Zach Runs Chicago

Ninja skydiver Yesterday I jumped out of a plane. It already seems like a long time ago. It also sits in a weird place in my brain in that I don't think I could process it at the time and I definitely don't know how to process it afterwards. As I said in my original post about Operation Pink Sky , skydiving is not a thing that has ever interested me. But now I can see why people aren't just interested in it, but are addicted to it. It's completely exhilarating and unlike anything else I've done before.  After raising money for Operation Pink Sky  over the last few weeks I rented a car via Enterprise CarShare and head over to Chicagoland Skydiving Center to get checked in and ready to jump. Before you can even watch the training videos you have to sign about ten waivers basically stating that if you die your family can't sue them. Makes sense. It's a dangerous thing and they need to cover their bases. But also a little disconcerting. I talked to ...

The bike transition for the North Shore Triathlon So, as I said in my Newcity review of the North Shore Triathlon , the triathlon is its own special animal - one part swimming, one part biking and one part running. And being good at any of those does not mean you'll even be competent at the triathlon as a whole. I definitely found that out yesterday morning when I competed in my first triathlon. Well, maybe "competed" is a strong word. Let's just say I participated in it. Obviously, being so involved in the running world I have heard a good deal about triathlons. A number of my friends do them and tell me how fun they are. But there's just never been a pull in that direction for me. I like to run and I don't really want to have to swim and bike before I can do it. Still, the triathlon concept is something that has been on the periphery for a while now and when a friend suggested I sign up a few weeks ago, I figured "Why not?" It's a fir...

The Race to Wrigley is an interesting beast. It's an odd mix of a big-time, corporate race (after all, it's tied in with the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field and involves blocking off some major streets) but it also has an air of a smaller charity run (the shirt is polyester and rather plain and it's put on by Chicago Cubs Charities and proceeds - this year at least - went to Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago). The price falls right in the middle as well: $40 for timed and $35 for un-timed. This morning, the run was kicked off with a warm-up by WGN's Dina Bair and The Biggest Loser's Danni Allen (I was lucky enough to get to talk to both of these lovely ladies just before they went out to introduce the race). Unfortunately, I missed their stage time because I was waiting in the incredibly long gear check line, which was hopelessly understaffed. The line was slowed down even more by the new security measure of volunteers looking through runners' bags befo...

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...

Clearly a professional SUPer This morning's The Champions Run started a 10K weekend double-header that I've been looking forward to for a while (the second half is the Chicago 10K tomorrow). As a (really long) side note, I was also supposed to compete in the Chicago Shoreline Marathon relay this morning, but rough weather on Thursday and Friday and choppy water today led to the event being cancelled. Although I'm disappointed that it was cancelled I'm also glad that the race organizers are looking out for participant safety. I'm sure that others in the event may have been able to handle the choppy water, but it's definitely not worth the risk. I saw the water this morning during The Champions Run and it was pretty rough. Also, I've only had one lesson (which was just last week) and while I think I got the hang of it pretty well, I also think I better stick with totally peaceful water for a while. Water like this: Wait... are we in Hawaii or...

This morning when I finished the Teb's Troops Miles for Melanoma 5K I finished the 30th race I've run this year. I don't think I've run even half that many races in any other year, and it's been pretty exciting being part of all these races this year. But aside from that, I also finally managed to reach my goal of breaking 21 minutes in a 5K, even if it was just barely (20:48). I honestly don't think I ever ran that fast even when I was running cross-country in high school. (How did I stay on the team with results like that you ask? 1. I went to a very small school in East Texas, 2. I was the slowest person on the team). So here are my splits from this morning. Again with the super high-tech html table showing that I have no steady pacing ability: Mile Time 1 6:15 2 6:41 3 7:07 Total 20:48 What was more exciting than hitting my ever-elusive goal was that because this was a pretty small race (and since Chicago Runner Girl wasn't there), my time ...

Even though I'm a Longhorn and not really a sports fan (college or otherwise) I was pretty excited about the BTN Big 10K . Since I'm running the Miles for Melanoma 5K tomorrow, I was planning to take it a little easy on this one. But once the race started, with all the energy that comes with any race, I was running a little faster than I planned to. I was planning for 8 minute miles, but I felt good after the first mile so I figured I might as well just keep going. I did steadily lose speed at each mile throughout the race and definitely wish I would have eaten something for breakfast to at least give me a little bit of energy to burn so I could pick up the pace, but it was still a good race. Here's a sweet high-tech html table breakdown of my splits: Mile Time 1 7:01 2 7:22 3 7:25 4 7:27 5 7:42 6 7:30 Total 45:59 Clearly I started out a lot faster than I should have and could not maintain that pace at all, but the good news is that I've gotten a lot f...

So last night Brynn and I ran the Undie Dash , an evening 5K on the lakefront where you're supposed to strip down and run in your underwear. Since we're too lame and un-body-confident (I just coined this word), we didn't quite do that, but we also didn't want to look weird in normal running clothes. So Brynn went to Marshall's before the race and bought some weird clearance underwear for each of us - she wore hers over her running shorts and I wore mine over running short tights. We probably had on the most clothes of anyone there. Lame of us, I know. Even though this was only the second annual Undie Dash run it seemed like people get the concept and really get into it, so we definitely have way better costume plans for next year (and at least we have to be in our underwear - and we have a year to get into better shape for that). There were some great costumes last night so we have to try to compete with them next year. My review of the race is up at Newcity.co...

The building never ends! Walking up Roosevelt from the train towards Soldier Field (and the start of the 8th Annual Run to Remember ), I was amazed by the cool weather and the amount of fog enshrouding the city, especially since only a few days earlier I had run to the Chicago Police Academy in the morning to pickup my packet in 80 degree weather. The fog gave the starting line an air of mystery, partly because I didn't really know exactly where I was going and partly because it hid a lot of the buildings until you got close to them. This made a lot of the apartment and condo buildings down Roosevelt look a lot cooler. For the walk down Roosevelt I was glad to have the Patagonia houdini - for such a thin jacket it provides a surprising amount of warmth. It was also super-easy to take off and put in my pocket just before the race, since I had decided not to check anything. Anyway, Soldier Field looked pretty impressive in the fog at the starting line: There were a lot...

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...