cool. This seems like a new development and I don't remember seeing this until recently. Does anyone know how long this has been happening?

I'm a little buzzed as I take the train to Sports Authority to pick up my packet for the St. Paddy's Day 8K on Sunday, which gets me thinking about the weekend (and the race) ahead... First I need to interject and point out that the full title of the race as listed on the site (and on the rather bland shirt to the left) calls it the St. Paddy's Day 5k & 8K Run/Walk & Leprechaun Leap 2012 , which is an incredibly detailed and punctuation-filled title for a race, and makes me wonder why they didn't just tack on "Day After" to the start of the title since they're already going into so much detail anyway. ...I had intended to take a short run over lunch to pick up the packet, but got a small insight into how indulgence can spoil running plans when a coworker brought in champagne and a German chocolate cake for my birthday. Now I'm on the train in my work clothes instead of on the street in my running gear. Which is making me wonder how much I can d...